Four Wooden Roundels

Location: Ottoman Turkey

Materials: wood, carved in champlevé, with gilt inscriptions on painted ground, over a layer of gesso

Dimensions: diameter 60cm

Accession Number: MXD 265

Other Notes:

Ottoman mosque architecture was dominated
by central domes, the pendentives of which
often bore roundels, of painted wood or tilework,
with the names of God, Muhammad, Abu Bakr,
‘Uthman, ‘Umar and ‘Ali, and sometimes the names of Hasan and Husayn too, and appropriate prayers for each. The most famous, and the
largest, are those designed by the 19th-century calligrapher, Mustafa ‘Izzet in the mosque of
Ayasofya (converted from the great Byzantine
church of Hagia Sophia) in Istanbul.

The four roundels in the Khalili Collection are inscribed with the names of God (MXD 265a), Abu Bakr (MXD 265b), ‘Uthman (MXD 265c) and Hasan (MXD 265d).

Script:

inscribed in thulth script

Bibliography:

N.F. Safwat, The Art of the Pen. Calligraphy of the 14th to 20th Centuries, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume V, London 1996, cat.88–9, pp.152, and 154–5.
S. Vernoit, Occidentalism. Islamic Art in the 19th Century, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume XXIII, London 1997, cat.1, pp.16–17.
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.282, pp.246–7.