Gold pendant with inset enamel decoration

Fatimid dynasty, 11th century AD
From Egypt

The influence of Byzantine enamel-work on Fatimid gold jewellery

This crescent-shaped gold pendant may originally have been hung with strings of pearls, from the three loops along the bottom. It is decorated with delicate bands of fine gold filigree around a small cloisonné enamel inset depicting two confronted birds and a central tree. The crescent shape is typical of jewellery produced in the Islamic world.

The Fatimid goldsmiths may have been inspired to use cloisonné enamel-work by imitating contemporary enamelled gold jewellery from Byzantium. Such jewellery could have been imported, sent as diplomatic gifts from the Byzantine emperors, or made by Byzantine craftsmen who had moved to Fatimid Egypt. However, there is evidence that the Fatimid goldsmiths did not produce these enamel insets themselves, but rather bought them ready-made - perhaps as imports from Byzantium, or from Byzantine craftsmen living in Egypt.

The Fatimid dynasty was famous for its extraordinary treasury, stocked with riches and rarities from around the world. Some of these treasures were diplomatic gifts from other rulers, and included fine pieces of jewellery: in 1046, the Fatimid caliph received a huge gift from the Emperor of Byzantium, during the course of negotiations to renew an armistice between the two great powers. The gift was carried on the backs of two hundred mules wearing fine saddle-cloths, and included a hundred gold vessels with enamel inlay, as well as a thousand different types of fine brocade, gold-decorated girdles, and gold-embroidered turbans. Two hundred Muslim prisoners of war were also returned home. A contemporary Fatimid courtier recorded that 'No former Byzantine emperor had ever offered a similar gift to any of the previous caliphs of Islam from time immemorial to the present time.'

Institut du Monde Arabe, Tresors fatimide du Caire, exp (Paris, Institut du Monde Arabe, 1998)

Ghada al-Hijjawi al-Qaddumi (ed.), Book of gifts and rarities (Ki (Harvard University Press, 1996)

R. Hasson, Early Islamic jewellery (L.A. Mayer Memorial Institute for Islamic Art, Jerusalem, 1987)