Fragment of frieze

This fragment of carved wood was discovered during archaeological digs in a cemetery in Cairo. Originally part of a much larger frieze, it is divided into seven sections, separated by bands decorated with leaves and quatrefoils, with Qur’anic inscriptions in Kūfic script running along the top and bottom. A serrated frieze serves as a frame. The decorations, which are entirely aniconic, are mainly comprised of vegetal elements that end in tri-lobed palmettes with well-defined veins. At the tips of these leaves is a lozenge network of palmettes arranged in a band; in the large central band a large wing motif resting on ram’s horns alternates with a five-lobed arch enclosing a vegetal axis with hanging branches.

Vegetal tendrils are very old decorative motifs, which took many different forms, and were widely used in Islamic art. The tri-lobed leaves with well-defined veins are found in Coptic  woodworks[1] and on works dating from the first three centuries of Islam; examples of geometric networks of palmettes similar to those on the frieze can also be found in Qur’anic illuminations dating from the ninth and tenth centuries[2]. The symmetry of the vegetal elements is reminiscent of pierced stucco slabs from the Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi castle and palace (Syria), whose entire façade (the upper section) is covered with poly-lobed arches. But examples that are more similar to those on the panel are found on the minbar in the Great Mosque of Kairouan (862–863). This motif subsequently found lasting popularity in Islamic countries, particularly in Andalusia, and was also sometimes used in Christian Europe: in certain Venetian palaces[3]—Venice was very influenced by the East—and even in France, in the prieuré Saint-Jean (St John’s priory) in Trizay (France, eleventh century).

The wings, which are linked to a circular element and horns, are influenced by the korymbos, the crown worn by Sassanid kings[4]. This motif continued to be used after the Islamic conquest, but gradually lost its meaning. Although the Sassanid crowns in the mosaics in the Dome of the Rock still seem to have some meaning, the pair of wings—they are found on Iraqi polychrome lustre bowls, the lustred ceramic tiles ornamenting the mihrāb in the Great Mosque of Kairouan, and in the margins of Abbasid manuscripts—probably became one of many decorative elements.

The combination of Coptic and Sassanid elements is reminiscent of Umayyad art[5], but the use of calligraphy on wood, the nature of the text—which comprises the bismillah formula and the verse of the throne (Qur’an 2:255)—, and the rather restricted range of the motifs, none of which are animated, give it the appearance of a piece from a much later date. The panel therefore probably dates from the beginning of the Abbasid period. In Janine Sourdel-Thomine’s view, the flat surface of the relief is reminiscent of Late Coptic carvings, but this carving technique was also used by the Abbasids: Elise Anglade defines it as a ‘flat relief, in which the grooves are a substitute for modelling and volume’. It can be compared with a whole series of works in wood kept in various museums (Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo and the Louvre Museum, Paris [6]), which often have serrated borders and trifoliated and ribbed palmettes. Like the wood and stucco decorations in Samarra, these Abbasid works in wood seem to have been painted.

Often associated with sovereignty, the verse of the throne was also associated with funerals. Since the frieze was found in a cemetery, it was probably made as a decorative element for a funerary monument.

[2] Qur’an in Western Kūfic script, National Library, Tunis, Rutbi 52

[3] Ca’ d’Oro, Venice

[4] Bust of a Sassanid king, the Louvre Museum, Paris MAO 122.

[5] There’s a combination of Byzantine and Sassanid crowns in the Dome of the Rock.

[6] MAO 451, MAO 456, HI 1