Persian/Arabic metal table

[secretmachines]

hi all
any information/ideas on this item would be gratefully received! I've no details about this item at all, it has been passed down through the family.

It is approximately 1 metre across, made of I think silver, rose gold and brass?
It's used as a table, and sits on a 6-legged wooden base... i don't know if this came with the table top or not.

The writing looks Arabic/Persian, but I've no idea!

Look forward to any thoughts!

[syl]

This looks a little similar to the Egyptian brass tray that was posted here a couple of weeks ago.

[regularjoe2]

The writing on your item is Arabic , secretmachines , and is Islamic themed .

The country of origin is quite another question , though .
I'd put the possibilities at around 14 possible countries of origin .

Looks Shi'a , to me  & possibly a "Twelver Shi'a" Muslim item .

Could you post an image of the base unit ?

[talesofthesevenseas]

A good trick to identifying Arabic is to learn to identify the names Allah and Mohammed as they are written in Arabic. Most Islamic art is geometric and written, since it is considered wrong to imitate the creative properties of God with pictures, and most Islamic art will almost always include one or both names, which look like this:

This is Muhammed in Arabic:


This is Allah in Arabic:


I'm no expert, and I'm not able to read Arabic, but it looks like Allah in at least two places. That's about the best I can do with this one. One nice thing about Arabic is that it has remained unchanged for centuries. So if you take a photo to anyone who can speak Arabic, they should be able to give you a translation, no matter how old it is. I'd suggest having dinner at your favorite Middle Eastern restaurant and bringing a print out!

[secretmachines]

thank you everyone for replies so far! it's really helpful

as requested, here's a picture of the base:

[secretmachines]

thanks to the power of the internet and some faith... I've been told that the writing IS Arabic, and the larger writing in the 'body' of the piece is written in the Kufic style

but Arabic can be written in many different ways, so it's not THAT straightforward for someone who can read Arabic, to understand it (!)

in the close up picture, the right hand side of writing translates as:
"Being Patient is one of the greatest human talents that person should have"

another part reads:
"Wealth of Life is Money and Wealth of Afterlife is your good actions in Life"

[talesofthesevenseas]

Interesting! I was not aware of that. Thanks!

[secretmachines]

Interesting! I was not aware of that. Thanks!

I guess it's just like handwriting... you and I could write the same sentence in English and they'd look very different because of our different style of handwriting