{
"data": {
"id": 94963,
"accession_number": "1915.524",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Luster Wall Tile with a Couple, 1266. Iran, Kashan, Ilkhanid period (1256-1353). Fritware with luster-painted design; overall: 19.5 x 16 cm (7 11/16 x 6 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust by exchange, 1915.524",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Luster Wall Tile with a Couple",
"creation_date": "1266",
"creation_date_earliest": 1266,
"creation_date_latest": 1266,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Iran, Kashan, Ilkhanid period (1256-1353)"
],
"technique": "fritware with luster-painted design",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Islamic Art",
"collection": "Islamic Art",
"type": "Ceramic",
"measurements": "Overall: 19.5 x 16 cm (7 11/16 x 6 5/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.195,
"height_inch": 7,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"width": 0.16,
"width_inch": 6,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.3125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Top reading R to L:\n(1) Rub\u0101\u02bf\u012b: \nTEXT:\nzulfat ki hiz\u0101r zang\u012b afz\u016bn d\u0101rad\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014bar turk-i khit\u0101 \u02bfazm-i shab\u012bkh\u016bn d\u0101rad\nv'\u0101n zang\u012b la\u02bfl duzd-i mutv\u0101ri-r\u0101\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u0101vikht-i d\u0101r ki basi kh\u016bn d\u0101rad.\n\nTRANSLATION:\nYour tresses, which possess over a thousand Zangis (Zanjis, black slave-soldiers, i.e. more than a thousand strands of hair)\nAre bent on a surprise night time charge against the Cathay Turks (handsome slave-soldier boys redolent of musk)\nAnd (as for) that ruby stealing (disheveled) Zangi in hiding\nHave him hanged for he has plenty of blood on his hands.\n\n(2) Rub\u0101\u02bf\u012b: these verses start immediately after the last verses, on the left hand side going down:\nTEXT:\nzulfat ki chu af\u02bf\u012b pay-i sharr mi-gardad\u2014\u2014\u2014d\u0101ni pas-i pushtat bi-chi bar migardad\nchun d\u012bd ki la\u02bfl to [zumurrud bigrift\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014vahsh\u012b shud u bar kuh u kamar migardad.]\nTRANSLATION:\nYour hair (tresses), which viper-like is bent on mischief, do you know why it returns behind your back?\nWhen it saw that your ruby (lips) has (now) an emerald (down appearing above the lips), it became wild (lost all senses) and wanders on the mountain side.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": null,
"inscription_translation": "Your black curls are a thousand times more numerous than a black African's,\nAnd they are more eager for ambush than a Turk from Khata;\nHang that fleeing ruby-possessing African, (ie. wear your hair down)\nfor he is full of life and energy (lit. \"blood\")'\nLike a basilisk your curls go about looking for mischief,\nDo you know who it is they are planning to kill?\nWhen they saw that the ruby longs for the thief....\n..... (illegible, the tile is broken here)\n\nMay the world-creater keep this safe,\nWherever it may happen to be.\n(Made) in (the month of) Dhi hajeh 664 (=1265-6)\n\n\nTranslation by Dick Davis, Ohio State University 1996 \nSource: Internal Object File",
"inscription_remark": "Two metaphors are present simultaneously. The first metaphor is that the red lips visible through the tumultuous black curls are like a ruby being stolen by a black African; by saying the African should be hanged for the theft the speaker means that the beloved should wear her hair down, the phrase involving a pun on a word that means both to hand and to leave loose. The second metaphor is that the hair's beauty is like someone waiting in ambush to capture and destroy the speaker.",
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 374836,
"title": "Persian Art Before and After the Mongol Conquest",
"description": "Persian Art Before and After the Mongol Conquest. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI (organizer) (April 9-May 17, 1959).",
"opening_date": "1959-04-09T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Dikran G. Kelekian [1867\u20131951], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?\u20131915",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1915\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Where fine clay was unavailable, potters made a paste out of ground quartz, clay, and glass. When fired, the paste created a compact white material called fritware that approximated the appearance of porcelain.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The design of this tile-a couple with a wine beaker surrounded by verses of Iranian love poetry-indicates that it was originally part of wall decoration and would have alternated with cross-shaped tiles.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60781243"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 704",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n128"
},
{
"citation": "Persian Art Before And After the Mongol Conquest.: [Exhibition] April 9-May 17, 1959. the University of Michigan, Museum of Art, Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Museum of Art, 1959.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: cat. no. 106, p. 39; Reproduced: p. 64",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 212",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n236"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 212",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n236"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 268",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n288"
},
{
"citation": "Gertsman, Elina and Barbara H. Rosenwein. The Middle Ages in 50 Objects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 130-133; Reproduced: p. 131",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1915.524",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
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"filesize": "149555",
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"date_created": "2012-08-03T14:50:14",
"annotation": ""
}
],
"creditline": "Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust by exchange",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 94963,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1915-04-30T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1266,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1266",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 05:03:47.684000"
}
}