Oil lamp, brass inlaid with silver

Western Iran or eastern Turkey; 1470s

H: 122; Diam: c. 40 cm

Inventory number 45/1999

This monumental oil lamp consists of two parts, the lower a traditional candlestick and the upper a shaft with a bowl for oil. It must be considered one of the last masterpieces in the inlaying tradition.

The splendidly calligraphed Thuluth inscription shows that the lamp was ordered by or for the leader of the Aq Qoyunlu Turkmen, Uzun Hasan, who ruled eastern Anatolia, Iraq, and large parts of Iran in around 1470. It was presumably intended to be placed in the mausoleum of the Sufi sheikh Haci Bayram Veli in Ankara, but this was prevented by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, who defeated Uzun Hasan soundly at Tercan in eastern Anatolia in 1473.

Published in

Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Persian Art at the Royal Academy of Arts, 3. ed., Royal Academy of Arts, London 1931, cat. 261;
Phyllis Ackerman: Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art, 2. ed., New York 1940, p. 81, cat. 42;
Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman (ed.): A Survey of Persian Art. From Prehistoric Times to the Present, London 1938-39, pl. 1374;
Dalu Jones: “The heritage of Islam,” Apollo, 115:244, 1982, fig. 1;
A. S. Melikian-Chirvani: “The Lights of Sufi Shrines,” Islamic Art, 2, 1987, fig. 1 and 12-20, pp. 126-131, pl. 7-8;
James W. Allan: “Metalwork of the Turcoman Dynasties of Eastern Anatolia and Iran,” Iran, 29, 1991, p. 153, pl. 23a;
J. Michael Rogers: “[cat.no.] 79” in Jay A. Levenson (ed.): Circa 1492. Art in the Age of Exploration, National Gallery, Washington, New Haven 1991, cat. 79;
Sotheby’s, London 28/4 1994, s. 52-60, lot 96;
Kjeld von Folsach: Art from the World of Islam in the David Collection, Copenhagen 2001, cat. 525;
Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom (ed.): Cosmophilia. Islamic Art from the David Collection, Copenhagen, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston 2006. cat. 27;
Joachim Meyer and Peter Wandel: Sufisme. Islams mystiske vej, Davids Samling, Copenhagen 2011, pp. 18-19;
Sheila R. Canby: The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp. The Persian Book of Kings, New York 2014, fig. 28;
Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair (ed.): God Is the Light of the Heavens and the Earth. Light in Islamic Art and Culture, New Haven 2015, fig. 9, p. 14;
Sadi Bayram: “Akkoyunlu Uzun Hasan’ın Ankara Hacı Bayram türbesi’ne vakfettiği halen Danimarka’da Cavid’e Samling Müzesin’nde bulunan tarihi şamdan,” International Journal of Turkology, 16, 2022, p. 182-205;
Joachim Meyer, Rasmus Bech Olsen and Peter Wandel: Beyond Words. Calligraphy from the World of Islam, Davids Samling, Copenhagen 2024, pp. 236-237, cat. 83;