Roundel with double-headed eagle

On the left of this plate there’s a crescent or part of a band that forms an ellipse, in which there’s a figurative motif on a ground of tendrils and animated entrelacs. In the centre, a double-headed eagle with spread out wings is holding a bovid or a unicorn in its beaks.

The piece’s rich decorations have many influences. Firstly, the tendrils that end in animals’ heads in the ground motif are reminiscent of the waq-waq[1] tree motif. This theme is found in Iran, Afghanistan, and Anatolia in the Ghaznavid era (977–1186), and was probably transmitted to the Arab and Turkish worlds via Central Asia. These animated tendrils are found on various supports, ivories, and textiles, such as on Mamluk printed cotton textiles. On one such example there’s a vegetal motif, in which there’s a lion’s head, a bird, a rabbit’s head, and an inscription in cursive characters[2].

Each part of the surface of the eagle’s body has been rendered differently. A symmetrical axis that begins with the palmette situated between the two heads extends to the end of the tail. This palmette motif recurs in several places: at the base of the neck, formed by two small birds facing one another, whose wings are curved upwards; and then on the eagle’s belly and forehead of the bovid with long ears, from which seems to emerge the fan-like end of an eagle’s tail.

The central motif of the double-headed eagle is a motif associated with travel, which is found in both Western and oriental societies. Very common in Anatolia and Al Jazeera, it is a symbol of power and royalty. It is found in Seljuk Anatolia, carved on madrasahs (Divriği, Erzurum), on ceramics (shaped pieces and tiles, such as in the palaces of Diyarbakir and Beyşehir) and, in an almost similar form, painted on the interior of the lectern offered to Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī by the Seljuk Sultan[3]. It is also found in the Islamic West, in Sicily (ceiling of the Palatine Chapel in Palermo and, in Spain, on stone bowls and textiles). There’s a piece of silk cloth in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo which is attributed to Sultan Qalāʾūn and on which there’s a representation of a double-headed eagle[4]. This attests to the continued use of this motif under the Mamluks.

The motif of the bovid’s head is found carved on stone in Seljuk Anatolia and on contemporary metals from Iran and Turkey.

The surface treatment, with its various levels, is reminiscent of Seljuk art and certain Fatimid woodworks and ivories, on which are found similar carvings that are sometimes entirely pierced.

This medallion was probably made to decorate the facade or interior of a palace. It was part of a larger composition, as indicated by the lateral band, the bits of decoration that extend to the rear of the band, and the presence of a human hand under the eagle’s left wing[5]. This is reminiscent of similar compositions found on Fatimid ivories from Sicily and Egypt, and also in medieval European manuscripts.

[2] The Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, Inv. 14472.

[3] Dating from 1280, Mevlana museum, inv. 332.

[4] Inv. 2179

[5] The tendril motifs held by human hands can be compared with representations chiselled on a marble plate (fountain) that was found in the Sarghatmach madrasah in Cairo, and which is now held in the Museum of Islamic Arts, inventory number 2788. It dates from 1356.