BM-EgSu
Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian) · textile
Alexander the Great on Horseback
Description
[Egypt, Umayyad period (661–750) or Abbasid period (750–1258)] Featuring imperial Byzantine themes, this rare roundel originally decorated a tunic. Genii (guardian spirits) crown the mounted horseman in military dress while an animal runs below. The inscription at the top identifies the horseman as Alexander the Great (356-323 bc), a popular cult figure in Egypt for centuries. The pattern’s mirror-image symmetry indicates the influence of costlier Byzantine silks.
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
Transcription
partial inscription in Greek above.Connections
Royals
Alexander the Great
Cross-references (2)
- Wikidata Q80028964 tier-1
- CMA-id 135578 tier-2
Similar inscriptions · by content embedding
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- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
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- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.