Slab Art

Geography: Attributed to Jordan

Medium: Ink on limestone

Dimensions: Gr. H. 9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm) Th. 2 in. (5.1 cm)
W. 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm)
Th. 2 in. (5.1 cm)

Classification: Stone

Credit Line: Gift of H. Dunscombe Colt, 1966

Accession Number: 66.81

The faded black paint used to inscribe this limestone slab does not permit a proper reading of the text, which was written in a cursive script typical of the early Islamic era. No date is fully legible, thus the inscription cannot be definitively attributed. The only available, though hearsay, information is that the slab was perhaps found at Khirbat al-Mafjar (in present-day Palestine), the site of an Umayyad palace of the first half of the eighth century. The text, beginning with the standard formula "In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate, " seems to represent nothing more than graffiti, a practice as old as history itself in the area, recording the names of visitors who entered an unnamed building. Here are included three men named Abu al-Ghaffar, Khusraw, and al-Wahhab.