Royal Whip and Goad

Whips (2010.501.11a, b, and 2007.497.11)

Islamic horse trappings and arms and armor are especially sumptuous, a tradition that was carried on by both Turkmen tribes and city dwellers. A matched pair of whips (2010.501.11a, b) features a highly unusual decoration of two horses’ heads at the top. The entire surface is covered with an overall decoration of pseudo-granulation and turquoises in various settings and sizes in Kazakh style. A whip and pommel (no. 2007.497.11) are embellished with vertical bands of knotted silver designs (as in the drinking bowl no. 187 in this volume) alternating with bands of minute turquoises, numbering more than three hundred. The whip case houses a sharp silver goad inscribed with the name of the maker, Amanallah, the name of the owner, the ruler Harun al-Yamani (son of Jamal al-Din Zava), and the date, A.H. 1216 / 1801–2 A.D.

The rich decoration of these works is reminiscent of the sumptuous regalia of the Safavid and Ottoman dynasties, which undoubtedly served as models for these works. Photographs and watercolors of nineteenth-century Bukhara illustrate the magnificent robes of honor and horse trappings that were still being produced in this period for the court and tribal elites (see fig. 1, page 6 in this volume).

Layla S. Diba in [Layla 2011]

Inscription: The whip case houses a sharp silver goad inscribed with the name of the maker, Amanallah, the name of the owner, the ruler Harun al-Yamani (son of Jamal al-Din Zava), and the date, A.H. 1216 / 1801–2 A.D.

Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf, Toronto, Canada (until 2007; gifted to MMA)

New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Turkmen Jewelry," October 9, 2012–February 24, 2013, no. 179.

Diba, Layla S. "Silver Ornaments from the Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf Collection." In Turkmen Jewelry. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 179, pp. 217–18, ill. p. 218 (color).