Tile no. 1926-1186 Preserved at the Art Institute of Chicago, a Missing Piece from the Portal of the Royal Mosque in Isfahan

At the Art Institute of Chicago, there is a piece of tile with reference number 1926-1186 under the collection of ‘Logan, Patten, Ryerson’. This seven-colored tile contains a square Kufic inscription, on a 45 * 45 squared grid, including four repetitions of the phrase "Allāh-u lā 'ilāh-a illā huw." The word "huw" and a part of the pattern at the middle of four sides of the design are in turquoise color, and other parts of the text are white on an azure (dark blue) background. In July 2010, the Art Institute of Chicago exhibited this tile in an exhibition entitled "Arthur Pope and a New Survey of Persian Art," which was exclusively devoted to Iranian art. In this exhibition, a collection of Iranian artworks, prepared under the advisory of Arthur Upham Pope, was displayed. Pope was the first scholar who mentioned this tile in his writings. In 1938, he published a photo of this tile in A Survey of Persian Art; As its description, Pope wrote: "Isfahan, Shah Mosque, seven-colored tile, early 17th century, Art Institute, Chicago. 14 inches. (35.5 cm) square". In this description, he clarified the type and technique of this tile and its dimensions; also, he considered it to belong to the Royal Mosque of Isfahan. Nevertheless, he did not clarify to which part of this building this tile originally belonged. None of the subsequent scholars who have paid attention to this tile have raised any questions about the original place of this tile in the mosque. They have not even provided a detailed drawing of the present state of this tile and its design. The ambiguity left by Pope in mentioning the characteristics of this tile caused raising the question of this research: what is the provenance of the tile no.1926-1186 at the Art Institute of Chicago?
 
By a comprehensive field study of the Royal Mosque of Isfahan and its detailed examination, on the one hand, and by scrutinizing and analyzing historical photos, obtained from the Royal Mosque of Isfahan, on the other, and also by preparing illustrative maps that show the historical state of the portal of the Royal Mosque of Isfahan and the progression of natural damages to its inscriptions, this research answers the mentioned question and reveals that the original place of this tile in this building. According to this research, the tile preserved at the Art Institute of Chicago is strongly suspected to be the tile C7 - in the coding system of this research - related to the southeastern wall of the portal of the Royal Mosque of Isfahan. Also, this research shows that this tile was probably purchased during the Pope's first visit to Iran in 1925. On his first visit to Iran in 1925, Pope was accompanied by Henry J. Patten. During this travel, Pope and Patten visited Isfahan together and probably purchased the tile. In 1926, after Pope and his companion, Henry J. Patten, returned to America, they registered the tile in the Art Institute of Chicago.