Pen-box
From Mosul, northern Iraq, AD
1230-50
Inlaid with a verse from the Qur'an and
symbols of the planets and the zodiac
The pen-box has a long section for pens, with
smaller containers at one end for ink, sand (for blotting the ink)
and threads (for cleaning the reed-pens). The Arab historian
Qalqashandi, claimed that large square-ended pen-boxes like this
were often used by treasury scribes because they could put a supply
of accounting paper in the lid. He also wrote: 'know that
it is necessary for the scribe to do his utmost to adorn the
pen-box, to make it excellent and to look after it.' The
owner of this pen-box has chosen to adorn the inside of the lid
with a finely written verse from the Qur'an (11:88):
'I desire only to set things right so far as I am able. My
succour is only with Allah; in him I have put my
trust.'
The sides
of the box are decorated with twelve roundels containing
personifications
of the planets in their day or night houses. Scenes along the front
include (from right to left): Mars in Aries (a warrior holding a
sword and riding a ram); Venus in Taurus (a lute-player riding a
bull); Mercury in Gemini (two figures holding a staff); the Moon in
Cancer (a cross-legged figure holding a crescent before her face);
the Sun in Leo (a figure with the face of the sun riding a lion);
Mercury in Virgo ( two figures holding ears of
corn).
R. Ward, Islamic metalwork (London, The British Museum Press, 1993)
T. Richard Blurton (ed.), The enduring image: treasures, exh. cat (British Council, 1997)