Christmas guessing - just for fun (new year)

[Hose_dk]

Yes what is it? We start by presenting the entire treasure.

The treasure is made of unmarked silver (and gold) inside a small purse of leather. Inside the leather purse a cotten (at least i think the cloths is cotton) Inside this cotton wrapped inside paper is more paper.


Silver without any hallmarks - with sqaures in gold. The box is 7 cm x 4 cm
1. origin 2. use 3. country 4. age 5 material what do you think?


The leather purse

And the cotton bag.


Wrapped inside to protect.



Page 1


Page 2 - or page 1 is page 2 then page 2 becomes page 1 :-) WHO knowes?

Can anyone answer my questions?


Here is another one - I cannot open it. So whats inside??

[Francais]

I believe it is an amulet, probably Moorish or North African and holds verses from the Holy Quran. I don't believe they have changed much in style over the years and I would guess it is about 100-150 years old. If I win what do I get?
Maurice

[Hose_dk]

amulet, probably Moorish or North African and holds verses from the Holy Quran. it is about 100-150 years old.
If I win what do I get?

Last first winning the pleasure of knowledge :-)

Amulet - yes its in the correct direction, but it has a name.
Moorish and N. Africa is not correct. And the geography is actually very limited (as what I know) but your guess is out of the area.
The Holy Quran - is proberly correct. I dont know what it says, but thats also my guess.
100-150 years - I dont know, but my estimate is 20th Century.

[Francais]

I think I was right or almost the first time, but I guess you might not consider Ethiopia as part of North Africa. Talum or Talisman? It might also be Coptic, or Arabic, but if there is no prize, I am not playing.
Maurice

[Hose_dk]

With Ethiopia you are getting closer, but not close enough.
I.e. in fact I am not sure whether they used these in E. This one is from a place...
I took Picture at the mseum


I am sorry for the Price - what can we do?

[Damon]

I believe this is called a hirz (or hirtz) in Arabic - likely from Yemen or Oman.

Often worn suspended from a necklace.

Damon

[Hose_dk]

Yes that is right. Its Oman.
And it is a Koran box - hirtz.
Often the paper is gone. There are people that select these old writings of the Koran.
The red Pearls are coral and are for good luck.
The long chains I think are for making noice to keep the jinns away.

This one I have bought in Denmark from a guy WHO did business in Oman in the 1980ties. He bpught it with contents. I bought it as a supplement to the one I got from my visit to Muscat in 2012.


These Pictures I took at the museum in Muscat and Fujairah. When I bought the firt my intension was to get more, but I found nothing. Later I have bought a few pieces at home.

[Francais]

Ok. You got it, but you are not going to get a prize. I got the right parallel, I was just off a little on the longitude.
Seriously, I have evidently had a few other pieces of jewelry from Oman, but I never found a market for them.

[Hose_dk]

You are right there are no marked for this. We where on a tour that also included Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and a few other places. Had no ide of beduine jevellery except from what I had seen in Tunesia in 1978. At that time I was at school and almost broke. And as I was not collecting, more interested in other Things :-)

When we where in the old town of Muscat I bought the box in the old bazar. They had a lot of different Things. All was priced per gram and a rather high Price per gram. I bought the box. Later we visited the museum and I descided to get to know more. And to buy more. We had several stops in UAE and Dubai so we left Muscat. At our Next stops I only saw jevellery when we visited the small private Collections/museums. Nothing to buy.

My box is part of the Mystic Oman - a fast disappering thing. Modern Oman has less place for the Mystic. Rest of UAE and Dubai is new, they dont care for the old.
In Abu Dhabi and Dubai they build and expand. What I have seen its higher, bigger and more spectular - but history lost.
In Oman they also build - in these Buildings I see the history. They keep the history in the new style.

Thats my judgement from a short visit. Proberly unfair, but that was what I saw.

More reading regarding juvellery here http://islamic-arts.org/2012/silver-speaks/

And you are right - beduine juvellery is not wanted anymore. I like to explore so I will get a bit more.