An Artuqid Silver-inlaid Brass Basin made for Sultan Qara Arslan ibn Il Ghazi, Mardin, Anatolia, second half 13th Century

of deep globular form with a thin flat rim, the interior engraved with a central rosette surrounded by leafy vegetation and a border of geometric petals, the exterior featuring a large inscription band of monumental thuluth inlaid in silver against a ground scrolling arabesques, engraved below the rim with two ownership inscriptions

Collection Alessandro Castellani, Rome (died 1883)
By repute, Collection Martine-Marie-Pol, Comtesse de Béhague, Paris (died 1939)
Nicolas Landau, Paris (until 1965)
Sold Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 1965
European Private Collection (1965-present day)

Published 1845: Michelangelo Lanci, Trattato delle simboliche rappresentanze arabiche e della varia generazione de musulmani caratteri sopra differenti materie operati ("A Treatise of Arab Symbolical Representations and Various Categories of Islamic Inscriptions Wrought on Different Material Supports"), Paris, 1845, vol. II, p.163.

Published 1934: Gaston Wiet, Répertoire chronologique d'épigraphie arabe, Paris, 1934, vol. XIII, no.4962.

Published 1968: Asadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani, Revue des Études Islamiques, 1968, fascicle 2, pp.263-278.

In good condition, some abrasion to surface consistent with age, exceptional amount of silver inlay still remaining, as viewed.
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The re-discovery of the silver-inlaid brass basin (tas) inscribed with the full titulature of Sultan Abi'l-Harith Qara Arslan ibn Il Ghazi, Artuqid ruler of Mardin (1260-92), is one of the most important additions to the corpus of western Islamic metalwork since the end of the Second World War.

The basin is one of a very small number of pieces of Islamic metalwork recorded in Western Orientalist literature prior to the mid-nineteenth century. Although the existence of the object was not altogether unknown, it re-surfaced in the twentieth century three years before its publication by A.S. Melikian-Chirvani in the French journal, Revue des Études Islamiques, 1968, fascicle 2, pp.263-278.

ownership history

The vessel first came to the attention of the noted Italian scholar in Arabic epigraphy, Michelangelo Lanci, who included its inscriptions, albeit not entirely correctly, in his monumental 2-volume Trattato delle simboliche rappresentanze arabiche e della varia generazione de musulmani caratteri sopra differenti materie operati ("A Treatise of Arab Symbolical Representations and Various Categories of Islamic Inscriptions Wrought on Different Material Supports") vol. II, p.163, printed in Paris in 1845 with a subsidy from the royal purse of King Louis-Philippe of France.

When Lanci published the inscriptions, the basin was in the hands of his friend, Alessandro Castellani, the Italian jeweller and a collector of some renown. A posthumous sale of Castellani's collection was held at Palazzo Rosso, Rome, in 1884, under the title Objets d'art, antiques du Moyen-Age et de la Renaissance and the basin was probably dispersed at that time. Thereafter, its trace is lost for half a century.

In 1934, the inscriptions were reproduced in Répertoire chronologique d'épigraphie arabe, vol.XIII, no.4962 on the basis of Lanci's reading with one correction dictated by Dr. Gaston Wiet (1887-1971), director of the Museum of Arab (later "Islamic") Art in Cairo. The learned French Arabist had never seen the object and thus was not in a position to provide a full correction of Lanci's transcription (and translation), which misleadingly implied that there was only one inscription, and even more misleading that it was commissioned by "Prince Daoud, son of al-Malik al-Salih". Among other shortcomings, this obscured the considerable significance of the basin as a unique dynastic object from the Turkmen/Arab world, kept for generations in the royal treasury.

By then the piece may have already entered the celebrated collection of the Comtesse de Béhague, whose collection included many extraordinary Islamic pieces. The Comtesse died in 1939, and at some point the royal basin passed into the hands of the Paris antique dealer Nicolas Landau whose wide interests ranged from antiquities to eighteenth-century Neo-Classicism and who made occasional forays into Arab and Iranian art of the Islamic period by acquiring pieces from the Comtesse de Béhague's collection.

In 1965, Mr. Landau dispatched the basin to be auctioned at Hôtel Drouot in Paris. The basin was included in a sale in which attention focused on a Luristan bronze figure from Payravand, illustrated on the catalogue cover, which had belonged to the famous Fauve master André Derain. The basin was summarily catalogued in four lines. No mention was made of Sultan Qara Arslan's name, let alone of those of his descendants. The object was acquired by a European collector, and vanished out of public sight until the present day. The inscriptions were published in full for the first time in 1968.

inscriptions

A monumental calligraphic border in thuluth script formerly inlaid with silver runs around the walls of the vessel covering the whole height of the sides. Two small inscriptions are neatly engraved on the rim in cursive naskh:

A monumental Artuqid ownership inscription in thuluth spells out the full protocol of Sultan Qara Arslan:

'izz li-mawlana al-sultan al-malik al-malik al-'alim al-'adil al-mujahid al-murabit al-mu'ayyad al-mansur al-malik al-muzaffar fakhr al-dun[y]a wa al-din Sayyid al-muluk wa al-salatin muhiyy al-'adl fi al-'alamayn al-qa'im bi-awamir al-din hami bilad al-muslimin nasir al-haqq bi'l-barahin abi'l-harith qara arsalan ibn il ghazi

'Glory to our lord, the Sultan, the King, the Possessor, the Learned, the Holy warrior, the Defender, the one Helped [by God], the Victorious, the triumphant King, pride of the world and religion, master of kings and sultans, reviver of justice in the two worlds, steadfast in religious commands, protector of the lands of Muslims, victorious in truth through [providing] proofs, Abi'l-Harith Qara Arslan ibn Il Ghazi'

The exclusive prominence given to the royal protocol in the overall pattern leaves little doubt that the basin was commissioned when Qara Arslan acceded to power in 1261.

Two further Artuqid ownership inscriptions incised in naskh on the rim prove that the basin was handed down through the Mardin line of the Artuqid dynasty as each of the descendants of Qara Arslan ibn Il Ghazi ascended the throne.

The earlier of the two inscriptions can be precisely dated although no date is stated. It reads:

bi-rasm al-mawla amir dawud ibn al-malik al-salih

'For our lord Amir Dawud ibn al-Malik al-Salih'

Dawud is the 15th Artuqid ruler of Mardin, who reigned from 769 AH/1368 AD to 778 AH/ 1376 AD). Dawud al-Muzaffar was acknowledged as king (malik) in 769 AH/ 1368 AD. This title, however, does not appear in his inscription and since Dawud only identifies himself as amir ("prince") and not sultan, it follows that his father al-Malik al-Salih was still alive and reigning when Dawud ordered the inscription to be engraved. Al-Malik al-Salih whose rule lasted only one year (AH 769/ 1368 AD) may have handed over the basin to his son as he felt that his end was nearing. This tells us that the basin of Sultan Qara Arslan was seen as a highly prized dynastic heirloom, passed on from father to son.

The second inscription on the rim was commissioned by Dawud al-Muzaffar's son who probably ordered it to be engraved on ascending the throne. This is indicated by the concluding formula: khallad allah [mulkahu?], "May God perpetuate his kingship":

mimma 'umila bi-rasm al-mawla al-malik majd al-din 'isa (?) ibn al-sultan al-malik al-muzaffar khallad allah [mulkahu?]

'One of what was made for our lord al-Malik Majd al-Din 'Isa ibn al-Sultan al-Muzaffar, may God make his dominion everlasting'

Majd al-Din 'Isa al-Zahir is the 16th Artuqid ruler of Mardin, who reigned from 778 AH/ 1376 AD to 809 AH/ 1406 AD. Two years later, in 1408, the Qaraqoyunlu leader, Qara Yusuf, overran the area and Majd al-Din 'Isa's successor, as-Salih (r.809-11 AH/ 1406-08 AD), was forced to abandon Mardin. These territories were later captured by the Ottomans who most probably seized the dynastic heirlooms and treasury objects as they did in Cairo when they toppled the last Mamluk sultan in 1517.

artuqid metalwork

This is one of only a handful of extant vessels bearing the name of a ruler from the branch of the Artuqid dynasty based in its metropolis Mardin, and the only one still in private hands. All other important Artuqid pieces are held in public collections.

A silver and gold-inlaid bronze jug, inscribed with the name of Majd al-Din 'Isa al-Zahir, 16th Artuqid ruler of Mardin (see above), from the late fourteenth century, was sold at Sotheby's, 27 April 1995, lot 58.  Decoration includes an elaborate Kufic script as well as the use of foliate and fish designs. The interlacing arabesques and radial sunburst design on the base of the jug are similar in style to the decoration found on the present basin.

An early thirteenth-century cast brass mirror inscribed to an Artuqid ruler from the branch based in Kharput (the Persian/Turkish name of the Armenian city of Khartpert or Harput in modern Turkish) and cast with the seven planets and the twelve mansions of the zodiac handled in a figural style that closely compares with that of characters cast on Artuqid coins from the area, bears an inscription with the name of Sultan al-Mu'izz ibn Nur al-Din Abu'l-Fazl Artuq Shah and a date of 600 AH (1203-4 AD) or 660 AH (1261-2 AD). Formerly in the collection of Fürst Carl zu Öttingen-Wallerstein (Meisterwerke Muhammedanischer Kunst, Munich, 1910, Tafel 140, nr.3074), it is now in the David Collection, Copenhagen (inv.no.4/1996) (von Folsach 2001, pp.314-5, no.503).

A further Artuqid object, a footed bowl, cast and decorated with enamels and bearing the name of Rukn-ad-Dawla Da'ud ibn Sokmen, Artuqid ruler of Diyarbakir and Hisn Kayfa from c.1109-1144 AD, is in the Landesmuseum (Ferdinandeum), Innsbruck, Austria (see Meisterwerke Muhammedanischer Kunst, Munich, 1910, Tafel 159, nr.3056).

Two final pieces of metalwork production can also be compared to the present basin, both candlesticks, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. no.57.148), and the Benaki Museum, Athens (inv. no.13038), respectively.

The former piece, signed by Ibn Jaldak 'the engraver' is dated 622 AH/ 1225 AD, and thought to have been made in Amida (now Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey). A graffito within the candlestick base (that reads 'The Vestiary of [al-Malik] al-Mas'ud') most likely refers to the last Artuqid Sultan of Amida, al-Malik al-Mas'ud Rukn al-Din (r.1222-32). The Benaki candlestick (currently on loan to the British Museum for the exhibition Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam) is signed by 'Ali, and dated 717 AH/ 1317 AD. Like the aforementioned mirror in the David Collection, the decoration includes the twelve signs of the zodiac, and although it is dedicated to an unnamed sultan, it is most likely to have been made for al-Malik al-Salih Shams al-Din, the Artuqid sultan who reigned between 1312 and 1364 (see M.B. Piotrovsky, Earthly Beauty, Heavenly Art. Art of Islam, Amsterdam, 1999, pp.70-72, nos.5 & 6). 

The paucity of Artuqid royal vessels contrasts with the larger number of objects commissioned by the Ayyubid sultans of Syria and the even larger number of pieces naming Mamluk rulers. This may reflect the more modest size of the Artuqid Sultanates, their vassal status under the Seljuqs of Rum, their submission to the Mongol Khan Hülegü and their eventual conquest by the Qaraqoyunlu federation.

The "Coronation Basin" of Sultan Qara Arslan ibn Il Ghazi is a prized rarity and a unique historical document. Only one other basin of similar shape and size from the Arab-Turkic world is recorded. It carries the titulature of the Atabeg Mu'izz al-Din Mahmud ibn Sinjar Shah who ruled Jazira from 1208 until an ill-determined date. His successor ascended the throne in 1241. The tall thuluth script is closely related to Persian calligraphy. This is hardly surprising on the basin of a ruler whose protocol included the Persian eulogistic titles Jahan Pahlavan ("Hero of the World") and Khosrow-e Iran ("Sovereign of Iran"). It was already in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Berlin when Friedrich Sarre published it in 1906.

By contrast, the thuluth calligraphy on Qara Arslan's basin has a distinctly Syrian character, and relates to the basin made for Sultan Najm al-Din Ayyub, ruler of Diyarbakir (629-36 AH/ 1232-9 AD) and Syria (636-47 AH/ 1239-49 AD with interruptions) in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan (inv. no.28801) (see Atil 1985, p.143, no.51).

condition

The patina of the basin, a mellow olive-brown sheen is the result of seven centuries of continued use with the utmost care, free from dents or scratches. The loss of silver inlay in the lettering appears to be caused by repeated cleanings rather than by forceable removal. The silver inlay is best preserved in the beautiful band of arabesques below the calligraphy.

Inside, a large rosette with formalised vegetal motifs bears witness to the wear resulting from continued use over time. The interior was mercury gilt, probably applied in Ottoman Turkey or Italy not later than the sixteenth or seventeenth century. If the gilding is Italian then the basin must have reached Europe at an early date, either presented as a diplomatic gift or collected as a prized piece of exotica. The gilding, which has largely worn off due to rubbing and cleaning, bears witness once more to the importance attached to the vessel.

Published in full only once, and not seen fully in public until now, the "Coronation Basin" of Sultan Qara Arslan ibn Il Ghazi is a major discovery for the present generation of scholars and collectors.