An Umayyad or early Abbasid hardstone amulet, Near East, 7th-9th century

of grey banded stone and rounded rectangular form, with a central circular aperture running through the middle, incised on four faces with phrases in Kufic

rubbed and weathered, overall good condition, as viewed
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The inscription consists of the following phrase:

"Through the cord and all that is suspended from it, faults are prevented"

This is a very rare and fascinating early Islamic object. The original function must have been as a kind of toggle or bead, since the form, with the central drilled cylindrical channel would point to few other functions, and the inscriptions support this context, indicating a talismanic aspect, perhaps related to the ancient association of talismanic properties of knots and cords.

The script is also very interesting, as it relates closely to scripts found on a variety of media such as Qur'an manuscripts, carved stone milestones and silver coins of the Umayyad period, from the late 7th to the mid-8th century. Certain letter-forms present on this amulet are worth noting, such as the tail-less initial alif,  the medial mim whose base dips below the line of ligature, the specific form of the medial ayn and tarmabuta, the terminal lam and the initial jim. These can be seen on scripts as early as the well-known Qur'an manuscript in the British Library written in Hijazi script (Or.2165, see Baker 2007), a fragmentary Qur'an dispersed between the National Library, Cairo, the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin and the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (see, for example, James 1980, no.1), both datable to the late 7th century, on Umayyad milestones of the reign of Caliph Abd al-Malik (685-705) (see Paris 1977, no.71) and on the gold mosaic inscriptions in the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem (691) (see Grabar and Nuseibah 1996, pp.102-105) and on Umayyad silver coins (dirham) from 706 onwards. The script is close in overall character (particularly the tall, slender and relatively disciplined aspects) to the script on a Qur'an leaf in the Nasser D Khalili Collection, London, dated by Déroche to the second half of the 8th century or early 9th, acknowledging its debt to earlier Hijazi scripts (see Déroche 1992, no.6).