Pen Box with Shams-i Tabrizi Casting Rumi's Book into the Water

Artists

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with a central cartouche, with is flanked by birds amidst floating bouquets. The central image depicts a well-known episode when Shams Tabrizi casts Mawlana’s book into the water, as related in Haji Bektas Veli’s Maqalat (Conversations). The sides are covered with birds and floating blossoms interspersed with portrait busts of young and old dervishes. The base and compartment are painted with a minute gold arabesque on a red background.

Dimensions

3.5 × 3.7 × 21.2 cm (1 3/8 × 1 7/16 × 8 3/8 in.)

Provenance

Ezzat-Malek Soudavar, Geneva, Switzerland (by 2014), by descent; to her son Abolala Soudavar, Houston, Texas (2014), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2014. Note: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913-2014) formed this collection over a period of sixty years. She purchased the works of art on the international art market.