- Title
- Pair of Doors
- Date Made
- 15th century
- Medium
- Wood, carved
- Dimensions
- a) 67 x 16 1/4 in. (170.18 x 41.27 cm); b) 64 x 15 1/2 in. (162.56 x 39.37 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.73.5.790a-b
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Islamic
- Curatorial Notes
Although the building to which this pair of carved wooden doors originally belonged is not precisely known, clues may lie in its Qur’anic inscriptions, carved in the naskh script and framing four panels of openwork designs of scrolling vines. Each text quoted from the Qur’an mentions the rewards of Paradise, and those on the right door (Qur’an 2:274) specifically state that wealthy persons who spend their money for pious purposes need not fear what awaits them in the afterlife. Together, this suite of inscriptions suggests that the doors may have once graced a Shi‘ite shrine or a Sufi tomb.
- Selected Bibliography
- Gierlichs, Joachim. "Tabrizi Woodcarvings in Timurid Iran." in Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th-15th Century Tabriz, edited by Judith Pfeiffer, 357-69. Leiden: Brill, 2014.
