An Important Fatimid Carved Wooden Beam, Egypt, 11th-12th Century

carved in deep relief with a single line of kufic over a continuous undulating foliate stem with palmette and split-palmette terminals, between plain borders, the ground with green pigment

Sold in these rooms, 15 October 2003, lot 40

Old repairs dating to the 14th/15th century, 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."

inscriptions
Surat al-Fath 'The Victory' (XLVIII), verse 9.

"That you may believe in Allah and his Apostle and may aid Him and revere Him; and (that) you may declare His glory, morning and evening".

This beam was previously sold in these rooms, 15 October 2003, lot 40. At the time, the footnote made the following observations: "The kufic script has a strong rectilinear quality and is of a type that evolved in Egypt in the late tenth/early eleventh century as documented by Max van Berchem in his monumental Materiaux de la Mission Archeologique Francaise au Caire, XIX, Paris, 1894-1903. The vertical letters are already beginning to widen towards the top into half-palmettes anticipating the more ornate forms of kufic that were to follow. The particular beauty of this example lies in the contrast between the discipline of the script and the energy of the leafy scroll that acts as a vigorous counterpoint.

The Qur'anic content of the inscription would suggest that the panel came from a religious building. The major architectural commission of this period was the Mosque of al-Hakim in Cairo (A.D.990-1013). Creswell, who conducted an exhaustive survey of the building for the first volume of The Muslim Architecture of Egypt, notes: "The principal decoration of the sanctuary (and doubtless of the other riwaqs when they were standing) is a beautiful band of decorated kufic, which runs along the arcades and across the walls immediately beneath the roof. Similar bands decorate the transept just below the windows" (K.A.C. Creswell, The Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 1952, p.83, Plates 20, 21a, 109a-c). Some of these are still in situ and stylistically bear close resemblance to the wood panel. The inscription bands referred to by Creswell, it should be noted, are all in carved stucco. Further inscription bands carved in stone adorn the northern and western minarets (ibid., Plates 23, 25, 27, and 30). Again, strong stylistic parallels can be drawn between these and the wood panel."

More recently the calligraphy on the present beam has been compared to additional wooden material in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo. These comparisons suggest that the inscription on both this and its companion piece, the wooden beam now in the Islamic Art Museum, Doha, Qatar (ex-Christie's London, 23 April 2002, Lot 141), may not represent an "early style" of calligraphy, as previously suggested, but rather one that persisted into the second half of Fatimid rule in Egypt. The calligraphic style is consistent with that of a dated inscription on another beam, inv. no. 4138, providing a date of A.D.1145 and 1146; and with that on the wooden mihrab of Saiyida Rukaiya, placing it between A.D.1154 and 1160. The persistence of this style throughout the Fatimid period in Egypt is further exemplified by a wooden beam also in Cairo, inv. no.1744, which was exhibited and published at the Hayward Gallery, London, during the Festival of Islam exhibition in 1976 (London 1976, no. 445, 1976) and attributed then to the eleventh and twelfth-century on the basis of its similarity with the beams of the Mosque of al-Salih Tala'I in Cairo dated to A.D.1160 (see David-Weill, J., Les Bois à épigraphes jusqu'à l'époque mamlouke. Catalogue general du Musée Arabe du Caire, Cairo, 1931, p.42).

Carbon-14 tests carried out on samples from along the length of the beam give two dates, one in the Fatimid period and one in the Mamluk period, proving that repairs were carried out in the fourteenth and fifteenth-century, quite possibly due to earthquake or other damage to the building in which the beam originally stood.