Greater Iran – Items
Masonry, Herat, 1202-1203, Other
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Cite
APA
Viola Allegranzi, . (n.d.). Masonry, Herat, 1202-1203, Other (1–), CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3808
Chicago
Viola Allegranzi. n.d. “Masonry, Herat, 1202-1203, Other.”, CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3808
MLA
Viola Allegranzi. Masonry, Herat, 1202-1203, Other, CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3808
Item descriptor
- Copyrights Holder
- CallFront
- License
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Entry ID
- Afghanistan_VA_04
- Author
- Viola Allegranzi
- Date
- 599? H.
- 1202 – 1203
- Localization Exactitude Degree
- Exact
- Place of Production
- Afghanistan, Herat province, Herat, Mausoleum of Ghiyath al-Din, annexed to the Great Mosque of Herat
- Present Location
- demolished in the 1950s
- Language
- Arabic
- Type of text
- Titulature
- Text Content
- معین خلیفة الـله غیاث الدنیا والدین [... علاء] الدولة القاھرة تاج [الملة البا]ھرة جلال [الأمة الزھرة ...] (؟)
- Script
- Other
- Color of the Script
- no trace of color left
- Remarks (General Identification)
- The inscription was fragmented and partially plastered over already at the time of the earliest photographic documentation. I was able to reconstruct some titles of the Ghurid sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn on the basis of photos taken by von Niedermayer (1915-16), Byron (1935) and Stuckert (1942). V. Allegranzi (2026).
- Type of Object
- architectural element\masonry
- Writing Surface
- plaster
- Shape (Epigraphy)
- band
- Layout (Epigraphy & Objects)
- One horizontal line running on the four interior walls, below the transition zone.
- Technique
- carved / bas-relief - flat relief
- Instrument
- chisel
- Remarks (Support)
-
In existing photographs, only short sections of the inscription are visible, notably on both sides of the north-west corner. The alleged date is that of Ghiyath al-Din's death, but the mausoleum may
have been built a little earlier or later (the foundation inscription of the mosque is dated from 597 H./1201). - Bibliography
- Niedermayer, Oskar von, and Ernst Diez. Afghanistan. Hiersemann, 1924. fig. 154.
- Glatzer, Bernt. “Das Mausoleum und die Moschee des Ghoriden Ghiyāth Ud-Dīn in Herat.” Afghanistan Journal VII, no. 1 (1980): 6–22. Here p. 18, fig. 11
- Hillenbrand, Robert. “The Ghurid Tomb at Herat.” In Cairo to Kabul: Afghan and Islamic Studies Presented to Ralph Pinder-Wilson, edited by W. Ball and L. Harrow. Melisende, 2002, p. 123-143. Here p. 141, pl. 12.20, 12.21.
Script descriptor
See the lexicon
General Script Characteristics
- Internal Structure
- linear
- Groups of Characters Baseline
- oblique
- Character Spacing
- regular spaces between characters
- Presence of Elongation
- rare
- Ligature
- Conventional - curvilinear
- Shading / Contrast
- medium contrast
Ascenders
Descenders
- nūn sīn shīn sādḍād yā’ lām and qāf descenders
- wide deep bowl
counters
- hā' counters
- isolated one-eyed round (mu'arrāh)
- initial / medial double eyed (wajh al-hirr)
- final one-eyed (mardufah) rounded
- fā' qāf wāw counters
- triangular pointed head
Other
- additional characteristics
- Wide lām-'alif with open-eye at its base
- Three circular holes arranged in an inverted triangle adorn the heads of the shafts; the lower hole has sometimes an inverted-drop shape
- An intricate scroll with vegetal patterns in openwork is carved on the background