Name of Object:

Glass weight

Location:

Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

Holding Museum:

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Museums

About Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Museums, Glasgow

Date of Object:

Hegira 4th–5th centuries / AD 10th–11th centuries

Museum Inventory Number:

1929.84.ai

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Glass, moulded and stamped; transparent pale-green in colour.

Dimensions:

Diameter 2 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Fatimid

Provenance:

Fustat, Egypt.

Description:

A glass weight produced in Egypt between the AH 2nd and 9th / AD 8th and 15th centuries, which would have been used to check the weights of prototype gold, silver and copper coins. A gold dinar would typically weigh 4.25 g and a silver dirham would have weighed 2.97 g. Metal coins were hand-minted and it was, therefore, difficult to ensure the exact accuracy of the weight; tampering with the weight of hand-minted coins was also a problem. Glass weights such as this one were developed to monitor the accuracy of metal coinage, and were used by the sellers to make sure that the correct vale of metal was being paid in return for the goods being purchased. The Arabic texts stamped on these weights usually bore the name of the ruler or official who ordered their issue and were usually re-issued every time the ruler or official changed office. This particular example is pale-green in colour and has a stamped Arabic inscription on one side (still to be deciphered), while the back is flat and plain.

These glass weights testify to Fustat's position as one of the richest cities of the Middle East during the Fatimid period (AH 296–566 / AD 909–1171). A busy port, the markets of Fustat traded a wide variety of goods that arrived from all over the world, from places as far away as China. Fustat was also an important manufacturing centre, producing fine ceramics, glassware, steel and copper products, soap, sugar, textiles and paper.

View Short Description

This glass weight was made in AH 5th- / AD 11th-century Egypt. Merchants and shopkeepers used such weights to check the weight of gold or silver coins, making sure that they were of the right weight and nobody had tampered with their precious metal. They were marked with the same designs as on the coins.

How date and origin were established:

Stylistic analysis: many comparable examples have been found in Fustat, Egypt, which have been dated to the Fatimid period after deciphering the scripts stamped on them.

How Object was obtained:

Donated to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in 1929.

Selected bibliography:

Battie, D., and Cottle, S., (ed.), Sotheby's Concise Encyclopaedia of Glass, London, 1991.

Jenkins, M., Islamic Glass, A Brief History, New York, 1986.

Lewis, B., (ed.), et. al. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, London, 1965.

Citation of this web page:

Noorah Al-Gailani "Glass weight" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus04;19;en

Prepared by: Noorah Al-GailaniNoorah Al-Gailani

Noorah Al-Gailani is Curator for Islamic Civilisations at Glasgow Museums, Scotland. With a BA in Interior Design from the College of Fine Arts, Baghdad University and three years' experience in design and folk art preservation, she moved to the UK in 1992. On completing her MA in Museum Studies at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London in 1994, she worked as Project Officer at the Grange Museum of Community History documenting the presence of Muslim communities in the London Borough of Brent. In 1995 she was Assistant Curator, Ancient Monuments Laboratory, English Heritage, and in 1996 became Curator for John Wesley's House and the Museum of Methodism in London. She co-authored The Islamic Year: Surahs, Stories and Celebrations (Stroud: Hawthorn Press, 2002) for non-Muslim children. Since 2003 she has been based at The Burrell Collection in Glasgow, working across the city's museums to interpret Islamic art and culture, ancient and modern, through research, exhibitions and educational activities.

Copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: UK4 24C

RELATED CONTENT

 Artistic Introduction

 Timeline for this item

Islamic Dynasties / Period

Fatimids


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MWNF Galleries

Glass Weights and measures

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