An inscription can change how someone uses or understands an object. A glass lamp from the Mamluk period carries part of the Quran’s Light Verse. Another lamp identifies a court official who commissioned it. An earthenware bowl, probably from Samarqand, carries a proverb about forbearance. These works show how Arabic calligraphy can recall scripture, record patronage or give an ethical saying a place in ordinary life. Quran 24:35 · The Met’s catalogue entry for lamp 91.1.1537 · Mosque Lamp of Amir Qawsun · Bowl with Arabic Proverb
A lamp can give physical form to an image in the Quran
Quran 24:35 uses the image of a lamp in a niche and describes the lamp inside glass. A fourteenth-century Syrian lamp in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, numbered 91.1.1537, carries part of the verse in the script known as thuluth. The glass is enameled and gilded. When a lamp like this was lit, people could see light coming from the kind of object named in the words. The link between text and object comes from the inscription itself. The same lamp also carries a donor’s honorifics and emblem. Quran 24:35 · The Met’s catalogue entry for lamp 91.1.1537
A donor’s name can tell another part of the story
A second lamp, made in Egypt around 1329–35, identifies the Mamluk official Saif al-Din Qawsun as its patron. The cup emblem near the mouth refers to his position as the sultan’s ceremonial cupbearer. The museum notes that the lamp may have been made for his mosque or mausoleum in Cairo. Its lettering occupies several bands, and light would have made the unenameled areas of the middle inscription stand out. The design could provide illumination and make the donor’s place in court and his support of a religious building visible. Mosque Lamp of Amir Qawsun · The Met’s analysis of Qawsun’s lamp
A bowl can place an ethical saying at the table
The museum dates the bowl with an Arabic proverb to the late tenth or eleventh century and attributes it tentatively to Samarqand. The earthenware is covered with a pale slip that forms the ground for the lettering and ornament. The proverb compares the initial bitterness of forbearance with an outcome sweeter than honey. The comparison draws on experiences of taste, which gives the saying a particular resonance on a vessel for food. The words express an ethical idea in the language of daily life. Bowl with Arabic Proverb
Conclusion
The lamps and bowl show several things that calligraphy can do. A Quranic image gains a material counterpart when a glass lamp is lit. An emblem and name record who supported a building. A proverb invites reflection through the act of using a vessel. Reading the inscription together with the object helps explain which meanings belong to a particular work. The Met’s catalogue entry for lamp 91.1.1537 · The Met’s analysis of Qawsun’s lamp · Bowl with Arabic Proverb · Islamic art and architecture
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