A SILVER-INLAID BRASS REPLICA OF THE KAABA KEY
Possibly Egypt or Hijaz, Ottoman Provinces, dated 1294 AH (1877 AD)

A SILVER-INLAID BRASS REPLICA OF THE KAABA KEY
Possibly Egypt or Hijaz, Ottoman Provinces, dated 1294 AH (1877 AD)

Of typical shape, with a crescent-like handle at the top, a bulbous and ringed stem and a flat rectangular key lock plate in the centre, and a circular terminal with four triangular sections at the end, the whole key covered in dense silver-inlaid epigraphic inscriptions in a variety of scripts from thuluth to plain naskh and decorative bands, the upper edge of the lock plate engraved with the date 1294, 43.5cm long.

Inscriptions:

On the handle: Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith

On the diamond-shaped and rectangular sections of the stem: invocations to Allah (bismillah) and the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs (Rashidun)

On the sides of the key lock plate: Sura al-Fath (48)

On the edges of the key lock plate: The Work of Al-Rajji Furiya (?) - Commissioned by the Great Khaqan Ahmad Khan - With the Blessing and Supervision of the Mullah al-Qattah (?)

The shape, design, and epigraphic content of our key are not dissimilar to the 15th-century Kaaba (Ka'ba) key bearing the name of the Mamluk Sultan al-Malik al-Nasir Faraj Ibn Barquq (r. 1399 - 1412), part of the Louvre Museum collection (inv. no. OA 6738, https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010329447). The key presents an extensive gold and silver-damascened epigraphic program, executed mostly in naskh script and quoting sections of the Sura of Victory (48, Al-Fath).

It is believed that after the conquest of Mecca in 629 - 630, the Prophet Muhammad appointed the Arab tribe of the Bani Shaiba as the official key-bearers and caretakers of the most important building in Islam, Kaaba. According to scholarship, several Kaaba keys were produced throughout the centuries, due to the need of replacing older examples, which got damaged and worn with time. So far, 59 Kaaba keys have been recorded. 54 of them are held in the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul; two were part of the Nuhad Es-Said Collection (now in the Islamic Museum of Art, Doha, Qatar); one is in the Louvre in Paris; the last one is in the Islamic Art Museum in Cairo. It is plausible to suggest that not all Kaaba keys produced were eventually used as the official keys by the Bani Shaiba tribe. Replicas could have been produced as souvenirs and special honorific gifts, as it is likely to be the case of our lot.

(Quantity:1)

Dimensions: 43.5cm long