Page 174 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

chasing, surface granulation, and filigree,
enhanced with enamel and applied cloisonne
enameled plaques. The pommel bears circular
enameled plaques with the same inscription on
the obverse (wa Id ghd) and reverse; one, how-
ever, is inverted. On the sides there were origi-
nally two longitudinal pointed plaques, one now
missing, with the continuation lib illd'lldh. The
script of all is a modified Maghrib! naskhi. The
inscriptions are in opaque white enamel on a
ground of silver scrolling arabesques with traces
of gilding that form the cloisons of a translucent
green enamel ground. The grip has granulation
forming an all-over star-polygon design.
Above and below are two naskhi inscription
bands in opaque white, both between thin bands
of opaque turquoise enamel: the inscriptions are
in opaque white and are similarly on a scrolling
ground of arabesques in silver, but the ground
enamel appears to have decayed to black. The
inscriptions above and below both read wa Id

tan Museum of Art, New York (nos. 17.190.161, 56
17.190.962,17.190.641, 642, the second unpub-
lished); a pair of stirrups, formerly in the collec- SWORD OF BOABDIL
tion of Lady Ludlow; a mount and tassel from a
dagger-belt (?), Museo Arqueologico Nacional, late i$th or early i6th century
Madrid (unpublished). Also, according to Mann Granada
(1933, 301), there are two "fragments of a bridle" steel; mount: gold or gilt silver and enamel;
similar to the headstall in the Museo Nazionale scabbard: wood, leather, gold or silver-gilt and
del Bargello, Florence. enamel mounts (37 /sj
length 95
3
blade
The only information available about the actual references: Babelon 1924, 261-262; Paris 1971,
maker of these pieces is the Arabic inscription no. 179; Paris 1977, no. 388
"The work of Ridwan" damascened in gold on the
blade of the Boabdil dagger. Unfortunately, noth- Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Cabinet des Medailles
ing is known about Ridwan, though the name is
one found in Granada at the period (Leguina 1898, Like other related swords, including examples in
27), and it is even uncertain whether he was the Museo del Ejercito in Madrid and the Hes-
responsible for the whole dagger or merely for its sisches Landesmuseum in Kassel, this weapon is
blade. There appears to be no evidence to support traditionally associated with Boabdil, the last
the suggestion (Seitz 1965,180-181) that he was Nasrid ruler of Granada, who was defeated and
the same person as Julian del Rey, King Ferdi- expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 (see
nand's swordsmith, a Moor who is said to have cat. 55). The sword and its hilt are inscribed with
worked for Boabdil before converting to Chris- numerous variants of the royal Schriftwappen of
tianity after the conquest of Granada in 1492. Granada, wa Id ghdlib illd'lldh BM (And There
C.B./D.T. is no Conqueror but God [the sense of "BM" is
obscure]). The blade, which may have been
pattern-welded, has on each side a stylized four-
legged animal, somewhat like a bird-headed
dachshund with open beak, inlaid in copper. The
hilt—with pommel surmounted by a stemmed
finial, grip, and down-turned quillons —is some-
what flattened in profile. It is of silver-gilt or gold
worked in three dimensions with considerable

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 173