jewels and journeys: the case of the medieval …

AVINOAM SHALEM

JEWELS AND JOURNEYS: THE CASE OF THE MEDIEVALGEMSTONE CALLED AL-YATIMA

When a king, for instance, owns in his treasury an objectof rare quality or a precious stone, he thereby exposeshimself to being afflicted by its loss.

Ibn Miskawayh (ca. 932-1030)*

Exquisite pieces of jewelry with huge precious stoneswere, and still are, objects of irresistible attraction to ev-eryone. Their beauty and rarity captivate, and above alltheir adventurous, if occasionally legendary, historiesand royal genealogies are fascinating. Among the world-famous gemstones whose history is said to go back to themedieval period is the Timur ruby in the collection ofHer Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, which bears the namesof several other royal owners in addition to the greatTimurid ruler Tamerlane (1336-1404).' Another is theso-called Hope diamond, now in the Smithsonian Insti-tution, Washington, D.C., which was probably bought inIndia by the French merchant Tavernier, who later soldit to King Louis XIV.2 It was kept until the French Revo-lution in the royal collection, reappeared in 1830 inLondon, and was bought by the banker Henry Hope af-ter whom it is named. It was presented to the Smithso-nian by the New York jeweler Harry Winston.

Of no less fame is the so-called Smaragd Karls desGrossen (Charlemagne's emerald) in the treasury ofMittelzell-Reichenau which, though made out of a largepiece of emerald glass (length: 56cm., height: 37cm.,and width: 3cm.), was regarded until the eighteenthcentury as the biggest emerald in the world and was tra-ditionally said to have been given to Charlemagne byHarun al-Rashid.3 It should be pointed out, however,that a certain huge emerald (smaragdum mag-num) wasmentioned in the Chronicon Mundi (completed in 1236)of D. Lucas, the bishop of Tuy.4 He says that the splendidstone was given by King Alfonso VII to King Louis VII ona visit that the latter paid to the church of Santiago deCampostela, probably in 1154. He adds that the stonewas presented to Alfonso VII by King "Zafadola" - thatis, King Sayf al-Dawla, ruler of Rueda de Jalon in Ara-gon - and that it was carried by King Louis back toFrance; Louis later presented it to the monastery of theBlessed Dionysis.5

Medieval Islamic accounts also refer to anecdotesinvolving famous gemstones in the possession of variousmembers of royalty. Tradition has it that the signet ring(khatam) of the Prophet was made of silver and that itsseal was probably made of an Abyssinian stone (mostlikely a stone from al-Iabash, i.e., Ethiopia). The ringbore the three-line inscription "Muhammad the Apostleof God" (Muhammad rasf2l Alldh). 6 According to al-Tabari (839-923) the ring was worn by Abu-Bakr, CUmaribn al-Khattab and CUthman ibn CAffan, who lost it inthe well of Aris, in Medina; it was never recovered. 7 An-other famous ring which unfortunately disappeared,probably during the Fatimid period, was set with a red-ruby stone called al-Jabal (the Mountain, probably adome-shaped ruby). It was worn by the Sasanian kingsand later belonged to the Abbasids. It is said that Harunal-Rashid, who paid a large sum for it, inscribed his firstname, Ahmad, on it.8

Medieval accounts also refer to a well-known pearlcalled al-Yatima (the Unique or the Orphan). As in thecase of many other well-known artifacts, the relativelynumerous literary references to al-Yatima need to becarefully scrutinized because, first, other extraordinaryartifacts tend to become associated with the famous one,and, second, the fame and prestige associated with theworld-renowned artifact, and perhaps also its inestima-ble price, seem to encourage counterfeits. As a result,confusion arises and, in some cases, evidence can becontradictory. Though Nasser Rabbat has recently pub-lished part of the long history of al-Yatima,9 some fur-ther sources referring to it and to other famous Islamicgemstones can shed further light on the history of thispearl.

The name al-Yatima probably refers to the fact that ithad no equal. According to Pliny the Elder (b. A.D. 23 or24), the Romans, who were aware that no two pearls areexactly alike, called them uniones (specimen),° whichmight have been the source for the Arab name. Al-Biruni (d. ca. 1050) explains, however, that al-Yatima wasgiven its name because the shell in which it developedhad gone or perhaps disappeared (li'dhahdb adafahd),

THE MEDIEVAL GEMSTONE CALLED AL-YATIMA

before a sister pearl could be born in it." He adds, "Like-wise a similar one was called Farid, or Farida (namelyUnique or Singular), when its equal could not be foundand it was necessary to make it the centre of a necklacewhich is called Qildda."'2 At least for a time, then, twounique pearls, al-Yatima and al-Farida, probably existed.Al-Biruni says that when two identical pearls (taw>dmiy-ya) "are paired round the central pearl, one oppositethe other, the name Yatima ceases as it is no longer sin-gle on account of its sisters having come to it and onebeing placed opposite the other";'3 this suggests thatYatima was the name given to any pearl that did not havea pair mounted on the same piece ofjewelry.

According to medieval Arab sources, if a "sister" to apearl is found, its price immediately doubles, 14 buteven without a "sister" the price of al-Yatima was prob-ably huge. According to al-Biruni, the price of a pearlwas determined by weight and form - the best pearlswere cylindrical. This type of pearl was referred to asnajm (star) or uyin (the plural form of Cayn, an eye)and the price of a najm weighing one mithqdl (ca. 4.5grams) might reach a thousand dinars.'5 It seems likelythat al-Yatima belonged to the exquisite group of al-najm pearls, though accounts concerning its weight dif-fer. Al-Biruni mentions the "modest" weight of threemithqdals (ca. 13.5 grams),' 6 but sources from Mecca,probably by people who held office in the treasury ofthe KaCba, where al-Yatima was kept until the begin-ning of the tenth century, claim that it weighed four-teen mithqdals (ca. 60 grams).' It is difficult to deter-mine what its actual weight was, but since the largestbaroque (irregularly shaped) pearl is known to haveweighed 1,860 grains (ca. 93 grams),'8 the account ofthe people of Mecca might not be far from the truth.Of course, in addition to weight and form, the moreperfect its shape and the deeper its luster, the greaterthe pearl's value.'"

Though al-Yatima was considered to be the most cele-brated Islamic jewel of the Middle Ages, there is goodreason to suspect that its history started well before theIslamic period,20 and that it was probably booty taken inone of the early Islamic wars. One piece of evidence thatmentions a pearl taken as booty by Arabs is from al-Maq-qari (1577-1632): in his monumental book on al-Anda-lus, he mentions that a pearl (or pearls) called Qulaila(Qulaila al-durr) was looted during the Arab conquest ofSpain from the church of Merida.2 ' This source is rela-tively late, but as al-Maqqari usually relies on earliersources, mainly those of Andalusian or Maghribi histori-

ans, his account might therefore bear a grain of truth.2 2

Though al-Maqqari calls the pearl Qulaila and notYatima, it seems that in the late Middle Ages the Yatimawas confounded with another famous carved preciousstone called Qulaila. According to al-Maqqari, Musa ibnNusayr seized the pearl after the capture of the city ofMerida, probably in 712, as part of the immense bootyhe took from Spain, which also included the table ofSolomon and other tables inlaid with precious stones.The booty was later sent by him to the Umayyad caliphal-Walid in Damascus.2 3

Before considering the probable significance of thisunique pearl, it should be stressed that though we donot possess any historical evidence which mentions thelooting of the Yatima from the Sasanians, a Sasanian ori-gin for it should not be ruled out. One of the famouspearls of the pre-Islamic period was the so-called Firuzpearl, a magnificent pearl said to belong to the Sasanianking Firuz (r. 459-84). According to the Byzantine histo-rian Procopius (ca. 490-562), Firuz lost it in a battleagainst the White Huns; the story goes that he took itfrom his right ear and threw it away so that no one couldwear it after him. Tradition has it that the pearl was reco-vered by the Huns, and that Emperor Zeno (r. 476-91)and later Emperor Justinian I (r. 527-65) tried withoutsuccess to buy it from them. Other traditions say that itwas never recovered, but that a similar pearl was latersold to the Sasanian king Kawadh (488-531).4

An account by Shaykh Muhammad CAli Hazin (b.1692 in Isfahan), in his Treatise on the Nature of Pearls, sug-gests that another Sasanian pearl also existed:

I have read in the history of the kings of Persia known asCTanrkh-i-Azd-mard' that they brought to Kisra Anuishir-win a pearl which had been obtained from the coast ofthe island of Persia. It was round, and when weighed itcame up to two hundred and ninety-seven barley grains;and it was so white and pellucid that it dazzled the eye.According to Kisra's order, it was fixed in the hilt of hisdagger... 25

But the curtain of silence drawn over the pre-Islamic his-tory of the Yatima raises questions. If it was one of thefamous Sasanian jewels, it seems unlikely that none ofthe Arab historians would mention its Sasanian origin.At least in the Abbasid period, during the so-called Sasa-nian revival, historians would have been eager to stressthe Sasanian origin of the Yatima, but in fact al-Maq-qari's account is the only one to mention it at all.26

The significance of Yatima to the Visigothic city of Me-

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AVINOAM SHALEM

rida is unknown. The city was in Roman times theimportant administrative center of Augusta Emerita andduring the Visigothic period the provincial capital andseat of the metropolitan bishop of Lusitania.2 7 The mostvenerated building in the city was the basilica of SaintEulalia.28 The cult of this local saint was widespread inthe peninsula in late Roman and Visigothic times, andmany pilgrims came to Merida to visit the shrine of thiscelebrated virgin martyr. The church was built in a cem-etery outside the city over the saint's tomb. Probably inthe eighth century, her relics were transferred to the ca-thedral of Oviedo, and in the tenth and eleventh centu-ries, with the massive spread of the cult of SaintJames inCampostela, the importance of this saint declined.29

The miracle relating to the departure of the soul fromthe body of Saint Eulalia describes how before she died,probably in the year 304, a white dove flew out of hermouth. Probably around 400, her cult spread quickly,thanks most likely to the Spanish Christian poet Pruden-tius who describes this miracle in his Peristephanon(Crowns of Martyrdom) :30

Emicat inde columba repensmartyris os nive candidior

visa relinquere et astra sequi;spiritus hic erat Eulaliae

lacteolus, celer, innocuus.

[Thence all at once a dove whiter than snow springs forth;they see it leave the martyr's mouth and make for thestars. It was Eulalia's spirit, milk-white, swift, and sinless.] sl

Images of the holy spirit or the soul captured the imag-ination of many medieval thinkers. The anonymous au-thor of the Vitae Patrum Emeritensium (Lives of the Fa-thers of Merida), probably a seventh-century deacon ofthe church of Saint Eulalia, showed a particular interestin visions relating to the departure of the soul from thebody.3 2 In one of his accounts, he describes the souls ofthe martyrs as "more pure than gold and more preciousthan all precious stones" and adds that Christ placedthese pure souls in the treasury of heaven.3 3 It is there-fore tempting to suggest that the pearl was displaced inthe church of Merida as a symbol of the sinless spirit ofthe virgin saint, calling to mind the miracle of the whitedove.

There are many medieval traditions to explain the mys-terious natural process by which pearls are made. Someconsidered them a product of an interaction betweenthe sky and the sea. For instance, Pliny the Elder says:

Pearls come from shells much like oyster shells. Whenstimulated by the season for procreation, they open up, asit were, and are impregnated with dew, so the story goes.Then these pregnant shells give birth; and their offspringsare pearls of a quality corresponding to the quality of thedew they have received. If it was pure, the pearls are bril-liant, if cloudy, a dirty colour. For it is certain that pearlsare conceived from the sky, with which they have moreconnection than with the sea, and so get from it theircloudiness, or, if the morning is bright, a clear colour.3 4

Others gave pearls a celestial origin, a tradition that wascommon in the Middle Ages among both Christians andMuslims. 35 It originated in the Book of Stones of Aristotle,in which pearls are said to be impregnated with raindrops just as a womb is fertilized by a sperm.3 6 The vastmaterial concerning pearls in ancient times, mainly inthe Near and Far East, usually emphasized its celestialorigin, perfect spherical form, pure unblemished color,and its being made from a mixture of water and fire inthe form of raindrops and lightening. 7 The detailed ac-counts and numerous verses cited by al-Biruni in hisbook on precious stones shed light on the significanceof pearls in the medieval Muslim sphere. Al-Biruniwrites that their brilliance and luster recall the shiningstars, and that is the reason why brilliant round pearlsare called najm (star).3s He recites verses from variouspoets to illustrate this idea. One of them is al-RaCi, wholived in the first century A.H.: The Pleiades glistened andgave light like the glistening of a pearl in which is slen-derness.3 9 Another was by a poet named Abu Tammamwho conveys the same idea: "Pearls like the lustrous starshave adorned their skin with the shell of embellishment,not the shell." 40 Or the verse by Ibn Babak (d. 1019): "Asif the new moon on the eve of her first night were theremnant of a cut string of pearls."4 1

According to al-Biruni, the similarity between pearlsand stars probably inspired the term kaukab durrf (pearl-like star),42 and might also explain the verb tala'la'a (toglisten), which is derived from lulu' (pearl). 4 3 The bril-liance of the Yatima was said to be whiter than thebrightness of the planet Venus.44 In other verses col-lected by al-Biruni, tender skin or virginity are also asso-ciated with pearls.4 5

Another interesting literary piece is the Hymn of theSoul which appears in one of the apocryphal writings,the Acts of Thomas the Apostle.4 6 This hymn is known inits Greek version, but is probably of Syriac origin andmight even include some Parthian traditions.4 7 Thehymn recounts the story of a search for a unique pearland therefore might shed light on the meaning of thetheme of the unique pearl in the Near Eastern and east-

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UMAYYAD SURVIVALS AND MAMLUK REVIVALS

ern Mediterranean regions in early medieval times. Thehero of this hymn is a prince (who symbolizes the soul),who is sent from his father's house to Egypt to fetch theone pearl which is there (in the midst of the sea) "girtabout by the devouring serpent."" 8 Only after fulfillingthis task is the prince permitted to put on the glitteringrobe that, like a mirror, allows one to recognize oneself.Thereafter, the prince can appear before his father theking (i.e., God), and dwell in his kingdom (i.e., heaven).

To find the unique pearl is only the first step in help-ing the soul achieve peace in the kingdom of heaven;the second is finding the robe of self-consciousnesswhich probably brings body and soul together. The sig-nificance of the pearl can be interpreted as the spark oflight, the spirit or the wisdom that awakens the soul ofthe believer from its sleep.4 9

The motif of a large spherical pearl in a conch shellappears in many early medieval ivories generallyassigned to Constantinople and datable to the fifth andsixth centuries. The pearl appears in the center of theconch on top of its pointed concave end. This motif isusually depicted in an architectural setting, in a nicheabove the heads of saints. For instance, two large pearlsin conch shells appear in the niches above the heads ofthe Virgin and Christ depicted on two ivory plaques inBerlin (Museum ffir Spatantike und ByzantinischeKunst, inv. nos. 564 and 565, fig. 1 a-b).50 It should bepointed out, however, that this particular motif alsoappears above mythological figures and personificationsof spiritual activities.M5

An interesting example is the silver Syriac plaque withSt. Symeon Stylites (the Elder?) from the Louvre in Paris(Bj 2180), which is datable to the late sixth or early sev-enth century.5 2 Here the motif of the conch shell withthe large pearl is freed from its architectural setting andfloats over the head of St. Symeon Stylites, who standsbehind a balustrade on the top of his column anddevoutly reads, while a snake winds itself around thecolumn (fig. 2). It has been suggested that the conchshell above the head of St. Symeon Stylites symbolizeshis saintly virtues, since this motif is a common earlyChristian indication of sanctity.5 3 The snake, however,causes some difficulties. It has been associated with aspecific event in the life of this saint, but it is also gener-ally accepted as a symbol of evil,54 as is the serpent in theabove-mentioned Hymn of the Soul from the Acts ofThomas. In this hymn the prince vanquishes the serpentwhich guards the pearl by naming his father (i.e.,God)." Thus the prince (the soul) devours evil in orderto reach the pearl (the spirit). It is tempting to suggest

that this Syriac plaque might be interpreted further asbeing associated with the Gnostic Syriac tradition.5 Thepious St. Symeon overcomes evil (the serpent) and isrewarded with the precious symbol of spirituality (thepearl), which will enable him to reach the Kingdom ofHeaven.5 7

Assuming that the Yatima reached the treasury of theUmayyads as a part of the valuable Visigothic booty sentat the beginning of the second decade of the eighth cen-tury to the caliph al-Walid (r. 705-15) in Damascus cre-ates a difficulty because the earliest piece of evidence onal-Yatima mentions that it was hung in the Dome of theRock during the reign of CAbd al-Malik, that is, between685 and 705. But one early source, al-Wasiti (completedbefore 1019) and other later sources that mention thisfact draw upon oral traditions. Therefore the referenceto Abd al-Malik's time might simply mean that it was inthe Dome of the Rock in the very early years of thebuilding's existence.

As Rabbat has demonstrated, during the Umayyad pe-riod al-Yatima was displayed in the Dome of the Rockwith two other objects: the crown of Khusraw and thehorns of Abraham's ram. Later, probably in the middleof the eighth century, it passed into the hands of theAbbasids.58 How and exactly where al-Yatima, the crown,and the horns were exhibited is unknown. While thecrown and the horns could have been hung by chains,the pearl, whatever its size, should have been hungeither in a specific place or perhaps on the crown itselfas a pendant so that it would be noticed. by visitors.Crowns hung with pearls and other precious stones doappear on the mosaics of the Dome of the Rock (com-pleted in 691), and these representations of studdedcrowns suspended on the walls might be read, accordingto Rabbat, as being "commemorative trophies" (fig.3).59

Rabbat has shown that the practice of hanging valu-able precious stones in holy shrines was known duringthe Umayyad period. 0 He mentioned the famousQulaila of the Great Mosque of Damascus, the large redjewel on the qibla wall, the sapphires and agates aroundthe mihrab, as well as the valuable objects displayed in-side the KaCba."l Ibn CAbd al-Rabbih (ca. 913) tells usthat in the early times a red ruby was set over the Domeof the Rock which shone so brightly that even the peo-ple of Balqa (in Transjordan).could see it and "thosewho lived there were able to spin the light thereof in al-Aqsa. ,"62

Ibn Abd al-Rabbih's exaggerated description of the

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AVINOAM SHALEM

Fig. 1 a-b. Christ and the Virgin enthroned. Ivory diptych. Probably Constantinople. Mid-sixth century. Berlin, Museum ffir spit-antike und byzantinische Kunst, nos. 564 and 565. (Photo: Hirmer Archive, Munich)

magnificent light of the ruby over the Dome of the Rockis an example of the belief held, both in ancient timesand during the Middle Ages, especially in Syria, that pre-vious stones had the ability to shine like lamps. Accord-ing to a Jewish legend, for instance, during the twelvemonths that Noah spent in his ark he hung up a pre-

cious stone (margalith) in order to distinguish betweenday and night- the stone shown dimly during the dayand brightly at night.6 Another source, attributed toLucian (probably Lucian of Antioch, ca. 240-312),describes how a stone called Lychnis (lamp-stone,Jacinth?), gave off a great light at night "so that the

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Fig. 2. St. Symeon Stylites (the Elder?). Silver plaque. Syria.Late-sixth-/early-seventh century. Paris, Mushe du Louvre,Department des Antiquites grecques et romaines. Bj 2180.(Photo: from Kurt Weitzmann, ed., The Age of Spirituality, exhi-bition catalogue [1979], no.529)

whole temple is therefore lighted up as though by manylamps burning. By day its lustre is more feeble; however,it still presents a very fiery appearance." 64 According tothis source, the stone was mounted on the head of a Syr-ian goddess.65 Pliny the Elder provides us with a storyabout the statue of a lion on the burial mound of aprince in Cyprus. The lion had inset eyes made of twoemeralds which glinted so brightly that fishermen werebaffled by them.6 6 Another medieval light-giving pre-cious stone was found in the belly of a fish by Alexanderthe Great on his way back from the Land of Darkness.The stone was later mounted in gold and used by Alex-ander as a lamp.67 Still other luminous stones turn up onAlexander's legendaryjourney to the Land of Darkness:for example, the bdhit,6 8 the polophos,69 which shines assoon as one reaches the Fountain of Life.70 Al-ThaCalibi(961-1038) mentions, among the wonders of the churchof Edessa in Harran, candelabra (qanddil) that gave light"without needing to be lit,"7 and, though the legendaryPharos of Alexandria or the emerald column in the tem-ple of Heracles in Tyre were probably made out of glass,

Fig. 3. Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, Crown. Mosaic. Com-pleted 691-92. Octagonal arcade, inner face. (Drawing: afterKA.C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture [New York, 1979], vol.1, pt. 1, pl. 19)

they were also said to produce a magnificent light atnight.72 Some medieval Muslim traditions claim that theBlack Stone in Mecca was in fact a bright sapphire.7 3 Inany case, these examples suggest that in the Near East-ern and eastern Mediterranean region people were fas-cinated by the idea of light-giving stones. It is possiblethat these stones might have had some phosphoric ele-ments, quartz, or a strong luminous color like that of thecarbuncle and yellow amber. 74

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AVINOAM SHALEM

Another example comes from accounts of the Qulailaof Damascus, a shining object that hung in the mihrabof the Umayyad Great Mosque of Damascus until it wasstolen by the Abbasid caliph al-Amin (r. 809-13), whowas a collector of rock crystal. He replaced it with a glasslamp.7 5 What the Qulaila was made of is unclear. The ac-count of Ibn Asakir (b. 1105) mentions that it was alsoknown as a " durra," 76 but this is an ambiguous term. Al-Ghuzuli (d. 1412) informs us that some claimed that theQulaila was made out of rock crystal (baler) and othersthat it was a precious stone (jawhar), a durra.77 Thoughal-Ghuzuli is the only one to mention the term balir(rock crystal) in describing the Qulaila in the mihrab ofDamascus, al-cUmari (d. 1348) and Ibn CAsakir hint at itwhen they say that it was stolen by al-Amin (r. 809-13),the rock-crystal collector (kdna yu~bu al-balir).78 Inaddition, the Arabic word qulaila is defined by Lamm asa little vase or jug.79 If the name Qulaila hints at a jug-like form, this shining object was less likely to have beena polished gem than a lamp. The majority of earlymedieval lamps usually had the form of drinking ves-sels;8 0 as I noted elsewhere, the name, though writtenwith qafand not with haf, might be derived from the say-ing that it was shining in the mihrab every night (kul-layla)81 Since the Arabic word qulaila can also be read asqalha, it might have been derived from old Aramaic keli-lah ('L~,3 ), which refers to a polycandelon lamp.82 Theuse of an Aramaic term for an Umayyad lamp is under-standable in view of the fact that in the early Umayyadperiod Jews and Christians were often given the task ofcleaning, maintaining, making the glass, and preparingthe wicks for the hanging lamps in Muslim shrines.8 3

These arguments suggesting that the Qulaila was a lamprather than a shining gemstone, however, do notexplain why the terms durra and jawharwere associatedwith the Qulaila.

In Arabic jawhar is the general word for any preciousstone: whether the Qulaila was made out of a piece ofrock crystal or any other carved precious stone, it wasstill ajawhar. The term durra is more complicated. It wasa common medieval Arabic term for pearl,s 4 togetherwith lu>lu' and marjdn: lulu' usually meant any pearlregardless of size or form; durra meant a big pearl, andmarjdn a small one.8 5 In the Talmud, a durra (r''1) isdescribed as a precious stone found in the sea that givesoff a light as bright as the noonday sun,8 6 and probablyrefers to a pearl. The use of durra in accounts about theQulaila suggests that some traditions claimed thatQulaila was a big shining pearl. However Ibn CAsakirtells us that the durra that hung in the mihrab of the

Umayyad Great Mosque in Damascus was found by al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik in a cave under the mosque inthe hand of one of the stone statues of riders found inthe cave.8 7

Could it be that Yatima was exhibited in the GreatMosque of Damascus during the Umayyad period?Unfortunately, on the basis of the literary sources avail-able, it is impossible to say. Al-Biruni (d. 1308) says thatYatima was in the possession of the Umayyad caliphHisham ibn Abd al-Malik (723-42),88 who might havetaken it from the Dome of the Rock and presented it tohis wife. After the Abbasids came to power, it was takenfrom Hisham's wife and put in the Abbasid treasury.89 Itseems reasonable that if the Yatima was indeed takenfrom the Dome of the Rock during Hisham's reign, itwould not have been for display in Damascus but forpersonal use. Since it passed soon after to the Abbasidtreasury, it would have been hung, if at all, in the GreatMosque of Damascus around 712, that is, right after itwas brought from Spain and before it was sent toJerusa-lem. Whatever the case, some mosaics on the west wallof the portico of the Great Mosque of Damascus (dat-able to ca. 715) might echo some of the traditions con-cerning the Near Eastern practice of hanging preciousstones.9 0 Drop-like luminous objects, probably pear-shaped pearls, suspended by chains appear in the win-dows and the main entrances of some buildings (fig.4) .91

Accounts of the history of al-Yatima during the Abba-sid period are confusing because of the existence of an-other famous pearl, called al-'A;fma (the Enormous),which was deliberately associated with the legendaryYatima. The most comprehensive information aboutthese two famous pearls is given by the eleventh-century"treasury connoisseur" al-Qadi al-Rashid ibn al-Zubayrin his Kitdb al-Dhakhdair wa'l tuhaf (Book of gifts andtreasures). He writes:

As for the large pearl known as "the Orphan" (al-Yatfmah)it was called so because it has no sister or relative in theworld. During the reign of al-Rashid bi-Allh [Harun al-Rashid], Muslim ibn Abd-Allah al CIraqi, one of thosewho equip the pearl divers for their search for pearls gothold of two large pearls, one was al-Yatfmah and the otherone was inferior [to it]. He brought them before al-Rashid, sold al-Yatmah to him for seventy thousand dinarsand the small one for thirty thousand dinars. The Muslimdeparted to Uman with one hundred thousand dinars.With [this money] he built an enormous glorious house,bought agricultural land (diya) and uncultivated land.This house was well known in Uman, and some of its wallsexist to this day."2

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Fig. 4. Great Mosque, Damascus. Palace pavilion. Mosaic, ca. 715. Spandrel decoration inside west portico of the courtyard.(Photo: from Richard Ettinghausen, Arab Painting [New York, 1977], p. 27 )

Qaddumi noted that if Muslim ibn CAbd-Allah al-CIraqitold Harun al-Rashid the truth, al-Yatima first appearedduring the Abbasid period,9 3 but this seems to contra-dict the accounts of the Umayyad Yatima. Al-Qadi al-Rashid says that the famous Umayyad pearl entered theAbbasid treasury, but its name was al-CAzima and its his-tory ended soon after, during the reign of the thirdAbbasid caliph al-Mahdi (775-85):

When the rule passed to the Abbasids, the Great[unpierced] 94 Pearl (durra [al-Azfma]) of the Umayyadswas also transferred to them. People claimed that they hadnever seen [any pearl] as enormous as this one, and thatthere was nothing similar to it in radiance and whiteness.When al-Mahdi took over the caliphate, he gave it to hisslave-girl Isanah, who cut it with a lathe (kharat) into twodice (fay) for backgammon.9 5

The detailed evidence about how al-Yatima was foundand the unfortunate end of al-CAzima support the claimof the Abbasids that the Yatima was their most famous

jewel, but it is probable that during the Abbasid periodother pearls were also famous. Al-Biruni mentions al-Farid- or more probably al-Farida - for example.Still, it seems odd that the famous Umayyad pearl, what-ever its name, would disappear during the reign of al-Mahdi (775-85), and then a few years later, during thereign of Harun al-Rashid (786-809), the famous Abba-sid al-Yatima would turn up. Whether the Abbasid al-Yatima was in the fact the Umayyad Yatima is a questionwhich cannot be answered, but it may well be that theaccounts about the Azima and the Abbasid Yatima wereinvented to present al-Yatima as an Abbasidjewel and tonullify any Umayyad association with it.

Yatima became the Abbasid royal insignia. Accordingto al-Wadi al-Rashid, who quoted from the famous bookal-A wrdq of the Abbasid historian al-Suli (d. 946), it wasmounted on the crown (t1j) of al-MuCtasim (r. 833-42).9? Later, according to Ibn al-Tiqtaqa (ca. 1302), itwas said to be in the possession of al-Muqtadir (r. 908-32) 97 and, according to al-Qadi al-Rashid, of al-Muttaqi

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AVINOAM SHALEM

(r. 940-44).98 Al-Qadi al-Rashid also tells us, on the au-thority of Abu Muhammad CAbd-Allah Ahmad al-Fargh-ani, that after the death of al-Radi in 940, Abu al-HusaynBajkam al-Makani, the amfr al-umarac in Wasit, asked hisslave Takinak to bring him certain things from the cali-phal palace; among them al-Yatima was mentioned.9 9

However, Bajkam was killed in the same year, and theYatima was discovered among his possessions'0 0° ° andbrought back to the treasury of al-Muttaqi.

These accounts might explain why the pearl was notmentioned by al-Azraqi (ca. 865) as being among thetreasures of the Ka'ba. However, as Rabbat has sug-gested, somehow in the mid-tenth century, it might havereached Mecca, and later, according to Arib ibn SaCd al-Katib al-Qurtubi (d. ca. 980), it was said to be with theQarmatians in the Ihsac; they had occupied Mecca be-tween 929 and 955 and looted the KaCba's treasury.'

Though some sources refer to the Yatima after the sackof the Kacba around the mid-tenth century, it is difficultto trace its subsequent history because the sources usu-ally do not go into any detail when mentioning where orhow it reached this or the other court. The most inter-esting passage is from al-Maqqari, who says that theYatima was presented to Abd al-Rahman III al-Nasir (r.912-61) by the Byzantine emperor Leo VI, and that itwas exhibited in the Hall of the Caliphs in Madinat al-Zahra.'0 2 Unfortunately we do not know if or how theYatima might have reached the Byzantine court. DeGayangos noted that since Emperor Leo VI died in thevery same year that Abd al-Rahman acceded to thethrone, the pearl could have been brought to Cordobaby a delegation dispatched by his son Constantine VII(913-59), or even by Emperor Romanus, probablyRomanus I Lecapenus (920-44)."' Its existence in thepalace of Abd al-Rahman III is therefore questionable,although as a famous Umayyadjewel it is tempting to en-visage it in the royal palace of the Umayyad dynasty ofSpain.

The Yatima is also mentioned as being in the possessionof the Fatimids. The historian Ibn al-Tuwayr (1130-1220), who wrote about the late Fatimid and early Ayyu-bid period, tells us that the Yatima belonged to the Fati-mid caliph and was shown in public only once a year,during the New Year ceremonies. 0 4 While describingthe important insignia of sovereignty (al-aldt al-mulzikiy-ya), al-Qalqashandi (1355-1418), who also relies on IbnTuwayr - though without attribution - mentions theYatima as being mounted on the turban-like crown (tdj)

worn by the Fatimid caliph.'0 5 According to al-Maqrizi(1364-1442), the Yatima was placed in the midst of otherprecious stones, probably red rubies, arranged in theshape of a horseshoe (fir) and surrounded by greenemeralds (fig. 5). 6 This piece of jewelry calls thefamous Fatimid al-Hafir to mind; known also as alJawhar(theJewel), it too was used by the Fatimid caliphs in roy-al processions, but solely during festivals. It was madeeither out of a solid piece of ruby in the shape of a cres-cent, or out of rubies arranged in the shape of a cres-cent, and was adorned with qudub (baguettes?) of metal-lic green emeralds (zumurrud dhubdab). l0 A Fatimidjewel in the shape of a crescent survives in the rock-crys-tal piece known as the crescent of al-Zahir, now in theGermanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg (KG695, fig. 6). It is made out of two identical curved piecesfastened together."' 8

It is curious that al-Qadi al-Rashid, who knew almostevery item in the Fatimid treasury, did not associate theHafir with the Yatima. In his detailed account of theYatima, he does not even mention it among the jewels ofthe Fatimids. Al-Qadi al-Rashid wrote his book aroundthe middle of the eleventh century, and it may be thatthe Yatima reached Cairo somewhat later in the Fatimidperiod.'9

Though the Yatima disappeared around the year1000, traditions about the Orphan stone remained alivethroughout the high Middle Ages. The myth of theOrphan pearl was revived in the West around the end of

Fig. 5. Suggested reconstruction of the Fatimid al-Hafir andthe Yatima.

_I�___ ��1�1_ _ _

50


Fig. 6. Crescent of al-Zahir. Probably Egypt, 1021-36. Carvedrock crystal. Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, KG695. (Photo: courtesy Germanisches Nationalmuseum,Nuremberg)

the twelfth century. In his comprehensive discussion ofthis myth in the Latin West, Percy Ernst Schramm citednumerous Latin and late-medieval German sources re-ferring to the Orphanus, Pupilla, or die Waise, and men-tioned that it appeared for the first time in the epic of

Fig. 7. The so-called Reichskrone. Italy and Germany, datable1027-30. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Schatzkammerder Hofburg, SK XIII, 1. (Photo: courtesy KunsthistorischesMuseum, Vienna)

Herzog Ernst (1175)." Herzog Ernst associated die Waisewith the pearl mounted on the crown which had prob-ably been made for the coronation of Otto I in 962."lSome scholars have suggested that this crown might bethe one now in the Weltliche Schatzkammer in Vienna(fig. 7).112 According to the twelfth-century epic, theOrphan was mounted on the front plate, decorated withtwelve large precious stones arranged in three verticalrows. Until around 1350, the Orphan was said to be inthe upper middle row, where today a sapphire ismounted."3 However, Western traditions did not associ-ate the Orphan with a pearl, but with a large pricelessprecious stone."4 Hence, the fact that in the epic of Her-zog Ernst the Orphan and other rarities are said to havebeen brought by him from the east n5 suggests that thelegend of the Yatima reached the West at the latestaround the end of the twelfth century and that it wasmost likely transmitted by crusaders. Hence, the West-ern legend about the Orphan jewel or pearl might evenhave inspired some Spanish kings, who, in the sixteenthcentury, named the largest of the pearls among the so-

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51

AVINOAM SHALEM

called Tararequi pearls in their imperial treasury, theHuerfana or the Sola, or even was the reason behind thename La Peregrina (the incomparable or the exotic)which was given to a pearl presented to King Philip II(1527-98) around 1574.

University of EdinburghEdinburgh, Scotland

NOTES

*As quoted in Oleg Grabar, TheFormation of IslamicArt (New Haven:Yale University Press, 1973), p.102.

1. The Timur ruby is in fact a red spinel, the third largest everdiscovered (361 carats); see V.B. Meen and A.D. Tushingham,Crown Jewels of Iran (Toronto and Buffalo, 1974), pp.66-6 7;Christine Woodward and Roger Harding, Gemstones (Lon-don, 1987), p.58. Another famous jewel in the collection ofHer Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the Kfuh-i N2r (Mountain ofLight) which is mounted on the British Crown. This Indiandiamond and the Darya-i Nfir (Sea of Light) are said to havebeen taken by Nadir Shah in 1793 from India to Iran. How-ever the Kuh-i Nur found its way back to India and in 1850was presented to Queen Victoria; see Meen and Tushingham,CrownJewels of lran, p.53 ; Woodward and Harding, Gemstones,p.5 9.

2. For the accounts of the seventeenth-century French mer-chant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, see V. Ball, trans., Travels inIndia by Jean Baptiste Tavernier, 2 vols. (London, 1889). Seealso Woodward and Harding, Gemstones, p.59.

3. This piece has been discussed recently by Thea ElisabethHaevernick, "Zu einigen antiken Glisern in Kirchenschdt-zen," Trierer Zeitschrift 36 (1973): 105-11. Haevernick seems toaccept the tradition referring to Harun al-Rashid and Char-lemagne as historical evidence and, as a result, has associatedthis piece with a medieval source which tells of an emeraldbeing given by Charlemagne to an anonymous monk (ibid.,p. 109); see also Percy Ernst Schramm and Florentine Mith-erich, Denkrmile der deutschen K'nige und Kaiser (Munich,1962), p. 67. The tendency to identify precious objects inchurch treasuries of the Latin West as gifts from Harun al-Rashid might be explained by the Abbasid delegations thatLatin sources report as being received between the years 797and 813 at the Carolingian court. See mainly F.W. Buckler,Harunu'l Rashid and Charles the Great (Cambridge, Mass.,1931); Walther Bj6rkman, "Karl und der Islam," in WolfgangBraunfels, ed., Karl der Grosse, Lebenswert und Nachleben (Dis-seldorf, 1965), 1: 672-82.

4. Jules Horrent, "Chroniques espagnoles et Chansons deGeste," Le Moyen Age 53 (1947): 288-89; cited also by GeorgeT. Beech, "The Eleanor of Aquitaine Vase, William IX ofAquitaine, and Muslim Spain," Gesta 32, no. 1 (1993): 7, n. 37.

5. Beech, "Eleanor of Aquitaine Vase," p. 7.6. Abu'l CAbbas Ahmad ibn Jabir al-Baladhuri, Kitdb futiuh al-

Bulddn, trans. P.K Hitti and F.C. Murgotten, The Origin of theIslamic State, 2 vols. (New York, 1916, 1924), 2: 256-61; see alsoEncyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. s.v. "Khatam."

7. Al-Tabari, Ta'rikh al-rusul wa'l-muluk, trans. and ed., R. Ste-

phen Humphreys, TheHistory ofal-Tabari, Bibliotheca Persica,ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, vol. 15 (Albany, 1990), pp. 62 -64 . Thering was replaced by another made by cUthman, and it wasalso counterfeited by a man called Macn ibn Za'idah duringthe caliphate of cUmar; see ibid., p. 63; see also al-Baldhur,KitdbfuttlZ al-Bulddn, p.2 57.

8. This ring has recently been discussed; see Avinoam Shalem,"The Fall of al-Mada' in: Some Literary References Concern-ing Sasanian Spoils of War in Medieval Islamic Treasuries,"Iran 32 (1994): 79. The ring was described by al-Masudi in hisMeadows of Gold; for an English translation of this account,see The Meadows of Gold: The Abbasids, trans. and ed. PaulLunde and Caroline Stone (London and New York, 1989),p. 295. The stone is also mentioned by the eleventh-centuryauthor of the Book of Gifts, see al-Qddi al-Rashid Abu'l-HusaynAhmad ibn al-Zubayr, Kitdb al-Dhakhd>ir wa'l-tuhaf ed. by M.Hamid Allah (Kuwait, 1959), pp.179 -83 ; for an English trans-lation, see Ghada Hijjawi Qaddumi, "A Medieval IslamicBook of Gifts and Treasures: Translation, Annotation andCommentary on the Kitfb al-H5,dya wa-al-Tuaf', Ph.D.diss., Harvard University, 1990, pp.185-86.

9. Nasser Rabbat, "The Dome of the Rock Revisited: SomeRemarks on al-Wasiti's Accounts," Muqarnas 1O (1993): 71-73.

10. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, ed. and trans. John F. Healy(London, 1991), p. 136 .

11. For the Arabic text, see al-Birfini, Kitdb al-JamadhirfiMaCrifatal-Jawdhir (Hayderabad, 1936), p.129 ; for the English transla-tion of al-Biruni's discussion on pearls, see F. Krenkow, "TheChapter on Pearls in the Book on Precious Stones by al-Beruni," Islamic Culture 15 (1941): 399-421 and 16 (1942):21-36 (for the account of al-Yatima, see p. 25); al-Biruni's ac-count of the Yatima was also discussed by Eilhard Wiede-mann, "Uber den Wert von Edelsteinen bei den Muslimen,"Derlslam 2 (1911): 349.

12. Al-Biruni, Kitdb al-Jamahir, p.129 ; Krenkow, "The Chapter onPearls," p.25. The use of the masculine form al-Farid for apearl is unlikely and is probably a copyist's error. In anotherpassage in the same chapter, al-Biruni uses the feminine formwhen referring to the pearl. He mentions the Yatima and theFarida as two pearls that have no sisters, as opposed to theTaw'amiyya (Twins), a pair of identical pearls (see al-Birni,Kitdb al-Jawdhir, p.109; Krenkow, "The Chapter on Pearls,"p.407).

13. Al-Biruni, Kitdb al-Jamdhir, p. 109 ; Krenkow, "The Chapter onPearls," p.407.

14. Wiedemann, "Uber den Wert von Edelsteinen," p. 350.15. Ibid., 349; al-Birfini, Kitdb al-Jamahir, p.129.16. Ibid.17. Cited by Eilhard Wiedemann, "Bemerkungen fiber einzelne

Edelsteine, Mineralien, Mineralvorkommen," in Beitrdge zuGeschichte der Naturwissenschaften XXX. Zur Mineralogie imIslam, Sitzungsberichte der Physikalisch-medizinischen Sozietdt inErlangen 44 (1912): 237.

18. Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. "Pearl" (repr. Chicago, 1992);this huge pearl is probably the so-called Hope pearl, whichweighs 1,800 grains and which appeared in the catalogue ofthe Hope Collection in 1837; see George Frederick Kunz andCharles Stevenson, The Book of the Pearl (London, 1908),p. 463 (with a drawing of this pearl).

19. For the different medieval Arabic terms for pearls of variousforms, see M. Mokri, "La peche des perles dans le Golfe per-

�I-_

52


sique," JournalAsiatique 248 (1960): 381-97, especially p.39 1.20. In the early Roman period the two largest uniones pearls in

the world were owned by Cleopatra who inherited them fromthe kings of the East. One of the pair was mounted on each ofa set of earrings. Unfortunately one of them was dissolved invinegar during a banquet she held in honor of Mark Antony.Tradition tells us that the other one was cut in half when Cle-opatra was captured, and that later each half adorned theears of the statue of Venus in the Pantheon at Rome. For thisaccount, see Pliny the Elder, NaturalHistory, pp. 136-37; for ageneral discussion of famous pearls in antiquity see mainlyLouis Kornitzer, Pearls and Men (London, 1935), pp. 200-9;Kunz and Stevenson, The Book of the Pearl, especiallypp. 449-50.

21. Al-Maqqari, Nafh al-tfb mn ghusn al-Andalus al-ratfb, ed.Muhammad Muhyi al-Din Abd al-Hamid (Cairo, 1949), 1:132; for the English translation, see D.P. de Gayangos, TheHistory of Muhammadan Dynasties in Spain, a version adaptedfrom the Nafh al-tzb of al-Maqqari (London, 1840), 1: 25 (deGayangos translates it as the pearl necklace).

22. The thirteenth-century Maghribi historian Ibn CIdhari men-tions that the ruby (ydqut) of Alexander the Great was amongthe booty from Merida. See Ibn cIdhari, Kitdb al-Baydn al-mughrib, G.S. Colin and . Lvi-Provencal, eds., after the1848-51 edition of R. Dozy, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1951), 2: 17.

23. Al-Maqqari, Nafh al-tfb, p.13 2 ; see also de Gayangos, History ofMuhammadan Dynasties, pp. 286-87, and 292-94 (when Musaibn Nusayr came to Damascus he was accused of concealing ajewel "more valuable than any that a king ever possessedsince the conquest of Persia").

24. Procopius, History of the Wars, book 1:4, trans. H.B. Dewing,Loeb Classical Library, 6 vols. (London, 1914), 1: 21-31(where the Persian tradition concerning the finding of thispearl in the Persian Gulf is also mentioned); this account ofProcopius was cited by Kunz and Stevenson, The Book of thePearl, p.450.

25. Shaykh Ali Hazin, The Treatise on the Nature of Pearls, trans.and ed. S. Khan Khatak and 0. Spies (Walldorf-Hessen,1954), p.1 6.

26. A Sasanian origin for the Yatima has been suggested by Lars-Ivar Ringbom, who even associates it with the legendary Sasa-nian cosmic pearl called Gohar, but there is no historical evi-dence to support the idea, it is pure speculation. See Lars-Ivar Ringbom, Graltempel und Paradies: Beziehungen zwischenIran und Europa in Mittelalter (Stockholm, 1951), pp.48 2-513,especially p. 48 8 .

27. See mainly Roger Collins, Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diver-sity, 400-1000 (London and Basingstoke, 1983), pp. 8 8 -1 0 5 .

28. Martin Almagro Basch, Merida: guia de la ciudady de sus monu-mentos (Merida, 1957), pp. 1 6 4 -7 0 .

29. Collins, Early Medieval Spain, pp. 99-100.30. H.J. Thomson, ed. and trans., Prudentius, Loeb Classical

Library, 2 vols. (London and Cambridge, Mass., 1949-53), 2:142-57.

31. Ibid., pp. 152-53.32. Joseph N. Garvin, "The Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensium,"

Ph.D. diss., The Catholic University of America, Washington,D.C., 1946, especially pp. 223, 247.

33. Ibid., p. 2 47.34. Pliny the Elder, NaturalHistory, p.135.35. See Julius Ruska, Das Steinbuch des Aristoteles (Heidelberg,

1912), especially pp.130-3 3. See also M. Clement-Mullet,"Sur la mineralogie arabe."JournalAsiatique, 6 ser., 11 (1868):16-30, especially p. 2 2 .

36. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, pp. 96-98 (the Arabic text), fora German translation, see ibid., pp. 130-33; see also Clement-Mullet, "Sur la mineralogie," pp. 2 2-23.

37. See mainly Kunz and Stevenson, Book of the Pearl, pp. 3-12;Ringbom, Graltempel und Paradies, pp.482-92 (mainly forZoroastrian traditions); Mircea Eliade, Images and Symbols(London, 1961), pp. 125-50, especially pp. 144-50.

38. Krenkow, "The Chapter on Pearls," p. 21.39. Ibid., p. 2 2 .40. Ibid., p. 24 .41. Ibid., p. 404.42. Ibid., pp. 23-24.43. Ibid., p.404.44. Hazin, Treatise on the Nature of Pearls, p.16.45. Krenkow, "Chapter on Pearls,", pp. 413-15.46. James Montague Rhodes, The Apocryphal New Testament (Ox-

ford, 1924), pp.4 1 1 -1 5 (Acts of Thomas, pp.108-13); see alsoTh. N61deke, "Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles Edited fromSyriac Manuscripts in the British Museum and Other Librar-ies by W. Wright, vol. 1, The Syriac Texts (London, 1871),"Zeitschrift derDeutschen Morgenldindischen Gesellschaft 25 (1871):670-79, especially p. 677.

47. A.FJ. Klijn, The Acts of Thomas (Leiden, 1962), pp.274-81,especially p. 279; see also Felix Haase, "Untersuchungen zurbardesanischen Gnosis," in Texte und Untersuchungen zur Ges-chichte der altchristlichen Literatur 34, 4 (1910): 50-67.

48. Montague Rhodes, Apocryphal New Testament, pp.411-12.49. See the discussion of Klijn, Acts of Thomas, pp. 276-81 (with

extensive literature). For the meaning of the pearl, see alsoHaase, "Zur Bardesanischen Gnosis," pp.62-63; AndrewPalmer, "The Merchant of Nisbis, Saint Ephrem and HisFaithful Quest for Union in Numbers," inJ. den Boeft and A.Hilhorst, eds., Early Christian Poetry: A Collection of Essays (Lei-den, 1993), pp. 1 67 -2 3 3 (especially the extensive literatureon the meaning of pearls on p. 23 3 ).

50. For this ivory diptych, see mainly Kurt Weitzmann, ed., Age ofSpirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to SeventhCentury, exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum of Art(New York, 1979), cat. no. 474; Spditantike undfriihes Christen-tum, exhibition catalogue in the Liebieghaus Museum alterPlastik in Frankfurt a.M. (Frankfurt a.M., 1983), cat. no. 272;Arne Effenberger and Hans Georg Severin, Das Museum fiurSpdtantike und Byzantische Kunst (Berlin, 1992), cat. no.53(with extensive literature).

51. See, for examples, the dyptich of the muse and the poet fromMonza, or that of Diana and Endymion; both in Brecia(Museo Christiano).

52. Weitzmann, Age of Spirituality, cat. no.529.53. Ibid., for the general meaning and symbolism of the shell,

see Mircea Eliade, Images and Symbols (London, 1961),pp. 125-44.

54. For a discussion, see H. Buschhausen, "Die frilhchristlichenfigirlichen Reliquiare," Wiener byzantinische Studien 9 (1971),cat. no.B.25, pp.257-59; Jean Lassus, "Une image de SaintSym6on le Jenne sur un fragment de reliquaire syrien duMusee du Louvre," Fondation Eugene Piot, Monuments etMemoires 51 (1960): 129-48; Gary Vikan, "Icons and Icon Pietyin Early Byzantium," in C. Moss and K. Kiefer, eds., Byzantine

53

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AVINOAM SHALEM

East, Latin West, Art Historical Studies in Honor of Kurt Weitz-mann (Princeton, N.J., 1995), pp. 56 9 -7 8 .

55. Montague Rhodes, Apocryphal New Testament, p.413 .56. A similar tradition concerning a unique pearl appears in the

doctrine of the Christian heretic movement of Mani; seeHaase, "Zur Bardesanischen Gnosis," p.56. On medievalManichee, see mainly Steven Runciman, The Medieval Mani-chee (rpt. Cambridge, 1991).

57. Some medieval traditions say that a unique stone, which wassaid to have been guarded by the mighty serpent ( "quem vehe-mentior vipera custodit"), was mounted on the crown of Theo-derich, king of the Ostrogoths (454-526). Cited by PercyErnst Schramm, Herrschaftszeichen und Staatssymbolik, Schrif-ten der Monumenta Germaniae Historica (Stuttgart, 1956),3: 807, n. 3.

58. Rabbat, "Dome of the Rock Revisited," especially pp. 71-72;this piece of evidence supports the speculation that theYatima was acquired as war booty. See also Oleg Grabar, "TheUmayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem," Ars Orientalis 3(1959): 50-52; Amikam Elad, MedievalJerusalem and IslamicWorship: Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage (Leiden, 1955),p.52, n. 5; Richard Ettinghausen, From Byzantium to SasanianIran and the Islamic World (Leiden, 1972), pp. 28-29. For thehanging crown of Khusraw, probably Khusraw II (591-628),see A. Shalem, "The Fall of al-Mada'in," Iran 32 (1994), p. 7 8 .

59. Rabbat, "Dome of the Rock Revisited," p. 7 2. A crown withhanging pearls is also depicted over the main altar of the Tab-ernacle in the famous scene of the Traditio Legis on MountSinai and the Tabernacle of the sixth- or seventh-centuryAsburnham Pentateuch (Paris, Bibliothhque Nationale, MS.nouv. acq. lat. 2334, fol. 76r).

60. Ibid., p. 7 1.61. Ibid., the large red jewel is mentioned byYaqut (1179-1229);

it was set in the letter q which formed part of the word al-maqabir (the graves) from Qur'an 102: 2 (cited by Guy LeStrange, Palestine under the Moslems [London, 1890], p. 262).

62. Cited by Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, pp. 162-63.63. Cited by Yehoshua Brand, Kele Zekhukhit be-sifrut ha-Talmud

[Glass Vessels in the Talmud Literature] Jerusalem, 1978),p. 3 5 , n. 11.

64. Cited by C.W. King, Antique Gems: Their Origin, Uses and Value(London, 1860), p. 2 6 .

65. Ibid.66. Pliny, NaturalHistory, p.37 2.67. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p.8.68. Ibid., pp.11-13.69. Ibid., p. 2 0.70. "[Alexander] gave him [Khizr] a jewel, which, within the

(dark) cave (the Dark Land) //Would become luminous forwater-proving." See Abu Muhammad Ilyas ibn Yusuf Nizamal-Din, The SikandarNama, e Bara or Book of Alexander the Great,trans. H. Wilberforce Clarke (London, 1881), p.8 0 0 (canto69:12) .Other precious stones, which "shone at night withoutthe aid of light and sparkled like stars," decorated the leg-endary palace of Darius which was discovered by Alexanderthe Great; see Israel J. Kazis, The Book of Gests of Alexander ofMacedon (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), p. 1 11 (Hebrew andEnglish translation).

71. Al-ThaCalibl, Lataif al-macarif ed. Ibrahim al-Abyari andHasan Kamil al-Sayrafi (Cairo, 1960), p.158; for the Englishtranslation, see The Lata'if al-macnif of ThaC'libT, trans. C.E.

Bosworth (Edinburgh, 1968), p. 119.72. For the Pharos, see mainly Hermann Thiersch, Pharos: Antike

Islam und Occident (Leipzig and Berlin, 1909); the legendaryemerald column is mentioned by Herodotus (484-406? B.c.),cited by Brand, Glass Vessels, p.34. See also SiegfriedLoeschke, "Antike Laternen und Lichthduschen," BonnerJahrbiicher 11l8 (1909): 370-430.

73. Uri Rubin, "The Kacba: Aspects of Its Ritual Functions andPosition in Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic Times," JerusalemStudies in Arabic and Islam 8 (1986): 122.

74. Yellow amber (kahrubaD should not be confused with amber-gris (anbar). For yellow amber, see E, 2nd ed., s.v. "kah-rub".

75. Ibn-Asdkir, Tdrikh madinatDimashq wa dhikrfadlihd wa- tasmi-yat man hallaht min al-amdthil aw ijtdza bi-nawdhihd min wdri-diha wa-Alahd, ed. SalSh al-Din al-Munajjid (Damascus, 1954,2: 45-46; al-Ghuzfifi, Matilic al-budftr fi mandzil al-surur(Cairo, 1882-83), 2: 284; al-cUmarl, Masdlik al-abSarfi mamd-lik al-amsdr, ed. Abmad Zaki Pasha (Cairo, 1924), 1: 193-94.

76. Ibn-Asdkir, Tdrikh madinatDimashq, 2: 45; see also Nikita Elis-seeff, La description de Damas d'Ibn Asdkir (Damascus, 1959),pp. 66-69.

77. Al-Ghuzfill, Matlic' al-budsir, 2: 284.78. Al-'Umari, Masdlik al-absdr, 1: 194; Ibn-CAsdkir, Tnrikh madinat

Dimashq, p. 45.79. Carl Johan Lamm, Mittelalterliche Gliiserund Steinschnittarbeiten

aus dem Nahen Osten (Berlin, 1929-30), 1: 513. Lamm proba-bly relied on Dozy's explanation for this term; Dozy renderedit as petite cruche, see R Dozy, Supplement aux dictionnaires arabe(Leiden-Paris, 1927), 2: 387.

80. On the forms of early Near Eastern lamps, see mainly G.M.Crowfoot and D.B. Harden, "Early Byzantine and Later GlassLamps,"Journal of Egptian Archaeology 17 (1931): 196-208, pls.28-30; Cornelius Steckner, "Pharokanthoaroi und Kylikeia,Dionysische Lichtgefasse in architektonischen Kontext,"Annales du Ile Congris de l'Association Internationale pour l'His-toire du Verre (Basel, 1988), pp. 2 5 7 -7 0 (I would like to expressmy thanks to Dr.Jens Kr6ger of the Islamic Museum of Berlinwho called my attention to this article). See also my discus-sion of the Qulaila and the unique form of medieval Islamiclamps in "Fountains of Light: The Meaning of MedievalIslamic Rock Crystal Lamps," Muqarnas 11 (1994): 1-11, espe-cially p. 2.

81. Shalem, "Fountains of Light," n. 8.82. It seems unlikely that Qulaila was a polycandelon lamp, first,

because there are no literary sources describing it as such,and second, because its light is compared to the light of asiraj, a small portable lamp. For the old Aramaic term kelilah,see Rachel Hachili, AncientJewish Art and Archaeology in theLand of srael (Leiden, 1988), p. 2 68 and fig. 20 (this is an illus-tration of the polycandelon lamp from Kefar Hananiya onwhich.the Aramaic term Kelilah is inscribed).

83. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, p.149; Amikam Elad,MedievalJerusalem and Islamic Worship (Leiden, 1995), p. 51.

84. Al-Biruni, Kitdb al-Jamadhir, p.1 0 7.85. Krenkow, "The Chapter on Pearls," p.403; see also Clement-

Mullet, "Sur la mineralogie arabe," pp. 16-17; for other latemedieval Arabic and Persian terms for pearls, see Mokri, "Lapiche des perles," pp. 391-93. The word pearl itself probablyderives from the Latin pirula which hints at the pear (pirum)shape of some pearls. The Greek name for pearl, margarites,

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might derive from Sanskrit maracata or Persian merwdrid; inHebrew margalit.

86. Megillah, 12:1: "Samuel says: there is a precious stone in theseaports called darah. He put it in the midst of the guests, andit lit up the place as at midday [sahara]." For an English trans-lation, see Isidore Epstein, The Babylonian Talmud, SederMo'ed(London, 1938), p.6 9 (Megillah is translated by MauriceSimon); also cited by Brand, Glass Vessels, p. 3 5, n.11.

87. Ibn CAsakir, Tdnrkh madinatDimashq, p. 4 6.88. Cited by Rabbat, "Dome of the Rock Revisited," pp. 71-72.89. Ibid.90. For these mosaics, see mainly Marguerite Gauthier-van Ber-

chem, "The Mosaics of the Great Mosque of the Umayyads inDamascus," in KA C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture (rpt.New York, 1979), 1: 321-72; Barbara Finster, "Die Mosaikender Umayyadenmoschee von Damaskus," Kunst des Orients 7(1970-71): 83-144; Reinhard F6rtsch, "Die Architekturdar-stellungen der Umaiyadenmoschee von Damaskus und dieRolle ihrer antiken Vorbilder," Damaszener Mitteilungen 7(1993): 177-212, pls. 39-50 (with extensive literature).

91. Hanging precious stones, including pearls, decorate the nowlost fantastic architectural structure called the "Escrain deCharlemagne" attributed to the period of Charles the Bald(823-77). See Le Trisor de Saint-Denis, Musee du Louvre, exhi-bition catalogue (Paris, 1991), pp.92-99, cat. no.13 (withextensive literature).

92. Al-QadI al-Rashid, Dhakhdir wa'l-tuaf, p.17 7 , caption 24.For the English translation, see Qaddumi, Book of Gifts andTreasures, pp.182-83. This information is also given by al-Dimashqi (d. 1327); see Wiedemann, "Uber den Wert vonEdelsteinen," p. 364.

93. Ibid., p. 348 , n. 1 (where the account of al-Jahiz [b. 776] is alsocited; he claims that al-Yatima weighs three mithqdls [ca. 13grams] and that it was found in the Qulzum (Red Sea).

94. The idea of rendering al-'Agfma as "Enormous" or "GreatPearl" or as "Unpierced One" seems unlikely because al-Biruni refers to pierced pearls as mathdqib, pl. form of math-qzib, which means pierced, and unpierced ones as ghayr math-qub. See al-Birfni, Kitdb al-famdhir, pp. 132, 137.

95. Al-Qddi al-Rashid, Dhakhd>ir wa'l-tubaf p.17 4, caption 218;for the English translation see Qaddumi, "Book of Gifts andTreasures," p.180. In my article the Qulaila was mistakenly as-sociated with al-cAzima, see "Fountains of Light," p. 9, n. 11.

96. AI-Qad al-Rashid, Dhakhdair wa'l-tuhaf p. 129, caption 160.97. Ibn al-Tiqtaqa, al-Fakhri, trans. C.E.J. Whitting (London,

1947), p.2 5 5 .98. Al-Qddi al-Rashid, Dhakhdir wa'l-tuaf, p.1 8 9 , caption 244.99. Ibid.

100. Ibid., caption 333.101. For accounts of the Yatima and the treasury of the KaCba, see

Rabbat, "Dome of the Rock Revisited," p.72. See also theresume of the annals of al-Tabari written by CAnrb ibn Sacd al-Katib al-Qurtubi (d. ca. 980), who says that the Yatima wastaken from the treasury of the Ka'ba by the Qarmatians,CArib, Tabarf Continuaius, ed. M.J. de Goeje (Leiden, 1897),p.136.

102. De Gayangos, Mohammedan Dynasties, 1: 236.103. The close ties between cAbd al-Rahman III and the Byzantine

court were a result of their common interest in weakeningthe power of the Abbasids. But a link between the Byzantines,the Umayyads of Spain, and -the Qarmatians, and the possible

passage of al-Yatima from the hands of the Qarmatians toUmayyad Spain via Constantinople seem unlikely.

104. A source not available to me, cited by Paula Sanders, "TheCourt Ceremonial of the Fatimid Caliphs in Egypt," Ph.D.diss., Princeton University, 1984, p. 1 5 1 .

105. Al-Qalqashandi, Subh al-Acshd (Cairo, 1914-28), 3: 468. Onthe Fatimid crown, see also Marius Canard, "Le ceremonialfatimite et le cremonial byzantin," Byzantion 21 (1952):390-92.

106. My suggested drawing of this piece ofjewelry is based on theaccount of al-Maqrizi, Kitdb al-mawdiz wa 'l-itibdrfi dhikr al-khitat wa'l-athdr (Bulaq ed., rept. Beirut, ca. 1970), 1: 448, andsimilar decorative insignia which frequently appear on Sasa-nian crowns; see Kurt Erdmann, "Die Entwicklung der sasa-nidischen Krone," Ars Islamica 15-16 (1951): 87-123.

107. For this jewel, see al-Maqrizi, Khitat, 1: 414; see also PaulKahle, "Die Schdtze der Fatimiden," Zeitschrift der DeutschenMorgenldndischen Gesellschaft 89 (1935): 338, especially n.3.This famous jewel was probably given in 1197 to William II ofSicily; see Kahle, "Schttze der Fatimiden," pp. 338-39, n. 3. Itwas found by Saladin who seized the treasury of the last Fati-mid caliph al-cAdid (probably in 1171); see Ibn Tiqtaqa, al-Fakhr, p. 2 5 9 .

108. For the crescent of al-Zahir, seeJ. von Karabacek, "Zur orien-talischen Altertumskunde, IV: Muhammedanische Kunst-studien," Sitzungsberichte derPhilosophisch-historischen Klasse derKaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien 172 (1913):5-10 (Karabacek, who dismantled this reliquary, pointed outthat it is made of two rock-crystal pieces); C.J. Lamm, Mittelal-terliche Gliser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem Nahen Osten, 2vols. (Berlin, 1929-30), 1: 213; 2, pl. 7 5, p. 21; H.R. Hahnloser,"Ein arabischer Kristall in venezianischer Fassung aus derwiener Geistlichen Schatzkammer," Festschrift KarlM. Swobodazum 28Januar 1959, ed. O. Benech et al. (Vienna and Wies-baden, 1959), pp. 133-40; R.W. Lightbown, "An Islamic Crys-tal Mounted as a Pendant in the West," Victoria and AlbertMuseum Bulletin 4 (1968), figs. 6, 7; Richard Ettinghausen andOleg Grabar, The Art and Architecture of Islam 650-1250 (Har-mondsworth, 1987), fig. 178.

109. Some historical evidence mentions that around 950 the Qar-matians had some unsuccessful negotiations with the Fati-mids concerning the selling of the Black Stone looted bythem from the Kaba. But whether the Yatima was also of-fered is unknown. See El, 2nd ed., s.v. "Karmat."

110. Percy Ernst Schramm, Herrschaftszeichen und Staatssymbolik,Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Historica, 13 vols.(Stuttgart, 1956), 3: 803-16.

111. For this crown, see Schramm, Herrschaftszeichen, 2: 560-637. Iwould like to thank Dr. Viktoria Meinecke-Berg who calledmy attention to this crown.

112. This crown has recently been attributed to Conrad II (1024-39); for a discussion about it and for the extensive literature,see Das Reich der Salier; 1024-1125, exhibition catalogue, His-torisches Museum der Pfalz in Speyer (Sigmaringen, 1992),pp.242-43 (pl. in p.241). See also Chiara Maggioni, "Uncapolavoro dell'oreficeria ottoniana milanese: la Pace diChiavenna," Arte Lombarda 116 (1996): 8-18.

113. Schramm, Herrschaftszeichen, 2: 610.114. According to Albertus Magnus (1206-80) the "Orphanus" on

the crown of the Roman emperor "is of a subtle vinous tinge,and its hue is as though pure white snow flashed and sparkled

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AVINOAM SHALEM

with the color of bright ruddy wine, and was overcome by thisradiance. It is a translucent stone, and there is a tradition thatformerly it shone in the night-time; but now, in our age, itdoes not sparkle in the dark." For this translation, see GeorgeFrederick Kunz, The Curious Lore of Precious Stones (Philadel-phia and London, 1913), pp. 14 6 - 4 7. According to pseudo-Macarius the pearl on the royal diadem symbolized the Sav-ior and ensured that the king who possessed it would live andreign with Christ forever: "The Pearl, great, precious and roy-al, belonging to the royal diadem, is appropriate only to theking. The king alone may wear this pearl. No one else is

allowed to wear a pearl like it. Thus, a man who is not born ofthe royal and divine spirit, and is not one of the sons ofGod - of whom it is written that: 'as many as received him, tothem gave he power to become the sons of God' - cannotwear the precious, heavenly pearl, image of the ineffablelight which is the Saviour. For he has not become a son of theking. Those who wear and possess the pearl will live and reignwith the Christ for all eternity" (see Eliade, Images and Sym-bols, pp. 148-49).

115. Schramm, Herrschaftszeichen, 2: 609; 3: 805-6.116. Kunz and Stevenson, Book of the Pearl, pp. 451-52.

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jewels and journeys: the case of the medieval …

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