​Title: Portrait of a Young Mamluk Horseman I Date: 13th-14th century Medium: Ink on paper I Language: Arabic Type of I Resource: Text and illustration fragment I Place: Cairo I Accession Number: TS-AS-183-272-F
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This fragment features a young boy with a wide face, almond-shaped eyes close to each other, thick eyebrows adjacent to each other, a tiny mouth and long hair falling under the turban. This reminds us of the Mamluk-style characteristics in Islamic art. Only the figure’s head with its bulky turban has been preserved. It is hard to identify the rest of the image from this little drawing. However, we may guess from similar Mamluk art traditions where young men were often depicted as horsemen holding the halter of a horse and carrying a sword in their hand, that this might be also the subject of this image.

The translation of the text surrounding the boy’s face reads:

“Excellent fortune has come to you – good luck and a happy amen! Your fortune is on the increase every day, in a pure, new flourishing. Be thankful to God, and he will give you increase, for with Him is the greatest increase.” (Exhibition Catalogue Discarded History: The Genizah of Medieval Cairo Exhibition Guide and Translations, Translated by Prof. Geoffrey Khan, University of Cambridge.) The fragment was thus probably used as a charm or talisman.

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