Ivories and Inscriptions from Islamic Spain

Abstract

Precious boxes of finely carved ivory are some of the fanciest and best-known works of early Islamic art from Spain. Two of the most famous examples are the so-called al-Mugirah pyxis, a small cylindrical box in the Louvre (fig. 1), and the so-called Pamplona casket, a large rectangular box with pitched lid preserved in the Museo de Navarra at Pamplona (fig. 2). These two pieces can be taken to epitomize a group of 29 ivories produced under Muslim patronage in the Ibe rian peninsula from the mid-tenth century to the mid-eleventh.1 The two objects shown here share many visual and technical similarities that are common to the group. They are finely carved in relief on a smooth ground, and most of the surface is covered by a dense patterning of plants and leaves. A few of the pieces are exclusively decorated with vegetal ornament, but most, in cluding these two, have cartouches or medallions formed by twisting bands and filled with vignettes and small figural scenes. Complete pieces usually have (or had) inscriptions in Arabic, carved in a plain or foliated kufic script around the lower edge of the lid. The two objects exemplify the two techniques of construction used to craft the Spanish ivories. The small pyxis is carved from a single piece of ivory, whereas the larger casket is composed of nineteen ivory plaques fitted around a wooden frame. Most of the objects, like these two, were meant to be seen from the outside. The only one clearly meant to be viewed open is a hinged box in Burgos with a plain, undecorated exterior.2 It is divided lengthwise into two halves, each of which contains five large concave roundels linked by four small holes. Cylindrical slots at both ends of both sides are framed by short repeated texts in Arabic. This piece has been called either a game box or a cosmetic case. The other ivories probably served as containers for precious substances. A poem which goes around one in the Hispanic Society of America is composed in the first person as though the object were speaking and mentions its function as a container for precious unguents: