Selçuk, Atabey ve Eyyubi Minai, Lüster ve Sıraltı Seramiklerinde Görülen Bir Motif Üzerine Yorumlar: 12-13. Yüzyıl Haberleşme Sisteminde Kullanılan Şifre Makinesinin Betimleri

Yıl 2017, Sayı: 2, 257 - 297, 27.12.2017

Terrance Michael Duggan

Öz

Bu makale, çağdaş sanat tarihi literatüründe ve
müze kataloglarında sıklıkla ‘güneş’, ‘güneş parlaması’ ‘yıldız’ ya da
‘ışınları olan rozet’ olarak tanımlanan bir motifin (güneşe benzemesine
rağmen), 12-13. yüzyıllarda  Selçuk,
Atabey ve Eyyubi topraklarında uygulanan haberleşme/istihbarat sistemi içinde
kullanılan bir şifre makinesinin betimlemesi olabileceğini önermektedir. Bu tip
bir aracın betimlerini ‘güneş’ motifinden ayrılan belirli özellikler
bulunmaktadır: Üç diskten oluşan araç motifte de iç içe üç dairesel form ile
betimlenir: sıklıkla yüz (insan ya da büyük kedigil) tasviri olan, bazen
düşeyde bir işaret imi bulunan ve dış çepherde bir sıra daire motifi bulunan
bir merkezi daire; bundan çıkan ve aracın ışınları/işaret imlerini iki farklı
seviyede (iç/üst ve dış/alt grup) ayıran daha geniş bir çember; ve dışta disk
benzeri bir çerçeve. Bazı ışınların sivri uçları bu çerçeveden dışarı taşarak
dış diskte okunması gereken harflere/rakamlara işaret eder. Aracın betimi
olduğu önerilen motif, yüksek seviyeli haberleşme sistemi ile ilişkili
kompozisyonlarda gözlenmektedir. Motifin bulunduğu seramik kaplarda, şifreli
mesajları betimleyen kutu sıraları ile ışıklı sinyal araçları ve barid
sisteminin elemanlarının tasvirleri de yer almaktadır. Bu nedenle bu motifin
güneş tasviri ya da güneş ışınlarını yansıtan bir nesne olarak tanımlanması
yerine şifre makinesi tasvirleri olarak yorumlanması düşünülebilir. Bu araç
sultanın barid teşkilatı tarafından, atlı haberciler (kasıd), posta
güvercinleri (haman) ve daha da önemlisi özel sinyal araçları ile yansıtılan
ışıklı mesajları şifrelemek ya da gelen şifreli mesajların okunması amacı ile
kullanılmış olsa gerektir ve olasılıkla 12-13. yüzyıllar boyunca, Moğol
istilalarına kadar kullanılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Selçuk şifre makinesi, barīd-istibarat, haberleşme

AN INTERPRETATION OF SOME SELJUK, ATABEG AND AYYŪBID MINA’I, LUSTRE AND UNDER-GLAZE PAINTED DEPICTIONS AS PROVIDING A RECORD OF TYPES OF 12TH AND 13TH CENTURY CYPHER MACHINES EMPLOYED FOR CODED COMMUNICATIONS

Öz

Repeatedly described in modern art historical
and other literature and in museum catalogues as the representation of a ‘sun’,
a ‘solar design’, ‘sunburst’, a ‘star’, or as a ‘rosette with rays’, this
article suggests that some examples of this type of depiction - whilst having
the form of a ‘sun’ or of a ‘sunburst’ or ‘star’ – rather, and in some cases
with considerable accuracy, record the types of cypher device/machine that was
employed to make and to read secure encrypted communications in the 12^th to
13^th centuries within the Seljuk, Atabeg and Ayyūbid
territories of the Abbasid Caliphate. The primary distinguishing features
between the representation of what has been termed a ‘sun’, ‘solar device’
etc., and the depiction of this type of encryption device, consists in the
depiction of three disks - an inner disk, often carrying the depiction of a
face, human or feline, sometimes with a noteworthy vertical marker, and often with
a series of circles around its rim – a wider disk that separate the
rays/pointers of this device into two separate layered groups, an inner/upper
and an outer/lower group - within an outer disk-like frame,
across the edge of which the pointed ends of some of these rays/pointers pass,
with the setting of the machine's pointers-rays determining the sequence of the
letters-numbers to be read off the outer disk. Furthermore, the context within
which these depictions occur can be associated with the depiction of high
level state communications,
with at times the depiction in an encircling band of coded messages in boxes,
the depiction of signalling devices and of members of the ruler’s barīd-istibarat. It
is therefore suggested that this type of representation having the form of
three-disks with pointers-rays, while having the form of a ‘sun’ or ‘a solar device’, can rather to be understood as depicting examples
of the types of cypher machine that was employed by the ruler’s barīd-istibarat to
encrypt and decrypt some of the messages sent by means of couriers-kasıd,
by messenger pigeons-haman, and most rapidly, through sequences of
signals of reflected light/coloured light during the course of the 12^th and
into the 13^th centuries until the pagan Mongol interventions.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Seljuk Cypher/Cipher, barīd - istibarat communications, “sun”-“solar device”

Kaynakça

• Referans1 Lecturer, Art Historian, Akdeniz University, Mediterranean Civilisations Research Institute (MCRI), 07058 Campus, Antalya. [e-mail] I wish to record my thanks to Prof. Dr. R. Arık and Prof. Dr. O. Arık for their generous words of encouragement at the Uluslararası XVIII. Ortaçağ ve Türk Dönemi Kazıları ve Sanat Tarihi Araştırmaları Sempozyumu in Aydin in 2014 regarding a presentation concerning the three layered, ruler centered communication system: mounted courier, pigeon post and reflected light signalling, in the unpublished proceedings, and to thank Doç Dr. M. E. Şen for his invaluable work in the ongoing pilot project of a surface survey of Seljuk signalling stations Antalya-Alanya-Konya, under the supervision of the T.C. Ministry of Culture and Turism and in the work pertaining to the engineering of a prototype of the 13th c. signalling device employing a parabolic mirror, coloured filters and lenses, and its forthcoming testing in the field in 2017, to establish its functionality and to provide an idea of its effective range under different conditions of light and humidity.
• Referans 2 ʻAlī ibn ʻAdlān (1187-1268) of Mosul wrote in his treatise, al-mu’allaf lil-malik al-‘Ašraf, on frequency analysis of simple substitutions for code breaking. He grouped the 28 Arabic letters into 3 categories, 7 with high frequency, 11 moderately often and 10 rare letters, and wrote that texts of over 90 letters may be broken by frequency analysis, ie. a plain text consisting of roughly 3 times the number of the letters of the alphabet of 28 letters. Ibrāhim Ibn Moḥammad Ibn Dunainīr (1187–1229) in his Miftāh al-Kuniūz f Idāḥ al-Marmūz shows for example that the individual letter of a word can be converted through the abjad system into a number, a system frequently employed in Arabic astronomy, by instrument makers (there is a table of abjad letters in al-Jazari’s work on mechanical devices, written in Amid, 602 (1206), Topkapi Saray Library A3472, fol. 256.) as elsewhere, with this number then doubled, or tripled etc. and left as a sequence of numbers and spaces, or, the result of the doubled or tripled number is then reconverted back into two different letters, see Al-Kadi, “Origins of cryptology,” 1992, Cryptologia, 16:2, 97-126, 115 and 119. For these works in the Series on Arabic Origins of Cryptology, Ed. Mrayati. M. Y. Meer Alam- At-Tayyan., M. H., ibn ʻAdlān’s Treatise al-mu’allaf lil-malik al-‘Ašraf (The book written for King al-‘Ašraf), King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Riyadh, 2004; Ed. Mrayati. M., Y. Meer Alam- At-Tayyan., M. H. Ibn Dunaynīr’s Book: Expositive Chapters on Cryptanalysis, King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Riyadh, 2005. For a contemporary substitution alphabet different from abjad see D. Link, “Scrambling T-R-U-T-H: Rotating Letters as a Material Form of Thought,” Variantology, 248-249 http://d13.documenta.de/research/assets/Uploads/DavidLinkScramblingTruth2010100dpi.pdf.
• Referans 3 See, Taj ad-Din Ali ibn ad-Duraihim ben Muhammad ath-Tha’alibi al-Mausili (1312-1361), whose writings on cryptography have been lost, but he recorded both substitution and transposition and a cipher recorded for the first time with multiple substitutions for each plain-text letter, as also the text hidden in every third letter of a word, whose work was employed early in the 15th c. in Mamlūke Egypt, by Shihab al-Din abu’l-Abbas Ahmad ben Ali ben Ahmad Abd Allah Qalqašandī in his chapter on codes, with examples of substitution ciphers, in which each character is substituted for another, and transposition ciphers, in which the order of the letters is changed. In several codes the abjad numerical values were used to represent letters. His system of code breaking was based on the structure and phonetic patterns of Arabic words, Bosworth 1963, 17-33. Earlier the Ghaznavid chancery of Sultan Masʿūd b. Maḥmūd made use of messages in code (moʿammā, moʿammā-nāma) in 423/1032 (Bayhaqī, ed. Fayyāż, pp. 403-04; tr. A. K. Arends, Moscow, 1969, 403-04), Bosworth 1992, 883-885.
• Referans 4 Some messages were also sent en clair at this time, as for example a carrier pigeon sent from Jerusalem but brought down by a hawker during the siege of Jerusalem in 1099 which carried a message from the Fatimid governor of Jerusalem Iftikhar ad-Dawla requesting attacks be made by the Fatimid governors of Acre and Caesarea on the Crusaders besieging the city, and this message was read by the Crusaders, suggesting it was not enciphered, Frankopan 2012, 174-5.
• Referans 5 For an account of this association see: Duggan 2014, 129-157.
• Referans 6 From the Assyrian, puridu, swift messenger, originally runner, which passed into Arabic as barīd, courier.
• Referans 7 There is a Syrian unglazed Medieval moulded and incised bottle today at LACMA, USA, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost (M.2002.1.90), which has a neck consisting of three disks with incised pointer-marks on each ring, having some resemblance to this type of device, as also to the form of the combination locks of the period, see below.
• Referans 8 In the depiction of the sun-moon on Seljuk 8 pointed under-glaze painted frit-ware tiles, as from Kubadabad, in the inner circle there is a human face surrounded by a single circle of rays, usually 20, often in alternating colours, examples, Arık-Arık 2008, Fig. 397 and page 371. For a lustre example where the human face in the sun is surrounded by a ring with probably 32 lustre dots, with probably 16 of these dots located at the base of stylised rays, Arık 2000, Fig.175. On the famous silver dirham of Sultan Giyaseddin Keyhüsrev II there is a human face in the sun-moon, with a single ring of 40 positions surrounding the face, and between 20 and 40 rays, the forty presumably meaning-representing the many beams of sunlight-moonlight. In the depiction of the sun in copies of Abu Yahya Zakariya’ ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini (d.1283-4)’s ʿAjā'ib al-makhlūqāt wa gharā'ib al-mawjūdāt, there are examples with a face surrounded by 22 rays touching the outer ring; of two rings of 32 rays and of two rings of 32 and 36 rays.
• Referans 9 See for example, Ragheb 2002, 151-152. Likewise Holt 2004, 215, from the end of this period, cites Muḥyi 'l-Dīn Abu ’l-Faḍl ʿAbd Allāh b. Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ẓāhir (1223-92) who relates Qalāwūn received a despatch in cipher from his chief spy reporting on events, and gives its contents, although not the type of the cipher that was employed nor if a mechanical device for deciphering was used.
• Referans 10 For further on the production of scientific instruments within a court context, see for examples, Charette 2006, 126-128; and on the relationship between craftmen and mathematicians see Saliba 1999, 637-645.
• Referans 11 Ghubar al-hilya/Ghober script was so small it required magnifying to write and to read it and it was not employed for all carrier pigeon messages. More properly Ghubār al-Halba, meaning literally, the ‘dust of the race track,’ Mansour 2011, 276, but also, al-bada’iq slips of paper, or al-janah wing.
• Referans 12 “One is in a private American collection, while the other is in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.” See: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/a-rare-mosul-combination-lock-casket-signed-by-5358612-details.aspx There is also an example attributed to Sicily, said to be 12th c. and later, missing its mechanism, re-used Christies, London, King Street, 5th October 2010, Sale 7871, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, Lot. 132. http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5358726&lid=1
• Referans 13 Tekeli-Dosay-Unat 2002, 238-244.
• Referans 14 Combination lock box | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston www.mfa.org/collections/object/combination-lock-box-21956 Fragment of a box with a combination lock | The Met metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?exhibitionId=%7B74efafb7-a808-4ede-bf58...
• Referans 15 https://www.davidmus.dk/en/collections/islamic/materials/metal/art/1-1984, www.museumwnf.org/thematicgallery/thg_galleries/database_item.php?id...
• Referans 16 Hattstein-Delius 2000, 194. Also given to Sicily in the 12th c.
• Referans 17 Christies, London, King Street, 23rd April 1996, Lot 194; 5th October 2010, Sale 7871, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, Lot. 16. http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/a-rare-mosul-combination-lock-casket-signed-by-5358612-details.aspx
• Referans 18 http://www.khalilicollections.org/collections/islamic-art/khalili-collection-islamic-art-casket-with-the-remains-of-a-combination-lock-mtw850/
• Referans 19 See Melikian-Chirvani 1982, No. 90, 197-200; Box | V&A Search the Collections
• Referans 20 http://webapps.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/explorer/index.php?qu=syria%20fritware&oid=72039
• Referans 21 For further on this matter of signalling by means of mirrors, lenses and reflected light see: Duggan 2014, proceedings forthcoming; Duggan 2016, proceedings forthcoming; Duggan – Şen 2016, 1-17.
• Referans 22 On messenger pigeons, a system of communications employed from 3000 B.C. onwards see for 12th and 13th c. examples: Ragheb 2002; Silverstein 2007. Hence Jelalad-Din Rumi’s association of the two, remarking, “Bird, speak the tongue of birds: I can heed your cipher!” Rumi 2006, 168.
• Referans 23 For further on this matter of the modern use of the pagan-jahiliyya terms, sphinx, siren and harpy to describe 11th-14th c. Islamic depictions of winged human headed crowned felines and birds, which are often depicted on either side of the depiction of this device, when the human figures - the suggested signallers/observers - are not depicted in these same positions, is a terminology which is somewhat unhelpful, see Duggan 2015, 178-198.
• Referans 24 Likewise, of smokeless fire, Surat Ar-Raĥmān 55:15. Light is for example recorded as the personal name of a Jinn in The Tale of Pomegranate-Flower and Badr Basīm, Madrus & Mathers, 1996, III, 101.
• Referans 25 A reflection of light from the surface of water, as on: a mina’i frit-ware bowl, Iran c. 1200, Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, see, Kalter 1993, Abb.72, “Im Zentrum des Spiegels Darstellung eines von Höflingen umgebenen, im “Türkensitz” thronenden Fürsten. Auf der Außenwandung Reiter auf der Jagd.”; as also the design on the lake depicted at the foot of the mina’i frit-ware plate, Freer-Sackler F1909.75 Smithsonian Inst.; as likewise on a Persia, late 12th/early 13th century mina’i bowl with a rider on horseback and attendants. Sothebys, London, 24-04-2013, Lot. No. 173 http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2013/arts-of-the-islamic-world-l13220/lot.173.esthl.html#. See also, Fehvari 2000, 127, No. 156, CER456TSR, where there is a blue and white zigzag on the water of the lake; Fehevari 1998, No. 29., and it is also the design of the dress of the horseman to the right of the tree, presumably a courier; as also MIA, No. G234 where it forms the pattern on the water between the two horsemen, at https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1085/minai-ware-bowl-iran.
• Referans 26 See for examples: a repeat of circular mirrors with this design, in a band on the interior of a Kashan Iran c. 1175 – c. 1220, mina’i frit-ware under-glaze bowl with applied gold over glaze, No. OC.158-1946 in the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge; on both circular mirrors on a mina’i frit-ware bowl, Iran c. 1200, Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin; on both circular mirrors depicted on an Iran, 12th -13th c. mina’i painted frit-ware bowl offered for sale at icollector.com, withdrawn from sale 07-2002.
• Referans 27 Examples include: the dress of the mounted courier on a Seljuk Iran, 12th -13th c. mina’i painted frit-ware bowl, No. C.1234-1919 Victoria and Albert Museum, London; on the figures to either side of the enthroned ruler on a circa 1200 Central Iran, mina’i frit-ware bowl. Christies, King St. London, Lot. No. 0208, Sale No. 6628, 15th Oct. 2002, possibly depicting ashāb akhbār; the dress of the mounted courier on a circa 1200 Central Iran, mina’i frit-ware bowl, Christies, South Kensington, Lot. No. 0090, Saeed Motamed Collection, Part I, Sale No. 8652, 22nd April, 2013; on two of the seated figures depicted on a Kashan mina’i painted frit-ware bowl c. 1170-1220 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, no. C.129-1935; on the dress of a courier on horseback depicted on a circa 1200 mina’i frit-ware bowl, restored, Christies Sale 2335, Lot. No. 464, New York, Rockerfeller Plaza, 31st August 2010; as also, Fehvari 2000, 127, No. 156, CER456TSR, where there is a blue and white zigzag design on the dress of the horseman to the right of the tree, presumably a courier; Fehevari 1998, No. 29.
• Referans 28 Examples of figures in this communications context wearing a dress of blue and white stripe include: two seated figures on a Seljuk Iran, 12th -13th c. mina’i painted frit-ware bowl, No. C.1234-1919 Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the dress worn by the courier on horseback on a c. 1150-1200, Iran, Kashan, mina’i over-glaze painted frit-ware bowl. Acc. No. 925.13.80, Royal Ontario Museum; Iran, Kashan late 12th-13th c. mina’i frit-ware bowl with 8 figures, To Okayama Orient Museum, Okayama, Japan.
• Referans 29 http://webapps.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/explorer/index.php?qu=syria%20fritware&oid=72039
• Referans 30 http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451379 See also: Canby-Beyazit-Rugiadi, 2016, No. 123, 206.
• Referans 31 Catalogue entry at: http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451379
• Referans 32 “In the center is the sun surrounded by the personifications of six planets. Moving clockwise from the top right are Mars, holding a severed head and a sword; Mercury, the scribe, seated crosslegged with a pen in his right hand and scroll in his left; Venus, seated on a throne or chair and playing the lute; the moon, a female figure with a crescent moon around her head; Saturn, holding a sickle in each hand; and Jupiter, on a thronelike seat, holding something resembling a chain.” http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451379
• Referans 33 Read by A. Ghouchani, at http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451379
• Referans 34 Julia Gonnella “Lustre bowl with a sun motif” at, Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2017. http://www.discoverislamicart.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;sy;Mus01_A;47;en Likewise at: http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/e72c4f7260cb4e23bc8b6a35bb88a8ce/fine-arts-islamic-art-craft-handcraft-bowl-sun-raqqa-syria-13th-century-a3yadr.jpg
• Referans 35 http://www.museumwnf.org/images/zoom/objects/isl/sy/1_a/47/1.jpg
• Referans 36 For depictions of the outer ring around this type of circular mirror see: Kalter 1993, Abb.72; Iran, 12th -13th c. mina’i painted frit-ware bowl, offered for sale at icollector.com, withdrawn from sale 07-2002 at: http://www.icollector.com/Iran-Seljuk-Minai-12th-13th-Century-A-b_i174062; Iran, Kashan late 12th-13th c. mina’i frit-ware bowl with 8 figures and four circular mirrors, each with the four pivot points set within an outer ring in red, To Okayama Orient Museum, Okayama, Japan, at: http://www.kotobukiya-art.com/_src/sc2120/minai1_0001.jpg.
• Referans 37 http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/object/EA1978.2344
• Referans 38 http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/object/EA1978.2311
• Referans 39 Allen 1991, 22-23; Cat. No. 11.
• Referans 40 Allen 2005, 36.
• Referans 41 For these passages see Silverstein 2007, 136-137 and fn.223.
• Referans 42 Duggan 2016, proceedings forthcoming, as is also clearly recorded, carved in the reliefs on either side of the North door of the mosque at Divriği of 1229.
• Referans 43 As seems to be the case with a restored Kashan late 12th c. lustre painted frit-ware bowl today in the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/object/EA1978.2256, described as a “Bowl with human-faced sun,” which seems to depict a related device of disks and pointers, but the two sets of pointers face each other, presumably to read off accurately the co-ordinates of visible positions.
• Referans 44 Duggan 2016, proceedings forthcoming.
• Referans 45 Duggan 2015 passim.
• Referans 46 There are other possibly related examples, one Fehvari 2000, 113, No. 137, CER2127TSR, described as Iran, 13th c. “Pilgrim flask”, moulded and painted in under-glaze black, “the sides have delicately moulded decoration depicting elephants, lions and peacocks. The disk-shaped flat surfaces having identical decoration showing the human faced sun with its rays painted in black under a clear turquoise blue glaze.” On both sides of this 14 cm.high flask there is depicted a three disk type device with a human face on the inner disk and 13 pointers in the inner and 13 in the outer rings, 26 positions on the outer disk. There are no circles on the inner ring around the face. There is also the important nakkash depiction of a three disk type device in lustre on a bowl today in the Aga Khan Collection. It is described as: a bowl with radiating design / Syria, 12th century / Fritware, lustre painted over an opaque white glaze, Ø 23.5 cm. Inscription (Arabic): (in central roundel) “Glory”; (exterior) min san³ Abi Mashhur khass (“one of the works of Abi Mashhur, special [royal?] commission”) http://islamicartsmagazine.com/magazine/view/22_amazing_ceramic_pieces_from_the_aga_khan_museum/ However, if this depiction represents one of these types of cryptographic devices, but with only12 pointers-rays on the upper and 12 on the lower ring, 24 positions on the outer disk, and without either the circles or the face on the inner disk, it is difficult to be certain. A further example in lustre from the late 12th c., that might depict a type of this device has on the inner disk, a lion face surrounded by a series of dotted circles around the rim, but with only one ring of 20 pointers-rays, the rays crossing the outer border and is without the depiction of a middle disk or of the second-lower ring of rays and so there remains doubt if it represents this device at:https://www.google.com.tr/search?q=sun+on+lustre+ceramics+Islamic&rlz=1C1CAFB_enTR680TR680&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPusCq3oXUAhXEL1AKHZ0vC0EQ_AUIBigB&biw=1366&bih=662#imgdii=WXRtyDymQ0BKWM:&imgrc=BLI6H26mmizLJM. However, all three of these examples with a total of 20, 26 and 24 positions on the outer ring, may perhaps provide too few positions for an abjad numerical code-cipher. There is also a related group that may indicate a less explicit representation of this type of device, such as is depicted painted in black and cobalt-blue under-glaze on a Kashan 13th c. bowl, Fehevari 1998, No. 25. As also perhaps recalled in the rosette-like device in the centre with two outer rings on an early 13th c. Kashan underglaze-painted frit-ware bowl from the Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection, gift of Joan Palevsky (M.73.5.189) LACMA, Art of the Middle East: Islamic Department; as also in the under-glaze painted design on the interior of another 13th c. frit-ware Kashan bowl, also from the Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection, gift of Joan Palevsky (M.73.5.255) LACMA, Art of the Middle East: Islamic Department, where there are 2 rows of four pointers depicted, and the tips of the inner row join, in a manner similar to the pointers in Example one, Fig. 2, to a block of enciphered text below the encircling band of text. While the 12th c. overglaze lustre-painted frit-ware deep plate from the Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection, gift of Joan Palevsky (M.73.5.376) LACMA, Art of the Middle East: Islamic Department, with a mounted courier in the central disk and a series of rings extending out to the inscription band below the rim may also represent the design of this type of device. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Deep_Dish_or_Shallow_Bowl_LACMA_M.73.5.376_%282_of_2%29.jpg Referans 47 Eg., Silverstein 2007, 137.
• Referans 48 It seems evident that some mina’i painted bowls carry the depictions of actual events experienced by barīdī - couriers in the ruler’s service, including being attacked by mountain lions-panthers-wolves etc., eg: Kashan, Iran, mina’i frit-ware spouted jug, c. 1180-1219, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, no. OC.170-1946; c. 1200 mina’i frit-ware bowl, restored, Christies Sale 2335, Lot. 464, New York, Rockerfeller Plaza, 31st August, 2010; Iran, 12th -13th c. mina’i painted frit-ware bowl, No. C.1234-1919, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, which appears to show the courier outriding a wolf, and, it seems reasonable to suggest, this design was painted on this bowl to be officially presented to this particular courier. For the later gifts of money and of robes of honour presented to barīdī for speedy delivery of messages by Sultan Baybars, see Thorau 1992, 105.
• Referans 49 http://etc.usf.edu/clippix/pix/brass-box-at-the-museum-of-turkish-and-islamic-art-in-istanbul_medium.jpg