Bucket, cast and engraved bronze

The bucket was given quite a simple engraved decoration in three bands, two of them repetitions of an Arabic word written in Kufi: al-mulk, royal power. The handle also features an inscription band, with the words al-malik allah. This is a grammatically unorthodox version that translates as “royal power is God’s,” a phrase that often embellishes decorative art from the Islamic Middle Ages.

The piece belongs to a small group of Egyptian buckets of more or less the same size, with related decorations and a handle with a suspension ring. The function of these buckets is unknown, but it has been guessed that they could have been used to hold water for religious ablutions.