A Mamluk silver-inlaid brass vessel, Egypt or Syria, circa 1341-2

of baluster form with wide flaring trumpet mouth and spreading foot, with some silver inlay intact and ground heightened with black, the body with a large thuluth inscription against a scrolling foliate ground with a band of radiating stiff lappets below, the neck with a narrow band of naskh between minor foliate bands and stiff lappets repeated at the foot, the interior of the mouth with a band of foliate interlace and inverted leaves

inscriptions

Round the body:

al-maqarr al-‘ali al-maliki al-‘a [limi] al-maliki al-ashrafi

‘For the High, the Possessor, the Learned, the [officer of] al-Malik al-Ashraf’

Round the neck:

al-maliki al-‘alimi al-‘amili al-‘alimi al-maliki al-ashrafi

‘The Possessor, the Learned, the Diligent, the Learned, the Possessor, [the officer of] al-Ashraf’

The bold epigraphic design relates closely to the large basin in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo bearing the name of 'al-Sayif Tabtaq [?], [[officer] of al-Malik al-Ashraf' (Atil 1981, no. 28, pp. 94-95). Esin Atil notes that the titles 'al-Malik al-Ashraf' were used by at least three Mamluk sultans, Khalil (1290-93), Kujuk (1341-2), and Shaban (1363-76).

Further dating clues are found in the minor bands and lotus flowerheads which compare closely to designs on the large basin in the British Museum (inv. 51.1-4.1) made for Sultan Nasir al-Din Muhammad and dateable to the 1330s (ibid. no.26, pp.88-89). This suggests a probable date for our piece around 1341-2 and the brief reign of Sultan Kujuk, second son of Nasir al-Din Muhammad.