Basin in the Name of Sultan al-Adil II Abu Bakr
Ahmad ibn Umar al-Dhaki al-Mawsili · 1238-1240
Nearly half a metre across, the basin is hammered from a copper alloy and engraved with decoration inlaid in silver and black paste, so the design reads like ink on metal. Around it runs a long dedication in Arabic honouring the sultan al-Malik al-Adil, with a string of titles calling him the learned, the just, the victorious, the defender of the frontiers of Islam, father of orphans and the poor, pillar of the caliphate and pole of sultans. The sultan is al-Adil the Second Abu Bakr, son of al-Kamil, who ruled Ayyubid Egypt for only two years, from twelve thirty eight to twelve forty, which dates the basin precisely. The artist signed it: Ahmad ibn Umar al-Dhaki al-Mawsili, that is, of Mosul, the city in northern Iraq famous for inlaid brass.
Craftsmen trained in Mosul carried the technique to Syria and Egypt in the thirteenth century, and their vessels were among the luxuries most admired by Crusaders and Italian merchants, which is why a sultan's basin sits here among the treasures of the medieval West. It belongs to the Louvre's Islamic collection and was given to the museum in nineteen hundred and five.
Did You Know? The sultan named on the basin reigned for barely two years, so the inscription dates the object more precisely than most medieval works.
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