AN IZNIK-STYLE TILE PANEL KUTAHYA, TURKEY 19TH CENTURY

A Mihraab shaped panel, comprised of 15 tiles, the white ground painted in turquoise, green, cobalt-blue and bole-red, with a stylized view of Mecca, with the black-shrouded Ka‘ba in the center of the Masjid al-Haram and other buildings within and around the holy sanctuary. It is part of a larger material corpus related to the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca and sites in its vicinity, which each pious Muslim should perform once in his or her life. Surrounded by a continous band of foliate scroll of peony and lotus flower heads, at the top two cartouches enclosing Kalimaat al-Tawhid in large black thuluth script. 150 by 90 cm.