prayer-stone
- Museum number
- 1821,0120.16
- Description
-
Prayer-stone, made of unfired clay; flat, circular; ornamented in the centre with a hand surrounded by an Arabic inscription; surrounded by a lozenge-shaped stamp repeated twenty times, and impressed again fifteen times, partly overlapping, around the edge; plain flat reverse.
- Production date
- 19thC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 9.80 centimetres
-
Thickness: 0.90 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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-
- Curator's comments
- These clay "prayer-stones" are still made and used today by the Shi'a in southern Iraq and in Iran. Other (more recent) examples are registered within the Departments of Asia and Ethnography. For discussion cf. V. Porter in Frifelt, K., 'Islamic Remains at the Qala'at al- al-Bahrain', Jutland 2001.
- Location
- On display (G43/dc1)
- Condition
- Complete; edges slightly chipped.
- Acquisition date
- 1821
- Acquisition notes
- M.L.A Register notes "Original list in "Letters on Antiquities" about 1818." Original attached paper label on the back reads "A sacred cake from Mesched Aliu formed from the earth near the shrine of the saint".
- Department
- Middle East
- Registration number
- 1821,0120.16