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PROBABLY JERUSALEM, 9TH/10TH CENTURY Carved with 11ll. of stylised kufic, some damages to edges and pitting within the stone, on later metal stand 20 ? x 20 ? in. (52.5 x 52 cm.) without stand
Elad notes that the inscriptions on early Islamic tombstones are generally of fixed form, with some minor variations, comprising the name of the deceased, their father, the date of death, and formulaic expressions related to the principles of faith. Given these conventions, our tombstone stands apart with the personal nature of the information given in the inscriptions. The name al-Ma’mun listed on the stele is significant. The most important person known to bear this title in the early Islamic period was the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma’mun. This, coupled with records of a sequence of descendants identical to that given on this tombstone, leads Elad to conclude that this tombstone most likely commemorates the concubine of one of the descendants of the Abbasid Caliph (Elad, 1998, pp. 228-243). Notably, the tombstone also explains that Umm Muhammad died on her way to Jerusalem where this tombstone was probably produced, and it is likely that she died during her pilgrimage (ziyara).
This stele is stylistically in line with a number of tombstones dated to the ninth and tenth centuries. A fragmentary tenth century Palestinian tombstone in the Louvre has a similar script sharing many features including the split terminals of finely carved narrow alif and lam and the triangular ha of our example (inv.no. OA 8160, Bittar, 2003, p. 90, no. 28). Elad notes a further, almost identical, script inscribed on a royal decree dated AH 297/910 AD, possibly the work of the same carver of our tombstone (Elad, 1998, p. 231; Elad, 1992, p. 302).