Three pieces of carved wooden furniture come from monuments built in Mosul in the 13th century. Deposited in the Mosul Cultural Museum, they have been miraculously spared from the destruction and looting of Daesh.
Two cenotaphs
The cenotaph of Imam Yahya ibn al-Qasim comes from the shrine (mashhad) of this Imam, a descendant of Ali, erected in 637/1239 by the atabeg Badr al-Din Lu’lu’. The cenotaph is finely decorated with Qur'anic inscriptions and a construction inscription that stand out against a dense background of intertwining flowering stems. Another wooden cenotaph, decorated with inscriptions on a very similar background of intricate vegetal scrolls, comes from the sanctuary of Imam Awn al-Din, built a few years later by the same prince, in 646/1248.
A wooden door
From this shrine also comes a two-leaf door that was part of an entrance portal with richly carved marble decoration. The door is covered with metal (bronze) and has a complex geometric decoration drawn by a network of riveted bands. It also bears the signature of the craftsman, Umar ibn al-Khidr al-Malaki al-Badri. Two elaborate circular knockers, suspended from a lion's head hook, complete the decoration. On the back of the doors, the bare wood is decorated with rectangular panels carved with fine vegetal motifs.
