Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T01:10:13.802Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The ewer of Ibn Jaldak (623/1226) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: the inquiry into the origin of the Mawsilī School of metalwork revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2001

HOWAYDA AL-HARITHY
Affiliation:
The American University of Beirut

Abstract

Among his many studies of Mawsilī metal work, D.S. Rice focuses on a group of five objects produced by a single workshop, that of Ahmad al-Dhakī al-Mawsilī, between 620/1223 and 640/1242. Among them the Cleveland ewer (620/1223) and the Louvre basin made for the Ayyūbid Sultān al-‘Ādil II (636–8/1238–40). One object, only briefly described by Rice and not studied in detail, for Rice did not have access to it at that time, is the ewer of Ibn Jaldak, the subject of this article. The aim of this paper is to revisit the question of origin of the Mawsilī School of metalwork through the close examination of this single object—the Maxsilī ewer now in the Metropolitan Museum (no. 91.1.586) made by Ibn Jaldak in 623/1226. The ewer represents a turning point in the development of Mawsilī metalwork and a key piece to the puzzle. By tracing its origin the article attempts to shed light on the larger question of the origin of the Mawsilī School and its metalworkers.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)