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Glossary

Shamsa

Also written · shamsah

What is Shamsa?

A shamsa is a sunburst rosette: a radiating medallion, usually gilded and richly illuminated, placed on an opening page of a manuscript or an album. In imperial Mughal albums it carries the ruler’s titles inside the disc. The word is Arabic for a little sun, and the form is honorific and decorative rather than narrative.

Related terms

Objects catalogued under this term

No object in the published catalogue carries this term yet. The catalogue is being written object by object.