South Asia – Items
Tombstone, Khambhat, late 13th- early 14th century, Epigraphic Round Script and Kufic
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Cite
APA
Elizabeth Lambourn, . (n.d.). Tombstone, Khambhat, late 13th- early 14th century, Epigraphic Round Script and Kufic (1–), CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3903
Chicago
Elizabeth Lambourn. n.d. “Tombstone, Khambhat, late 13th- early 14th century, Epigraphic Round Script and Kufic.”, CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3903
MLA
Elizabeth Lambourn. Tombstone, Khambhat, Late 13th- Early 14th Century, Epigraphic Round Script and Kufic, CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3903
Item descriptor
- Copyrights Holder
- CallFront
- License
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Entry ID
- India_EL_06
- Author
- Elizabeth Lambourn
- Contributor(s)
- Nuria Garcia Masip
- Date
- 1290 – 1310
- Localization Exactitude Degree
- Exact
- Place of Production
- India, Gujarat State, Khambhat
- Present Location
- Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, Portugal, accession no. AB-957
- Language
- Arabic
- Type of text
- Quran
- Nature of the Text
- Reference for Quranic verses
- Bismillah
- Text Content
- 2:285-86; 3:18-19; 9:21-22; 23: 29
- Remarks (General Identification)
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Original epitaph cut back, blank. Triple lamp motif recalls tombstones in situ in Cambay dated 1337 (Desai 1971, insc. X) and 1330 (Desai 1971, insc. XIII).
The Kufic bismillah design on this stone is a trademark of Cambay tombstones and architectural carvings. The earliest surviving example is on the headstone of Hasan ibn Muhammad al-‘Iraqi at the dargah of Mangroli Shah in Saurashtra d. 699/1299 with which this example shares its elongated proportions. The motif is refined and reproportioned in later headstones: eg Fatimah al-‘Alawi (d. 738/1337) (see Desai 1971, insc. XXIV) and ‘Umar al-Kazaruni (d. 734/1333) (see Desai, 1971, insc. XX).
Recovered from Goa where the reverse of the stone had been carved as a Christian tombstone recording the death of Rui Frere in 1562 - Type of Object
- cenotaph/tombstone
- Writing Surface
- stone\type of stone\marble
- Size (of the object)
- 136 x 58 x 13 cm
- Layout (Epigraphy & Objects)
- 7 lines (3 still inscribed) with inscribed borders
- Technique
- carved / bas-relief - flat relief
- Instrument
- chisel
- Bibliography
- Perez, Rosa M. Histórias de Goa. Museu Nacional de Etnologia, 1997. 243, Cat. No. 165, plates pp. 61 and 63.
Script descriptor
See the lexicon
General Script Characteristics
- Shape
- rectangular
- Presence of Elongation
- rare
- Elongated Letters
- nūn, sīn/shīn, sād/ḍād, yā’, lām and qāf bowl
- 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 - plunging bowl
- jīm ḥāʾ khā' and ‘ain ghayn descenders
- semicircular backward tail
- yā’ al-rāji’ah descenders
- backward oblique stroke
horizontals
- bāʾ tāʾ thāʾ fāʾ kāf horizontals
- short bowl
denticles
- initial and medial bāʾ tāʾthāʾ nūn yāʾ denticles
- initial slightly inclined to left
counters
- hā' counters
- initial / medial double eyed (wajh al-hirr)
- medial v-shape with bottom closed loop towards the right
- final s-shaped (muḥdawdibah)
- fā' qāf wāw counters
- rounded head
- medial 'ain ghayn counters
- compact inverted triangle
- mīm counters
- circular head
vocalization and diacritics
- shadda vocalization and diacritics
- tall denticles
Other
- additional characteristics
- Central section features a basmala in floriated Kufic script