Made in Arabic
calibre
القالَب
A soapstone mould carved with a crescent-shaped earring. A matching half was pinned on through the holes and molten metal poured in, so that the earring came out in the carved shape. Arabic qālib, "mould", itself taken from Greek, passed into Italian as calibro and into French and English as calibre: first a measure of size, best known as the bore of a gun, and now also a person's worth.
- Instrument
- a soapstone mould for casting jewellery, possibly Egypt, 10th–11th century
- Written on it in Arabic
- In its corner the maker signed it: «ʿamal Muḥammad al-Maghribī», "the work of Muhammad the North African".
The path between languageskālapous → qālib → calibro → calibre
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ملكٌ عامّ
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