Marble Plate: Neamah with inlay

This hand-tooled marble dish was made in India exclusively for GMCC. The top is inlaid with agate / ratek stone, with the Arabic inspription: Alhamdulilah a’la kul ne’ameh – God be praised for all his blessings. Inspirational object: LNS 1089 C is a porcelain dish, with red enamel decoration. From China (Jingdezhen, Zhengde mark and period); 1506 – 21.

The dish is one of an extremely rare group of only three known Chinese porcelain decorated in red overglaze enamel with pious inscriptions in Arabic.

The inscription in the central roundel reads ‘Allah be praised for all His blessings’ within ‘the truely thankful never sin against the Lord even when affluent’ and the hadith on the reverse ‘The Messenger of God (may His peace be upon him) said: ‘The body achieves repose by eating little. The tongue achieves repose by detachment from care. The soul achieves repose by sinning less.’

This appears to be the only dish of this type with a hadith (saying of the prophet) inscribed in Arabic on the reverse.