English: Display Dish with Pairs of Musicians in Medallions. Copper alloy, silver. 6.03 × 36.51 × 36.51 cm

This large dish depicts musicians in ways that allude to their social importance while also describing the range of music performed and instruments used at the courts of the Seljuq successor states. The flute (probably a nay) and the tambourine appear together three times, alternating with figural groupings that pair a harpist with a tambourine player, another tambourine player with a figure who holds a shaker, and a second shaker player with a person raising a cup to his lips. This reference to drinking together with the fruit plates, treelike branches, and tazza-type vessels (wide but shallow saucer-like dishes) evoke the festive garden settings where, during the warmer months, musicians customarily performed for the ruler and his feasting guests (after Display Dish with Pairs of Musicians in Medallions)

Iran, late 12th–13th century. The Keir Collection of Islamic Art on loan to the Dallas Museum of Art K.1.2014.77