Note 51 — Chapter V

Makrízy gives an inventory of the caliph’s objets de virtù far too long to quote. It includes (apart from immense stores of precious stones, plate, crystal and gold vases, rich brocades and cloth of gold, and all kinds of pottery), cups of bezoar engraved with the name of Harún er-Rashíd, enamelled plates, the gift of a Roman emperor to ‘Azíz; the sword of the Prophet, the breastplate of the martyr Hoseyn, the sword of Mo‘izz, and quantities of jewelled daggers, javelins, and other arms; inlaid gold dishes, inkstands, etc.; chess boards worked in gold on silk, with gold and silver, ivory and ebony pieces; steel mirrors, amber cups, a table of sardonyx, a peacock of gold with eyes of ruby and feathers of enamel, an antelope spotted with pearls, and a turban, the jewels of which weighed 17 lbs.; thirty-eight state-barges, one of silver; the caliph Záhir’s tent of gold thread resting on silver poles, and the marquee of Yazúry, a mass of exquisite designs which took fifty artists nine years to complete, the pole of which was 120 feet high, and the circumference of the tent nearly 1000 feet.