Name of Object:

Painted wooden board

Location:

Raqqada, Kairouan, Tunisia

Holding Museum:

Museum of Islamic Art

About Museum of Islamic Art, Raqqada.

Original Owner:

Ordered on behalf of the Zirid prince, al-Mu‘izz ibn Badis by his minister, Muhammad ibn Abi al-Arab

Date of Object:

Hegira 413–14 / AD 1022–3

Museum Inventory Number:

BS 100

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Painted wood, floral design.

Dimensions:

Length 141 cm, width 16 cm, thickness 4 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Fatimid–Zirid

Provenance:

Kairouan.

Description:

Painted on this board in kufic script is part of the eighteenth verse of sura 3. The vertical lines of the letters have a chamfered effect and some are finished off with a bi-lobed fleuron. The background is punched into a simple floral design.
The angles of the letters waw and mim develop into scrolls which fill the empty space between them. The characters are carefully designed, precisely drawn, and finished with a chamfered effect. The yellow-ochre outside edging makes the letters stand out from the background. This technique, which substitutes for carving letters in relief, is known to have been used in the ceilings of the Great Mosque of Kairouan since the AH 3rd / AD 9th century.

This board bears a kufic inscription consisting of part of a Qur'anic verse from the sura Al-Imran. The inscribed field is decorated with floral motifs. This technique replaced the inscriptions carved in wood in relief and can be seen in the ceilings of the Great Mosque of Kairouan.

How date and origin were established:

A still intact section of the painted ceiling of the prayer hall of the Great Mosque of Kairouan with the same decorative and calligraphic characteristics as this board is part of the work ordered by the minister, al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Arab (period of office 413–14 / 1022–3) on behalf of the Zirid prince, al-Mu'izz ibn Badis. The lettering and the motifs used date this board from the end of the 4th to the beginning of the 5th century (10th–11th century).

How Object was obtained:

During the restoration of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in the 1960s some beams and boards from the ceiling of the prayer hall, considered to be too old, were removed and conserved in the storerooms of the National Institute of the Patrimony of Kairouan. When the second section of the Museum of Islamic Art at Raqqada was refurbished in 1999 this board was selected for display there.

How provenance was established:

A still intact section of the painted ceiling of the prayer hall of the Great Mosque of Kairouan has the same decorative and calligraphic characteristics as this board.

Selected bibliography:

Tunisie: du Christianisme a l'Islam (exhibition catalogue), Lattes, 2001, pp.191–2.
Ifriqiya: Thirteen Centuries of Art and Architecture in Tunisia, pp.159–62.

Citation of this web page:

Mourad Rammah "Painted wooden board" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;tn;Mus01;12;en

Prepared by: Mourad RammahMourad Rammah

Né en 1953 à Kairouan, docteur en archéologie islamique, Mourad Rammah est le conservateur de la médina de Kairouan. Lauréat du prix Agha Khan d'architecture, il publie divers articles sur l'histoire de l'archéologie médiévale islamique en Tunisie et participe à différentes expositions sur l'architecture islamique. De 1982 à 1994, il est en charge du département de muséographie du Centre des arts et des civilisations islamiques. Mourad Rammah est également directeur du Centre des manuscrits de Kairouan.
Copyedited by: Margot Cortez
Translation by: David Ash
Translation 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: TN 18