123.5 x 17cm

The band is decorated with a series of octagons, filled with a lozenge enclosing a four-pointed star and separated by angular cartouches with an inscription, al-‘afiyah (‘good health’) in stylised Kufic. The panel at the top, which may have been sewn on later, bears a pseudo-inscription in naskh, some lines inverted and some the wrong way around. The addition of devices drawn from contemporary Qur’an illumination may suggest that its purpose was talismanic.

J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.248, p.205.