Lenander - Seal Ring with the name of Hajji Muhammad ibn Mahmud

Lenander - Seal Ring with the name of Hajji Muhammad ibn Mahmud

A Silver and Lapis-Lazuli seal ring. Seal rings or signet rings are rings engraved with text in reverse that were used to stamp text into seals like a signature and may have also "functioned as talismans used to protect their owners from harm" (The MET). This particular ring is inscribed with the name Hajji Muhammad ibn Mahmud and features elaborate designs around the shank and bezel of the ring. Rings similar to this item were worn by men depicted in many fifteenth and sixteenth Persian miniature paintings, with this particular ring described as a "striking materialization" of the images of the rings found in said paintings (The MET).

Unknown

N/A

16th century

Silver shank and Lapis-Lazuli carved stone ring

Not specified (likely Arabic or Persian). The museum catalogue identifies that his ring is similar in style and period to another seal ring which contains inscriptions in both Arabic and Persian but does not identify the language of the seal stone inscription for this item.

Central Asia or Iran