Dish

The dish is plain, but for a dedication on the rim in bold Kufic to Husam al-Dawlah Shahriyar ibn Qarin, the first Bavandid ruler of Mazandaran (r 1074–1110 AD). The Bavandids were one of the line of dynasties which ruled the inaccessible and heavily forested provinces of the south coast of the Caspian from the early years of Islam to the coming of the Seljuks in the mid 11th century. The inscription, which is engraved and set with gold granules, reads, al-dawlah wa'l-salamah wa'l-'izz al-da'im li'l-isfahhad al-kabir Husam al-Dawlah Shahriyar ibn Qarin atala Allah baqahu ('wealth and well-being and perpetual glory to the great Ispahhad Husam al-Dawlah Shahriyar ibn Qarin, may God give him long life').