Item number: X61

Year: circa AD 1037-1194

Material: Bronze

Size: 106.5 x 106.5 x 4 mm

Weight: 124 g

Provenance: CNG 2026

This is a bronze mirror, originating from the Khurasan region of the Seljuk Empire.

The reflective surface of the mirror is plain, displaying fine concentric or spiral striations which are indicative of grinding or polishing marks. At the centre of the reverse side are two back-to-back, rampant sphinxes with raised hindquarters, which appear to be winged. The interstitial spaces are filled with foliate and vegetative scrollwork motifs. Separated by a concentric band, the outer circumferential inscription reads: ‘العز والبقا والدولة والبها والرفعة والثنا والغبطة والعلا الملك والنما والقدرة والاَلا لصاحبه ابدا’, which translates to: ‘May glory, longevity, wealth, splendour, eminence, praise, happiness, excellence, sovereignty, prosperity, power, and grace belong to its owner forever.’

The myth of the sphinx originated in Egypt or Ancient Greece, and in the Persian cultural sphere, it potentially transformed or merged with the iconography of ‘Gopaitioshah’, a local mythological creature. In later periods, the Quranic account of Muhammad’s Night Journey (Isra and Mi’raj) coalesced with local folklore, such that Buraq—the celestial steed that conveyed Muhammad to the heavens—was occasionally depicted as a mythological creature with a human face and a beast’s body. A significant number of bronze mirrors adorned with such adorsed sphinx motifs have been excavated, and the stylistic execution of their inscriptions remained virtually unchanged across different eras. Certain scholars suggest that this decorative design was emulated from earlier commercial goods that had flowed into Muslim possession, though the precise details remain a subject for further investigation. By the thirteenth century AD, the Arabic poet and Sufi scholar Ibn Ghānim al-Maqdisī recorded in his work Kashf al-Asrār ‘an Ḥikam al-Ṭuyūr wa-al-Azhār (The Moral Allegory of Birds and Flowers) that contemporary Easterners observed the custom of depicting a mythological creature known as the ‘Anqa’ (a gigantic human-faced bird in Arabian mythology) on tapestries, a practice that may also be closely correlated with this iconographic tradition.

Bronze mirrors of the Islamic period were highly likely influenced by the stylistic conventions of Chinese bronze mirrors, manifesting shared characteristics such as a central motif paired with circumferential repeating patterns or inscriptions, a raised rim to protect the design, single-sided polishing, a central pierced knob frequently situated on the reverse, and a material composition of high-tin bronze. By the eleventh century AD, relief-casting technology emerged for the first time in the Iranian region; judging by the vast quantity of surviving artefacts, the casting process must have utilised sand-moulding techniques. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries AD, a prosperous bronze industry flourished in the Khurasan region of Iran, to which a substantial number of extant antiquities can be attributed.

Whether in Iran or in China, mirrors possessed protective efficacy in an occult or esoteric sense. Chinese bronze mirrors were believed to hold symbolic power to avert disaster and ward off evil spirits, and were frequently deployed as domestic ornaments to alter Feng Shui, or interred as funerary goods to provide safe passage and protection in the afterlife. In Iran, conversely, mirrors functioned more akin to portable talismans, occasionally serving as ritual media for magic or astrology. Around the thirteenth century AD, contemporary folklore records demonstrate a belief that by engraving Quranic verses, supplications, or the names of angels onto the polished surface of a mirror and performing specific rituals, one’s desires could be granted.

物件編號: X61

年代: 公元約 1037-1194 年

材質: 青銅

尺寸: 106.5 x 106.5 x 4 mm

重量: 124 g

來源: CNG 2026

這是一面青銅鏡，來自塞爾柱土耳其帝國的呼羅珊區域。

鏡面光素，有同心圓或螺旋狀的細紋，應為研磨的痕跡。鏡背中央為兩隻相背人立獗起的人面獅身獸(Sphinx)，疑似有翼。空隙填充著花葉與蔓草紋。以環相隔，外圈環狀銘文應為「العز والبقا والدولة والبها والرفعة والثنا والغبطة والعلا الملك والنما والقدرة والاَلا لصاحبه ابدا」，意即「願榮耀、長壽、財富、光輝、顯達、讚美、幸福、卓越、權力、繁榮、力量與恩澤，永遠歸於其所有者」。

人面獅身獸的神話源於埃及或古希臘，在波斯地區可能轉變或匯入當地神話生物「Gopaitioshah」的形象。在後世，《古蘭經》中穆罕默德夜行登霄的經歷，與本地傳說融合，有時將接引穆罕默德前往天堂的天馬(buraq)，描寫為人面獸身的神話生物。這類背向人面獅身獸為紋樣的銅鏡則出土不少，且銘文風格幾乎沒有因為時代變遷而改變。有學者認為，該圖樣設計模仿自更早期流入穆斯林手中的商品，詳情則待考。至十三世紀時，阿拉伯詩人，蘇菲學者伊本·加尼姆·馬克迪西(Ibn Ghānim al-Maqdisī)於其作品《鳥與花的道德寓言》(Kashf al-Asrār ‘an Ḥikam al-Ṭuyūr wa-al-Azhār)中描寫到，同時代的東方人有在掛毯上描繪被稱為「安卡」(anka，即阿拉伯神話中的人面巨鳥)的神話生物的習俗，可能也與獅身人面獸的神話傳統有關。

伊斯蘭時期的銅鏡極有可能受到中國銅鏡的風格影響，出現中央圖樣搭配環狀重複紋樣或銘文、邊緣有環以保護圖樣、單面打磨、鏡背中央多有鏡鈕、材質為高錫青銅等共同特徵。至十一世紀，浮雕鑄造技術於伊朗地區首次出現，且從文物的大量存世來看，鑄造過程應該使用了砂模技術。十二至十三世紀，伊朗呼羅珊地區發展出了繁盛的青銅產業，有許多文物皆可歸於這一時期。

無論在伊朗還是中國，鏡子都具備神祕學意義上的保護功能。中國青銅鏡被認為擁有辟邪消災的象徵力量，常被用於居家擺飾，以改易風水，或隨葬以在死後世界提供庇護。而在伊朗，鏡子更類似於隨身的護符，有時可能用作魔法或占星的儀式媒介。大約在十三世紀，便有當時民俗的紀錄，認為只要在鏡面上刻上《古蘭經》的章節、禱文或天使的名諱，再進行特定儀式，便可心願得償。