One of the most beautiful of the Fatimid marble tombstones. Its execution in floriated (raised) Kufic represents the utmost in quality and refinement during the era of the Fatimid state. It bears the name of Abu al-Makarim ibn Abi al-Qasim al-Misri ibn Ashur, who died at the beginning of the sixth century AH / twelfth century CE.
The inscription reads:
O Lord, forgive and have mercy. In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. “Their Lord gives them good tidings of mercy from Him, and approval, and gardens wherein for them is enduring bliss — abiding therein forever. Indeed, with God is a great reward.” This is [the resting place of] Nawfā Abu al-Makarim ibn Abi al-Qasim al-Misri ibn Ashur (?), [who passed] on Saturday, the fifteenth of Safar, in the year … and thirty and five hundred. May God’s mercy be upon him.
The image and the reading of the text are drawn from Prof. Dr. Hasan Ibrahim Hasan, The Fatimids in Egypt and Their Political and Religious Activities in Particular (al-Amiriyya Press, 1932).
