Tile Frieze

• Accession Number:AKM698
• Place:Iznik, Turkey
• Dimensions:15.5 x 75 x 1 cm
• Date:ca. 1570
• Materials and Technique:Fritware, underglaze-painted

This tile frieze is inscribed with verse 64 of the twelfth sura of the Qur’an: “Allah is the best guardian, and He is the most merciful of the merciful.” It would have formed an integral part of a decorative program in an Ottoman mosque in the second half of the sixteenth century. Cartouches with Qur’anic verses painted under a clear glaze and calligraphic panels with the names of the Prophet, the first four caliphs, and the Prophet’s two grandsons, Hassan and Hosayn, as well as painted floral motifs, were the predominant decorative elements in Ottoman mosque interiors. The distinctive tomato-red colour used to frame the calligraphic cartouche here indicates a date later than the 1550s when this red was first employed in Ottoman tile production at Iznik in present-day Turkey.