Fragment of a Frieze

This panel and panels 39.40.60–.64 are believed to have formed a large frieze along the entrance to a prayer hall that served a densely populated residential neighborhood. The frieze was originally painted in red and blue and included the word al-sultan, a title that first occurred in monumental epigraphy in the eleventh century with Seljuq and Ghaznavid rulers. It has been suggested that the frieze’s inscription originally bore the titles of the Seljuq sultan Malik Shah (r. 1073–92).

Credit: Rogers Fund, 1939