Qur’an on Ceramic

After the magic squares were added to the decoration of the ceramic bowls, calligraphy as an artstyle on ceramics gradually started occurring more often. As mentioned before, this probably started after the emperor of the Zhengde period (1506-1521) came to power. He was Islamic, and thus adding Qur’an inscriptions to ceramics was something that was then widely done as a way to satisfy the emperor. Most often, the Ayat al-Kursi, also known as the Throne Verse, is inscribed on the ceramics. On our own bowl, this is also the case, showcasing the 255th to the 259th verses of the second chapter of the Qur’an. Around the magic square we find the first inscription stating “There is no conqueror except Ali, there is no sword except Zulfiqar”. Zulfiqar was the sword of Ali ibn Abi Talib, who was the last of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs and also the founder of Shia Islam. This specific inscription makes it clear that this plate was meant for those practicing Shia Islam. During this time, this branch of Islam was especially active in what is nowadays known as Iran. The rest of the calligraphy encircling the bowl are the verses of the Throne Verse. The outer ring is the first part of the verses, and with each ring the verse goes on. The most inner ring states the 99 names of Allah. The Throne Verse was often used as a verse that would grant the person protection of God after being recited several times, and it was also used as a promise of luck and blessing. To find it along with the ritualistic magic squares makes sense. The verse would grant protection from jinn, mythical beings who are neither truly good or bad, and the magic square would give medical attributes. To use such a bowl during childbirth would, if one believed the ritualistic properties it had, nearly guarantee a safe delivery, or help someone heal from sickness.

Compared to other bowls and plates that also have the Throne Verse and a magic square inscribed upon their surface, the calligraphy on the Topkapi bowl is the neatest. However, this does not mean that there are no mistakes. As we have seen before, the numbers are often written completely wrong or mirrored, and some lines of the verses encircling the bowl are incorrect, either grammatically or by use of the wrong letters, which makes translation quite hard once again. One of my translators told me that the third encirclement row started to show some weird inscriptions, but was overall still readable. The fourth and fifth, however, are said to make no sense at all, missing complete parts of the verses or even including words that should not be there.

This made me wonder once again if the Topkapi bowl is unique in this, and thus I turned to two other bowls (Fig. 1 and 2). One is housed in the Volkenkunde Museum of Leiden and the other at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, also known as Queen Mary’s magic square porcelain, whose production dates back to 1770 as well. The latter was researched in the 1970s by Cheng Te-k’un, who was one of the first to analyze the Chinese Islamic magic square porcelain. Cheng also found that the inscriptions adorning the plate were from the Throne Verse. Zheng, Dekun. Some Chinese Islamic "magic Square" Porcelain. Singapore: Lee Kong Chian Museum of Asian Culture, Nanyang University, 1972. When I compared these two side by side, I noticed that they are the exact same copy in terms of the magic square numbers and the inscriptions about Ali and Zulfiqar. They make the same mistakes with the writing of the numbers, and it would seem with the numbers on the left first row, third place, both potters were unsure of what number to use. In the Topkapi bowl, ٩ (9) is written, whereas Queen Mary’s bowl has something that resembles ٣ (3). Needless to say, when adding up the numbers of Queen Mary’s bowl, the results also do not align with each other. Another thing that I noticed is that the verses are placed on the exact same spot on the outer rings. Queen Mary’s calligraphy, however, has several characters which seem to have more flair, as here and there a little extra decoration is added to the character. Some characters seem to be adorned with extra swipes, making it hard to discern the letters. Nonetheless, it would seem that with the making of the bowls, the same design was used to write out the inscriptions.

The bowl of the Volkenkunde Museum is of a completely different kind of quality. Here, the inscriptions surrounding the magic square are nearly all faded. Yet from what is visible, it is clear that it features the same quote that is also found on the other two bowls. The rings are citing the Throne Verse as well. The magic square, however, seems to bear no real numbers. It has faded so badly already, but it is clear that no numbers actually adorned this square, only dots. The calligraphy on the rings is especially of low quality, with some letters being smudged and resembling scribbles rather than letters. The reason for the fading at the bottom could be because of what was poured in the bowl, such as water that would heal the person upon drinking from the magic square. Some words on the rings are flipped upside down out of nowhere, which makes it incredibly hard to read. Overall, the quality of the calligraphy of this bowl is the worst of the three.