- Title
- Basin
- Date Made
- 14th century
- Medium
- Brass, engraved and inlaid with silver
- Dimensions
- 8 x 18 1/8 in. (20.25 x 46.00 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.73.5.125
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Islamic
- Curatorial Notes
Bold calligraphic bands of thuluth, a monumental script with rounded proportions, became the main decorative element on metalwork produced for the Mamluk rulers of Egypt during the first decades of the fourteenth century, as is demonstrated by this large silver-inlaid basin. It is encircled by two prominent epigraphic registers, on the exterior and on the interior rim. The inscriptions provide the lengthy titles of an anonymous amir in the service of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (r. 1294–1340, with interruptions). Brass basins were often made as a set with an ewer, some of which survive, and were likely intended for washing the hands after dining.
- Selected Bibliography
- Markel, Stephen. Mughal and Early Modern Metalware from South Asia at LACMA: An Online Scholarly Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2020. https://archive.org/details/mughal-metalware (accessed September 7, 2021).
- Komaroff, Linda, editor. Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books, 2023.
