IMPRESSIVE SAFAVID TINNED COPPER BOWL

DECORATED WITH SCENES OF THE PERSIAN KING KHUSRAW & THE ARMENIAN PRINCESS SHIRIN, HUNTING AND A SUFI GATHERING

Copper cast and turned footed bowl, engraved and filled with black composition over tinned surface. Decorated with inscriptions and scenes of King Khusraw watching Princess Shirin bathing; hunters hunting deer, lions, ibexes; musicians performing music for whirling dervishes.

Inscriptions

Inscription inside the foot reads sāhibahu ‘Abbas (owned by ‘Abbas).

Arabic Prayers

The lines in the upper band in thuluth script read the following Arabic prayer:

“Oh God, send your blessings to Muhammad, and Muhammad al-Taqī and Naqī and Ali, Hasan al-Askarī, Kādhim, Musa al-Ridā, Ali, Husayn, Zain al-‘Ābidīn, send your blessings to Sāhib al-Zamān.”

The lines in the upper band in nas-ta‘liq script read the following Arabic prayer:

The Persian lines in the lower band are from Omīdī Tehranī’s (d. 1518)

Sāqhi-nāma (Cup-bearer’s Ode):

“Call Ali, He is able to bring about the extraordinary. You will find him an effective supporter in all calamities. All worries and sorrows will soon disappear on account of your authority, O Ali, O Ali, O Ali!”

Persian Poems

The Persian lines in the middle band are from the Dīvān of Hāfez-i Shīrāzī (from Ghazal No. 8).

“Oh cup-bearer! Come, bring the wine cup which shows us the world. That cup of wine which came a long way, down to us, from King Jamshid. Hand me that cup of wine, which resembles this world, Which is passed from hand to hand (from generation to generation).”

A comparable Safavid tinned copper bowl, sharing the same form and dimensions with the present piece, decorated with six scenes, dated c. 1630-1650, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Museum No. M. 34-1912), London. Please see, Assadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World – 8-18th Centuries - Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue, pp. 332-333, Cat. No. 152. According to Melikian-Chirvani the costumes depicted on the V&A bowl are typical of the 1630s and 1640s. Please see, ibid, p. 332.

Scenes

Starting just under the beginning of the texts of the two Arabic prayers, six scenes follow each other, from right to left, as follows:

Scene 1. The Persian king Khusraw watching the Armenian princess Shirin bathing. The water is made distinct by the fish swimming around Shirin.

Scene 2. Two hunters in conversation, one of them holds an ibex from its horn.

“Give wine with this wind of pride, for how long, Dust on the head of useless desire, In my palm, place the cup of wine that, from my breast I may pluck off this patched garment of blue colour.”

Scene 3. Five individuals in a musical sufi gathering; three of them, standing on the left, appear to be dervishes or mystics performing the whirling (sama’) ritual.

Scene 4. A hunter shooting at two deer with bow and an arrow, a sleeping ibex in the front.

Scene 5. A hunter on horseback, hunting deer and lion.

Scene 6. A cupbearer serving wine to a young couple.

Khusraw and Shirin ( نيريش و ورسخ) is a romance written by the famous Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi (d. 1209). It tells a highly elaborated fictional version of the story of the love between the Sasanian king Khusraw II (r. 591-628) and the Armenian Princess Shirin who becomes the queen of Persia.

Besides referring -with Khusraw and Shirin- to one of the masterpieces of Persian literature, the present bowl, with the hunting scenes, continues an ancient tradition of which the earliest dated example on record is the bowl from Fars in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Lyon, made in August 1347. Please see, ibid, p. 332.

The tradition of depicting human beings and animals played an important role in the history of Islamic art. This practise has deep roots in Seljuk, Fatimid, Ayyubid, early Mamluk art, Ottoman, Mughal and Safavid art and stretches back to antiquity. Figural depiction was not used on art works just for a decorative purpose but also to convey religious, cultural and political messages. The most frequent themes are a ruler seated on a throne as a symbol of sovereignty; battle scenes, scenes of palace life showing activities such as shooting with a bow and arrow on horseback, hunting with falcons, playing polo, figures of dervishes, musicians, dancers, servants offering wine in a cup. For more information please see, Motif from the Sadberk Hanım Museum Collection (written by Turgut Saner, Şebnem Eryavuz and Hülya Bilgi), Sadberk Hanım Museum, Istanbul, 2020, pp. 146-147.

The scenes on the present bowl reflect two important, inseparable sides of Safavid life and culture. The first is, palace entertainments symbolizing worldly pleasures; with the Khusraw and Shirin scene and the hunting - drinking scenes. The second is the spiritual aspect of life which is shown with the musicians and whirling dervishes scene. The same dual character can be observed in the organisation of the texts; with the Persian ‘worldly’ poems and the Arabic prayers.

Provenance: Ex-European Private Collection