This catalogue is in two parts. The first focuses on the 638 Arabic, Persian and Indian seals in the British Museum covering material from the 8th to the 20th century. The Introduction covers seal practice in different periods and levels of society; the role of the seal and the alama or motto, the use of figural representation on the seals, seal engravers, the forgery of seals and the importance of the stones used are described. The features of the seals themselves, in particular the palaeography and dating of early Islamic seals, some grammatical features of the inscriptions, and the range of designs present on the seals are analysed. The types and form of Islamic names, the range of phrases that commonly appear and the characteristics of later seals are also discussed.


The second part of the book focuses on 170 amulets in the collection preceded by an introduction to the subject. Research at the British Museum on engraving techniques is presented with analysis of the stones used.