CORRESPONDING TO 1901-1902 AD

of steel and circular convex form with riveted gilt outer border, the outer surface with four domed steel bosses each chiselled with four flower-heads within gold-damascened borders and set between four etched and gilt cartouches of symmetrical foliage centred on etched and gilt dated inscription in nasta’liq arranged as a roundel, reading ‘Sultan ‘Abd al-Malik al-Marwan 319’, all encircled by a border of linked gold-damascened cartouches containing alternately chiselled Persian verses and lions attacking prey, a falconer and bowmen on horseback, all against a ground of foliage inhabited by hunting hounds and animals including hares, lions, wild boar, antelope and birds, and between slender borders of interlaced running flowering foliage, the interior retaining its quilted fabric liner (distressed) and arm pad, the latter with a ring at each corner for enarmes (missing), 40.5 cm diameter

Provenance

Philippe Missillier Collection, no. 66C

The inscription in the centre of the shield is in the name of the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (d. 705) and is clearly anachronistic. The inscriptions around the border are verses from Firdawsi’s Shahnamah, describing the story of Rustam and Isfandiyar. Although the verses are garbled, they can be identified as the moment at which Rustam shoots Isfandiyar in the eye, as he had been instructed to do by the Simurgh.

Other shields with historicising inscriptions, mentioning historical figures but made in the 19th century were used for processions. Many bear the names of Safavid shahs of Iran who had been dead for over 200 years (For examples in the Wallace Collection, see Richardson and Turner 2026, pp. 290-293). The reignS of Fath’ali Shah (1797-1834) and Nasir al-Din Shah (1848-96) also saw a fashion for ancestral themes of Sasanian and early Islamic imagery and decoration (Scarce 2006).