Islamicising Motifs in Byzantine Lead Seals: Exoticising Style and the Expression of Identity

Abstract

Among a relatively small number of ninth- to eleventh-century Byzantine lead seals with animal motifs, scholars have long recognised that some show Islamicising stylistic and iconographic features. Building from a recently completed catalogue of the 140 middle Byzantine (c. 843–1204) lead seals decorated with animal devices in the collections of Dumbarton Oaks and the Harvard University Art Museums, this article establishes criteria for distinguishing Islamicising animal seals and offers some possible explanations for why the owners of these seals chose to represent themselves via these motifs. It is proposed that exotic stylistic and iconographic attributes helped express the seal owners’ social identities and aspirations.