Eight-Pointed Star Tile with a Gazelle
13th-14th century
Maker Unknown
Arts of the Islamic World
In the medieval Iranian world, the deaths of Sufi shaykhs led to the building of tomb complexes; these became sites of veneration as well as spaces for prayer, teaching, and living. Star tiles with figural motifs are not unusual in popular religious complexes of Shica Muslims. This tile, depicting a deer and framed by a border with a luster-painted inscription, would have formed one unit of a star-and-cross tile dado that may have embellished such a Sufi shrine. It includes texts from two poets, the first, unidentified, and the second apparently by the twelfth-century mystic Awhad al-Din Kirmani. The pairing of mystical inscriptions with luster created a shimmering effect that must have greatly enhanced the mystical and sensory experience of the Sufi pilgrim.
- Maker/Artist
- Maker Unknown
- Classification
- Tiles
- Formatted Medium
- Ceramic; fritware, painted in luster and blue over an opaque white glaze
- Period
- Ilkhanid Period
- Dimensions
- 8 1/4 x 3/8 x 8 1/4 in. (21 x 1 x 21 cm) mount: 8 1/4 × 8 1/4 × 3/4 in. (21 × 21 × 1.9 cm)
- Inscribed
- In Persian, اي رأي تو صحراي أمل پیمودن تا چنـــد بـــر آفتاب گـــل انـدودن گر در دهن شیر شوي بهر طمع آخر نه شکار گور خواهي بودن (This Ruba`i also appears on many other tiles in different museums, one published by Abdullah Ghouchani in " Persian Poems on the Luster Tiles of Takht-I Suleiman".) دي روي تو از لطافت آینۀ روح خواهم که قدمهای خیالت بصبوح در دیده نهم ولي از تیـر مـژه ام ترسم که شود پاي خیالت مجروح (This Ruba`i is from Awhad al-Din Kermani and Appears in his Divan.) في آخر رجب [At the end of [the month] Rajab.] Inscription read by Abdullah Ghouchani. Ay ray-I tu sahra-yi amal paymudan Ta chand bar aftab gil andudan? Gar dar dahan-I sher shavi bahr-I tama` akhir na shikar-I gor khwahi budan? [You have in mind to traverse the field of hope. How long will you besmear the sun with mud? If you go greedily into the mouth of the lion, In the end will you not fall prey to the grave?] Ay roy-I tu az litafat ayina-I ruh Khwaham ki qadamha-yi khayalat ba-sabuh Dar dida kasham vali az tir-I muzha-am Tarsam ki shaved pay-I khayalat majruh. [Your face is so delicate it is a mirror of the spirit. I desire to attract the steps of your image into my eyes with a morning drink, But I fear your image's feet will be wounded By the arrows of my eyelashes.]
- Departments
- Arts of the Islamic World
- Accession Number
- 86.227.71
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.
- Rights Statement
- Creative Commons-BY
- Museum Location
- Arts of the Islamic World, 2nd floor
Have a concern, a correction, or something to add?
