Mosul: Artisans of Brass

Date: 1232

The Blacas Ewer (British Museum: 1866, 1229.61) was made in Mosul by Shujaʿ ibn Manʿa in Rajab 629/April 1232. Shujaʿ ibn Manʿa belonged to a prominent family in Mosul, and Julian Raby proposes he ran a workshop and that Muhammad ibn Fattuh could have been one of his assistants. See also: Artisan of Brass; Sword Inlayer; Blacksmith; Metal Worker; Inlayer of Metalwork; Decorator of Metal Vessels; Inlayer.

Citation: Raby, Julian. “The principle of parsimony and the problem of ‘the Mosul school of metalwork’,” in Venetia Porter and Mariam Rosser-Owen, eds, Metalwork and Material Culture in the Islamic World: Art, Craft, and Text: Essays presented to James W. Allan (London: I.B. Tauris, 2012), p. 23.

Also: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=239367&partId=1 (last consulted: 11 August 2018).

B

Date: 1250

In 1250 the Andalusian traveller and poet, Ibn Saʿid (d. 1286) visited Mosul. He recorded that there were many inlaid brass vessels made there which were exported to foreign rulers. See also: Sword Inlayer; Blacksmith; Metal Worker; Inlayer of Metalwork.

Citation: Raby, Julian. “The principle of parsimony and the problem of ‘the Mosul school of metalwork’,” in Venetia Porter and Mariam Rosser-Owen, eds, Metalwork and Material Culture in the Islamic World: Art, Craft, and Text: Essays presented to James W. Allan (London: I.B. Tauris, 2012), pp. 12, 53.