# Basin known as the Baptistere de Saint Louis > Muhammad ibn al-Zain - Mamluk Egypt or Syria, first half of the 14th century; the Louvre currently dates it circa 1330-1340. Scholars have proposed ranges from circa 1290-1310 to circa 1325-1360; see Open questions. > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/muhammad-ibn-al-zain/baptistere-de-saint-louis/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-09-12 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Muhammad ibn al-Zain - **Date:** Mamluk Egypt or Syria, first half of the 14th century; the Louvre currently dates it circa 1330-1340. Scholars have proposed ranges from circa 1290-1310 to circa 1325-1360; see Open questions. - **Medium:** Hammered brass (a copper alloy), engraved and inlaid with silver, gold, and a black compound (niello or a bituminous black paste, described variously in the literature) - **Dimensions:** Approximately 22 to 24.4 cm in height by 50.2 to 50.5 cm in diameter (sources vary within this range; the Louvre's own record gives 23.2 x 50 cm) - **Object type:** Islamic metalwork - **Period:** Mamluk, first half of the 14th century - **Current location:** Musee du Louvre, Departement des Arts de l'Islam, Paris, Room 186 - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary A large brass basin, inlaid with gold and silver and covered in hunting and courtly scenes, made in Mamluk Egypt or Syria in the first half of the 14th century and signed six times by its maker, Muhammad ibn al-Zain, an unusually insistent signature for the genre. It carries no name of the ruler or patron who commissioned it, and who that was, and why, has been argued over by specialists for seventy years without agreement.It is first securely recorded in the French royal treasury of the Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes around 1440, with no explanation of how a Mamluk basin got there. From 1606 it was used to baptize French royal children, including the future Louis XIII, and it kept that role, on and off, until 1856. It survived the Revolutionary seizure of the royal treasury, entered what became the Louvre in stages across the 19th century, and has been the Islamic Arts department's signature object since the department's galleries opened in 2012.This is the archive's first Islamic art record. The object it describes is Louvre inventory LP 16 and no other basin: the Louvre holds a second signed work by the same maker under a different inventory number, and at least four other well-known Mamluk basins in other collections are routinely confused with this one online. None of those objects appear in this record's gallery. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **first half of the 14th century** Made for an unidentified patron in Mamluk Egypt or Syria `[unknown]` (origin) Signed six times by Muhammad ibn al-Zain. No inscription names the patron who commissioned it. Three scholarly positions on the patron's identity are argued in the literature (Rice: the emir Salar, circa 1290-1310; Behrens-Abouseif: generalised Mamluk courtly furusiyya culture, no named individual; Ward and Makariou: a European Christian patron, possibly Hugh IV of Lusignan, circa 1325-1360). None is documented by a surviving contract, dedication or contemporary record. - **first half of the 14th century-c. 1440** Unknown `[unknown]` (gap) No owner, transaction or route is documented for roughly a century between the basin's manufacture and its first secure appearance in a French royal inventory. The basin does not appear in the inventory of Charles V of France drawn up before 1380. - **c. 1440-1793** French royal treasury, Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes `[documented]` (first documented French ownership) First securely recorded around 1440 in an unpublished inventory of the Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes treasury; confirmed again in a 1739 sacristy inventory. Used for the baptism of the future Louis XIII at Fontainebleau on 14 September 1606, five years after his birth; a 1606 source records that the font was taken from the treasury of the Sainte-Chapelle of the Chateau of Vincennes, reserved there for the baptism of the Dauphins and children of France. - **1793-1818** Museum national des arts (Revolutionary Louvre), via the Petits-Augustins depot `[documented]` (seizure and deposit) Sent from the royal treasury to the Petits-Augustins depot in early 1793 (sources disagree on the exact date, 17 January against 7 March), the rescue operation for art and historical objects run by Alexandre Lenoir. Entered the new Museum national des arts shortly afterward rather than being sent to the mint for melting, unlike much contemporaneous royal precious-metal plate. - **1818-1852** Chateau de Vincennes, by royal order of the restored Bourbon monarchy `[documented]` (return to Vincennes) Returned to Vincennes in 1818. Used again for the baptism of Henri d'Artois, Duke of Bordeaux, at Notre-Dame de Paris on 1 May 1821; two silver plaques bearing French royal arms were added to the basin for this occasion. - **1852-1856** Musee du Louvre (Musee des Souverains) `[documented]` (permanent transfer) Transferred permanently to the Louvre in 1852 following a decree of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte ordering that objects which had belonged to the sovereigns of France be gathered at the Louvre, for the newly created Musee des Souverains. A figure of 1832 for this transfer, sometimes quoted, could not be corroborated against any source consulted in this research pass. Briefly removed from the Louvre in 1856 for its final documented baptismal use, at Notre-Dame de Paris on 14 June 1856, for Napoleon-Eugene, the Prince Imperial, son of Napoleon III. - **1856-present** Musee du Louvre, Departement des Arts de l'Islam `[documented]` (museum collection, no further ownership change) Held continuously by the Louvre since 1856, catalogued as inventory LP 16. Never sold, privately owned or the subject of any export application in this period; French state property throughout. Displayed in the Departement des Arts de l'Islam's purpose-built galleries since their opening in 2012 and lent for temporary exhibitions in 2025 (Louvre, Paris), 2025-2026 (Abu Dhabi) and 2026 (Louvre-Lens). ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **** , - No auction, private sale, or market transaction of any kind is documented for this object at any point in its recorded history. It has been part of the French royal, then French state, collection continuously since it is first securely recorded around 1440, and part of the Musee du Louvre's own holdings since 1856. No hammer price, premium, insurance valuation, dation or export licence application was found in the sources consulted, because none of the mechanisms that would generate one (a sale, an export request, a tax-relief acquisition) has ever applied to this object. ## Open questions - Who commissioned the basin, and for what purpose? Rice proposed the emir Salar; Behrens-Abouseif reads a generalised furusiyya court culture rather than a named patron; Ward and Makariou argue for a European Christian patron, possibly Hugh IV of Lusignan. No inscription names a patron, and none of the three positions has displaced the others. - What is the correct date? Proposals range from circa 1290-1310 (Rice) to circa 1325-1360 (Ward); the Louvre's own current label gives circa 1330-1340. The range spans up to seventy years depending on which scholar's patron theory is accepted. - Where was the basin between its manufacture in Mamluk lands and its first secure French record in the Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes treasury around 1440? No owner, transaction or route across this roughly century-long gap has been documented in any source consulted. - Why did the basin survive the Revolutionary stripping of the royal treasuries when so much precious-metal royal plate was sent to be melted? No source consulted gives the Convention's or its commissioners' stated reasoning in this specific case; this record offers an inference (its brass carried little melt value and it may already have been read as a historical curiosity) but does not present that inference as documented fact. - On what exact date in 1793 did the basin leave the royal treasury for the Petits-Augustins depot? Sources disagree, giving 17 January and 7 March; this record has not been able to reconcile the two. - Is the identification of Muhammad ibn al-Zain with a Damascus ironworker active 1340-1359 correct? The literature consulted treats this as questionable, since it would require the same individual to have worked at a master's level in both iron and inlaid brass metalwork, a combination with no known parallel. - Did Muhammad ibn al-Zain make this basin himself or with a workshop of assistants working under his name? Nothing in the sources consulted addresses the scale of labour behind a single signed master's name on a piece of this size and decorative density. ## Sources - [1] Musee du Louvre, collections website, object record for Bassin dit Baptistere de Saint Louis, inventory LP 16, Departement des Arts de l'Islam. - [2] Wikipedia, Baptistere de Saint Louis (English), consolidating the physical description, patron debate, signature detail, provenance chronology and scholarly citations. Flagged for replacement with the primary monographs (Rice 1951, Makariou 2012) where a claim needs a firmer citation. - [3] Smarthistory, Muhammad ibn al-Zain, Basin (Baptistere de Saint Louis). - [4] Wikipedia, Baptistere de Saint Louis (French), for the detailed provenance chronology (1793 seizure, 1818 return to Vincennes, 1821 baptism and repair, 1852 transfer, 1856 final baptismal use) and the patron-debate scholarship sequence (Rice, Ward, Makariou). Flagged as a tertiary synthesis; replace with Juvin 2022 and Makariou 2012 directly where possible. - [5] Musee du Louvre, exhibition feature, Une icone ambigue, Bassin dit Baptistere de Saint Louis, part of the Mamlouks 1250-1517 exhibition materials. - [6] D.S. Rice, Le Baptistere de Saint Louis: Un chef-d'oeuvre de l'art musulman, Paris, Editions du Chene, 1951 (limited edition of 1,000 copies, 40 plates). The foundational monograph; cited here via its bibliographic record and later scholarship's engagement with it, not read directly in the original. - [7] Rachel Ward, The Baptistere de Saint Louis: A Mamluk Basin Made for Export to Europe, in Islam and the Italian Renaissance, Warburg Institute Colloquia, 1999. Cited here via its bibliographic record and later scholarship's summary of its argument (European Christian patron, possibly Hugh IV of Lusignan), not read directly in the original. - [8] Sophie Makariou, Le baptistere de Saint Louis, Paris, Musee du Louvre editions, Collection Solo, 2012. Cited here via its publisher's bibliographic listing and later scholarship's summary of its argument, not read directly in the original. - [9] British Museum Images, catalogue description referencing the Vasselot Bowl (Louvre MAO 331) as the second inlaid brass object signed by Muhammad ibn al-Zain, and describing his characteristic style. - [10] Search aggregation of press and institutional listings for the exhibitions Mamlouks 1250-1517 (Louvre, Paris, 2025), Mamlouks: l'heritage d'un empire (Abu Dhabi, 2025-2026) and Par-dela les mille et une nuits (Louvre-Lens, 2026), each of which lists this basin among works shown. Flagged as a secondary aggregation; replace with each exhibition's own checklist where available. - [11] Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art (Freer Gallery), collection record for the D'Arenberg Basin, accession F1955.10, Ayyubid, circa 1247-1249. Used here only as a version-safety comparandum, to confirm this is a different, earlier object from the Baptistere de Saint Louis. - [12] Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art (Freer Gallery), collection record for a basin made for a son of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun, accession F2017.12, circa 1340-1350. Used here only as a version-safety comparandum. - [13] British Museum, collection record for a basin bearing the name and titles of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, registration W.1851-0104-1, acquired 1851. Used here only as a version-safety comparandum. - [14] Victoria and Albert Museum, collection record for a Mamluk brass basin, museum number 740-1898, purchased 1898. Used here only as a version-safety comparandum. - [15] Anna Klosowska, Muhammad ibn al-Zain's basin (baptistere de Saint Louis), Literature Compass, 2019, a literary and postcolonial reading of the object's reception. Cited here via its published abstract and DOI record, not read directly in full. - [16] My Modern Met, "26 Islamic Art Masterpieces From the Louvre Are Coming to the Smithsonian" (tertiary press coverage; flagged for replacement with the National Museum of Asian Art's own exhibition page, which returned a bot/verification wall on both a direct fetch and the in-app browser at the time of this check). --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.