"Help from Allah and speedy victory"

[Tarsh]. Polychrome Tarsh (printed amulet).

Auf Anfrage

An extreme rarity of Islamic popular devotion: one of only two known Islamic "tarsh" amulets printed in colour. Both examples (the other is now in the David Collection, Copenhagen) have been attributed to Eastern Iran on the basis of the calligraphy and paper (see Fogg, 2003) and the single line of text in Persian. All other known tarshes are thought to have been produced in Fatimid Egypt; they do not show the same degree of refinement and imagination as do these two coloured specimens.

The amulet opens with the Qur'anic phrase, "Help from Allah and speedy victory" (Surah 61, as-Saf, verse 13), which was used widely as a protective talisman. It is printed here in a stylised black thuluth which shows signs of the influence of chancery scripts in the way the letter forms are almost joined across words. The general style is related to the cursive inscriptions found on Eastern Iranian metalwork and Ghurid inscriptions from Khurasan and North India.

This is followed by a phrase in praise of God set within a hexagonal lozenge. The phrase "al-mulk lillah" ("Sovereignty is Allah's") is framed by medallions containing the word "Allah". One of these medallions is in the form of a teardrop, resembling the marginal medallions found in Qur'ans of the period. The tripartite format of this field is very similar to the piece in the David Collection, which also contains a similar phrase in honour of God, "al-'uzma lillah" ("Greatness is Allah's"), written in a similar Kufic script. The type of Kufic here, characterised by the distinctive, plaited lam-alif letter combination, is related to that found on Iranian woodwork and ceramics. The knot motif surrounded by four dots that forms part of this field can also be related to designs found on 11th-century Iranian ceramics from Nishapur.

The third field is an outline of the Basmala in green thulth script. Interestingly, the woodblock artist has incorporated the foliate ground that would have appeared on an inscription on wood or stone into the forms of the letters, resulting in a highly unusual floriated cursive script. The field ends with a green floral motif: both this and the foliate ground were typical of Ghaznavid and Ghurid stone carving from Khurasan and North India.

The fourth field consists of a prayer in orange script, opening with the name of Allah, "mahbub" ("Beloved"), and invoking Allah's oneness and power and the status of Muhammad as His chosen one. Below, the fifth field in black script opens with the Basmala and continues with a statement of profession in God and in the sunna of the descendants of Adam and Eve. This continues with a single line in Persian, asking that no person should speak evil, and further lines in Arabic asking for protection against harm.

Woodblock printing, or xylography, originated in China during the Sui dynasty (6th to 9th century CE). The technology moved westwards into the Islamic world by the 10th century, and a small number of block-printed amulets with an Egyptian provenance survive. While block-printing was used at one point in 13th century Iran for printing money, few examples have survived to demonstrate the application of this technology. The first reliable textual source for the use of block printing is from Abu Dulaf al-Khazraji, a writer on the periphery of the Buyid court in early 10th century Iran. Block printing appears to have died out in the Islamic world around the 14th century. "Most extant prints are amulets, that is, long, thin strips of paper bearing quotations from the Qur'an, lists of the names of God, and other religious texts designed to ward off evil. They were rolled and enclosed in metal cylinders worn on chains around the neck" (Bulliet). An amulet scroll in the form of a manuscript rather than a tarsh, attributed to Eastern Iran and dated 535 H (1140 CE), was sold at Christie’s, 13 April 2010, lot 12.