In Muslim cultures, words are used not only to communicate but to decorate. Because it is through writing that the Qur’an is transmitted, scripts in the Arabic alphabet were devised and perfected to be worthy of divine revelation. On this account, calligraphy became the most important art form regardless of the text. This concern with beautiful writing extended beyond the page to inscriptions on buildings as well as objects of all sorts, including metalwork, coins, ceramics, stone, glass, textiles, and woodwork, as here.
This panel, which probably came from a door, was originally painted. The sole decoration is the inscribed signature of its maker. It is signed Husayn ibn (son of) Master Ahmad, wood carver of Sari (in the Iranian province of Mazandaran, in the southern Caspian region), whose family members—including his father, brother, and uncle—evidently shared the same profession, to judge by the signatures on several other examples of wood carving. Written in thuluth, a monumental script with large, rounded proportions, the seven words of the inscription are deeply carved in three horizontal registers and set against a scrolling-leaf background. The tall, vertical letters of the lowest register are elongated so that they intersect with the letters of the lines above, and the text unfolds not only from right to left but from top to bottom.
