South Asia – Items
Tombstone, Khambhat, 1315,Ta’līq and other
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Cite
APA
Elizabeth Lambourn, . (n.d.). Tombstone, Khambhat, 1315,Ta’līq and other (1–), CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3900
Chicago
Elizabeth Lambourn. n.d. “Tombstone, Khambhat, 1315,Ta’līq and other.”, CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3900
MLA
Elizabeth Lambourn. Tombstone, Khambhat, 1315,Ta’līq and Other, CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3900
Item descriptor
- Copyrights Holder
- CallFront
- License
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Entry ID
- India_EL_03
- Author
- Elizabeth Lambourn
- Contributor(s)
- Nuria Garcia Masip
- Date
- 1 Dhū al-Hijjah 714 H.
- March 7, 1315
- Localization Exactitude Degree
- Exact
- Place of Production
- India, Gujarat State, Khambhat
- Remarks (Place of Production)
- Epitaph added in Yemen ; final two lines of epitaph likely finished in situ in Dhofar (Lambourn 2003)
- Present Location
- Victoria and Albert Museum London, accession no. A5 1932
- Website Link
- https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O448925/tombstone-unknown/?carousel-image=2015HK4068
- Language
- Arabic
- Type of text
- Quran
- Nature of the Text
- Bismillah
- Shahada
- Reference for Quranic verses
- Text Content
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surah al-Mulk (II, 255-257); surah Āl 'Imrān (III, 18-19); al-Tawbah (IX, 21); surah LIX:22
Epitaph :
hādhā qabr al-shaykh al-zāhid al-wāri'/al-'ābid sā'in al-dīn mukhtār al-Islām muhammad ibn abī bakr ibn sa'd ibn 'Alī al-damīrī taghammadahu Allāh bi-l-rahmah wa-l-rizwān wa askanahu fī dār al-junān wa kāna wafātahu bukrah al-jum'a awwal yawm min shahr dhū/al-hijjah sana arba' 'ashar wa sab'imiah min al-hijrah al-nabawiyyah sallà allāh 'alà sāhibihi wa salām - Remarks (General Identification)
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For high quality photos and conservation discussion see https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/caring-for-our-collections/preparation-of-three-14the-century-gravestones-for-a-display-at-the-national-museum-of-oman
Unusual example of semi-finished tombstone exported for completion in situ. Script and carving style of final two lines of epitaph are completely different to rest of stone.
Date of death misread as 604 in V&A catalogue entry in spite of abundant publication!
Records death of Shaykh Sā’in al-Dīn Mukhtār al-Islām Muhammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Sa’d ibn ‘Ali al-Damīrī
Originally located on the grave of al-Damiri at his shrine in Dhofar, Oman.
Last two lines of epitaph carved in Dhofar after the death of the shaykh - Type of Object
- cenotaph/tombstone
- Writing Surface
- stone\type of stone\marble
- Size (of the object)
- 108.3 x 46.2 cm
- Layout (Epigraphy & Objects)
- 9 lines of different heights with inscribed borders
- Technique
- carved / bas-relief - flat relief
- Instrument
- chisel
- Bibliography
- Guest, R. “Zufar in the Middle Ages.” In Islamic Culture. 1935. 402-410.
- Porter, V. “The Art of the Rasulids.” In 3,000 Years of Art and Civlization in Arabia Felix. Innsbruck/Frankfurt, 1987. 235 and 252, catalogue no. 54, plate on p. 251.
- Porter, V. “Three Rasulid Tombstones from Zafar.” In Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 1988. 32-37, Plate 3.
- Lambourn, E. “Carving and Recarving: Three Rasulid Gravestones Revisited.” In New Arabian Studies, G. Rex Smith, J.R. Smart and B.R. Pridham, vol. 6. 2003. 17-18, Plate 3.
- Lambourn, E. “Carving and Communities: Marble Carving for Muslim Communities at Khambhat and Around the Indian Ocean Rim (Late 13th–Mid-15th Centuries CE).” Ars Orientalis 34 (2004): 99–133. 122, fig. 26.
Script descriptor
See the lexicon
General Script Characteristics
- Presence of Elongation
- rare
- Length of Elongation
- varied length of elongations
- Shading / Contrast
- medium contrast
Letter Morphology
- Point
- inclined square
Ascenders
- Alif Ascenders
- alif - shaft tapers from thick to thin
Descenders
- wāw descenders
- wāw - rounded tail
- rā' zā' descenders
- rā'/zā' - s-shaped
- mīm descenders
- mīm - s-shape
- nūn sīn shīn sādḍād yā’ lām and qāf descenders
- nūn, sīn/shīn, sād/ḍād, yā', lām, qāf - elongated curvilinear flattened bowl
- nūn, sīn/shīn, sād/ḍād, yā', lām, qāf - plunging bowl
- yā’ al-rāji’ah descenders
- backward oblique stroke
horizontals
- bāʾ tāʾ thāʾ fāʾ kāf horizontals
- bāʾ, tāʾ, thāʾ, fāʾ, kāf - curvilinear flattened bowl
denticles
- initial and medial bāʾ tāʾthāʾ nūn yāʾ denticles
- leftward stroke with short hook
counters
- hā' counters
- initial / medial double eyed (wajh al-hirr)
- medial v-shape with bottom closed loop towards the right
- final s-shaped (muḥdawdibah)
- isolated one-eyed triangular (murabba'ah)
- fā' qāf wāw counters
- rounded head needle point eye
- medial 'ain ghayn counters
- compact inverted triangle / open or closed eye
- mīm counters
- circular head
vocalization and diacritics
- shadda vocalization and diacritics
- tall denticles
Other
- additional characteristics
- Spider-like quality from stacked thin tails and bowl endings