SquareKufic

Islamic inscriptions, Islamic art, its reception, and its representation.

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George Barbier, 1922

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New Gourna - Hasan Fathy

The goal of the experimental village of New Gourna, by Hasan Fathy was to use local materials and techniques to relocate the community living near the ancient sites of Luxor, both to limit damage and looting as well as facilitate tourism.

Fathy used earthen building materials throughout the village. Architectural elements common in the old village, such as enclosed courtyards, vaulted ceilings, and perforated walls, were incorporated in the design.

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The Great Mosque of Demak.

One of the oldest surviving mosques in Indonesia, shows the typical Javanese architecture for the mosque with its multi-tiered roof, a style which will be emulated across the Indonesian archipelago.

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The face of African slavery in Qajar Iran – in pictures

Anthropologist Pedram Khosronejad has embarked on a new and controversial topic in Iranian studies, developing a narrative on African slaver

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Sherbet Spoons

About halfway between Isfahan and Shiraz lies the Iranian town of Abadah. Renowned even in the medieval period for its woodwork, Abadah in the nineteenth century was most famous for its elaborately carved sherbet spoons (qashuq) made of pear- and box-wood.

The spoons were made in a variety of shapes and sizes. The largest and most impressive spoons were used for drinking sherbet, while slightly smaller ones were used for soup and rice and the smallest type was used for pickles. Large spoons were usually made in two parts, with a long rhomboid handle joined to the bowl-section by a socket. The socket was concealed under a large rosette to make it appear as if the spoon had been carved from one large piece of wood. Large spoons also had a curved 'buttress' underneath the rosette which braced against the bowl, adding stability and preventing the spoon from breaking under the weight of its load of sherbet.

Exquisitely carved spoons were the preserve of the well-to-do. They featured prominently at fancy dinner gatherings, where they were the only utensils used. The spoons were placed in ceramic basins full of sherbet with their handles balanced on the side and their bowls floating atop the sherbet. A guest would drink from the spoon, then place it back in the basin for the use of the other guests. One spoon might serve two or three people in this way.

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Sleep tight, sleep safe

SquareKufic - The Newsletter

Issue 148

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Detail of a bas-relief sculpture depicting a winged guardian spirit with Akkadian Cuneiform writing. The relief, which dates back to around 880 BCE, decorated the walls of the Northwest Palace in the Assyrian capital of Nimrud. Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA.

Photo by Babylon Chronicle

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Vakil Mosque/ Shiraz/ Iran

Photography: parisa malekahmadi

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Persian Rose-and-Nightingale Paintings

Rose-and-nightingale paintings and patterns (gul-u-bulbul) are a subtheme of the bird-flower (gul-u-morḡ) genre in Persian art. Bird-and-flower paintings are of Chinese origin and include pictorial elements such as flowers and plants, birds, and occasionally butterflies. This motif was then appropriated by the Persians and throughout the centuries evolved from being a decorative element within the art of books to an independent genre of painting.

Continue reading…

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Dance mask of Kuda Narawangsa, late 19th century, Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia.

Read more on Islamic art in Indonesia ->

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Khula khud, Iran, 18th century

from Amir Mohtashemi

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The allover decorative brickwork of the Samanid Mausoleum in Bukhara (892-942).

Bricks

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Bahram Gur and the Indian Princess in the Dark Palace on Saturday

Folio 23v from a Haft Paikar (Seven Portraits) of the Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of Ganja

ca. 1430, Herat, modern-day Afghanistan

The artist has achieved superb color harmony while still conveying the darkness of the pavilion required by the text. The perfection of such patterns as the tile work, and such details as the trays holding bottles, cups and fruit for the royal pair are characteristic of the supremely high quality of these Herat miniatures.

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Cuneiform tablet: private letterca. 1632 B.C.

Babylonian

Small enough to be portable and durable when dried, clay tablets allowed for the transmission of information across time and space. Although different scripts and languages could be impressed into the clay using a reed stylus, this method of writing was most often used to create texts in the cuneiform script and Akkadian language. In this letter, a man named Marduk-mushallim writes to his superior to give a report on the implementation of order from a king – probably Ammisaduqa, a king of Babylon. Written several decades before the collapse of the Babylonian state, this unusual letter hints at the unrest that prefigured, and may have contributed to, the state’s eventual downfall. In this letter, and a few others like it, trouble comes from the countryside, rather than within particular cities. According to Marduk-mushallim, the king wants to increase security around the city of Sippar-Yahrurum (to the north of Babylon), in part to protect livestock from hostile troops. Marduk-mushallim warns that the king’s orders are not being implemented – particularly the closing of the city gate during the night hours. via https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/321706

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Worshippers leave the Grand Mosque in Djenne, Mali, Africa (source)

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From a tombstone, if you are careful, you can get a whole context.

This tombstone is kept in the Metropolitan Museum of New York (accession number 33.118), it is dated, from the inscription 545/1150 and it come from Yazd (Iran).

Signatures on gravestones: two XII century Iranian tombstones

Tombstones are full of surprises, and information: not only on the poor passed away, but also on the iconography, the use of Qur’anic citati

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“Princess Qajar” and the Problem with Junk History Memes

Junk history is embodied perfectly in a recent viral meme that portrays a nineteenth-century Persian princess with facial hair alongside the