Images of Daēnā and Mithra on Two Seals from the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, Studia Iranica 44, 2015, pp. 97-117 (original) (raw)

An Introduction to Persian Seals: Special Reference to Devotional Seals from an Eighteenth-Century Manuscript

Al-Shajarah, Journal of the International Institute of Islamic Thought & Civilization, 2022

This article provides an overview of formation and transformation of Persian seals in the course of about 6000 years, with a focus on a group of seals, devotional in nature, from an interesting eighteenth-century Persian manuscript preserved at the Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas’ (SMNA) Library, ISTAC-IIUM. The paper is divided in four main sections. First, “Pre-Islamic Persian Seals,” which provides a concise account of the variety of ancient seals from Iran’s historical sites. Second, “The First Seal of the Islamic World,” which is an introduction to the origination of using seals in the Islamic world that goes back to the early years of Islam, when Prophet Muhammad used his personal seal to authenticate the official letters that were prepared on his behalf. Third, “Persian Seals of the Islamic Era,” which is an overview of the seals in Persian language that became widespread after the advent of Islam. And fourth, “Collection of Seals in Nami’s Manuscript,” which is a detailed assessment of forty-three seal impressions from seven seals in a single manuscript. The inscriptions on the seals are devotional in nature, which is a departure from the traditional function of manuscript seals. Keywords: Leyli va Majnun, Khosrow va Shirin, Nami Isfahani, Ali, Persian seals, Qajar manuscript.

Righteousness is Good. A New Interpretation of the Seal from Yarim Tepe in the Daregaz Plain, Khorasan, Iran

Iran and the Caucasus, 2024

This paper discusses a Sasanian sealstone discovered in 2014 at the archaeological site of Yarim Tepe in Khorasan, northeastern Iran. Although a surface find, the fact that this sealstone is provenanced is significant because this sets it apart from thousands of unprovenanced Sasanian sealstones which, coming from the antiquities market, are held in museums and private collections around the globe. The seal shows a bust in profile and an inscription that arcs above the bust from shoulder to shoulder. Through a stylistic analysis, we date the seal to the 3rd-4th century ce. The article offers a new reading and interpretation of the inscription and argues that the image shows a conventional portrait rather than a specific individual.

Two Seal Impressions from Kāfer Qalʿa (Samarkand) and the Representations of Iranian Divinities*

Among the seal impressions found at the late Sogdian/early Islamic site of Kāfer Qalʿa, a few kilometers south of Samarkand, certain ones deserve special attention due to the divinities which embellish them. Two of these seal impressions are studied in detail in the present paper, within the framework of Zoroastrian religion and iconography. Some hypotheses on the utility of Kāfer Qalʿa as an important Sogdian administrative center during Late Antiquity are presented as well.

"Emblems of Authority: The Seals and Sealings from Hasanlu, Iran," Expedition 31 (1989)

In the ancient Near East, small stamps and cylinders with carved or molded designs were used as emblems of status or author ity. Their impressions on lumps of clay, called sealings, served to indicate ownership or rights over goods, and to control access to containers or storerooms. While seals and sealings have long held an artistic interest because of their designs, more recent studies have also begun to recognize the value of such artifacts as a means of recon structing aspects of economy and society. Most of the seals in museums and private collections today have been purchased and are without an ar chaeological provenience. Isolated from their cultural context, such artifacts are of limited value, even for traditional studies of style. The 9th century Citadel of Hasanlu affords an unusual opportunity to study a corpus of seals and sealings with controlled stratigraphic con texts, which provide them with a precise archaeological and cultural setting.

Three Cylinder Seals of Ancient Iran

Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society, 1977

The great works of ancient art in Ncar Eastern or European collections arc known to most students from photographs. Cylinder seals , however, engraved in intaglio and intended to be rolled out on clay tablets, jar stoppers, or the like become known through their impressions in which the seal design appears in relief. The contact with the work of art is therefore immediate and the effect on the viewer a lasting one. Owing to the generosity of Mossene Foroughi , it was possible to make impressions of his cylinder seal collection in Teheran, to deposit these impressions for study at the Pierpont Morgan Library , and to use them there in seminars on the art of seal engraving-glyptie art-of ancient Iran. The following article was written by four of the participants in one of these seminars.-Edith Porada 65 SEAL No.2 SEAl. No.3

Observations on the Typology and Style of Seals and Sealings from Bactria and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, in Coins, Art and Chronology II. The First Millennium CE in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, eds., M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, et al. (Vienna: ÖAW, 2010): 245-266.

intrOduCtiOn: POrtrAiture And the heLLeniStiC LegACy this discussion of the typology and style of the seals and sealings attributed to Bactria (present-day northwest Afghanistan) and regions south and east of the hindu Kush into gandhāra (present-day northeast Afghanistan and Pakistan), and spanning the 4 th to 8 th centuries, opens with two observations: the images that form this sizable glyptic corpus are predominantly portraits, making them a significant characteristic of Bactrian glyptic art; and the typology and style of these portraits offer not only chronological markers for the history of this art, but provide insight into the culture that produced them. thus, a type of feature, such as hair or headdress, and the style or means in which it is depicted, when combined with other types and styles of features, can signify the identity and status of the person depicted, in addition to indicating the date of the seal itself. 1 the portraits on the seals are not true portraits, which are meant to convey individual likeness or evoke the presence of specific individuals, but are more generalized human images (although several are individuated or at least capture specific physiognomic types). Because these "portrait" seals are so numerous they are the focus of this paper.