This is a decorative rectangular glass wall hanging with a wooden outlined coloured glass mosaic frame. The picture consists of two identical peacocks facing each other overlooking a scene with trees, a small house and a boat on a river.
Decorative rectangular glass wall hanging with a wooden frame. The picture consists of two identical peacocks facing each other with a pink rose with flowers in the centre, between each peacock. At the top written in black in Arabic are the words “In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, most merciful”.
Peacock mirror. This was used as decoration in old houses; nowadays it is rare to see them in houses. Most of them were manufactured and imported from India, and secondary from China. Due to the trading links between India and Qatar, goods were imported from India that gained popularity in Qatar and the peacock mirror was one such item.
Sometimes people would customize the mirrors adding sayings, versus, flags and images of the Emir. In Saudi Arabia it is popular to add the image of the Emir on it. The tradition began the beginning of the last century. These types of mirrors were quite popular in the 1950s and 1960s but during the 1970s and 1980s the tradition became less. The mirror was placed in the Al Killa – the room used for the wedding night. The mirrors were also placed in the Majlis. Peacock feathers themselves were used as a pen. In Arabic, the peacock is referred to as “Umm Tawus”.
The peacock is the national bird of India. It is considered a creature of beauty and represents grace, joy, beauty and love and traditionally it symbolized royalty and power. This traditional bird is mentioned in all of the Indian folklore tales and is always present in stories even as a minor role. In Hinduism mythology, the peacock is the image of the God of Thunder and a vehicle of the God of War – Muruga – who rides it into battle. In southern India it is said that when the peacock shows all its feathers then it will rain.
The peacock has a long history in the Middle East, and it is thought that it was brought by early Indian traders to ancient Babylon. The figure of the peacock is painted in various Islamic buildings both within India and across the Islamic world. The Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran has a peacock at the centre of its dome. At the sixteenth century fort of Golkonda situated near Hydrabad, southern India there are peacocks carved into the main entrance to the fort - the Bala Hissar Gate. At its height the city was home to one of the most powerful Muslim Sultanates of the region.
There are tales told about peacocks in popular Islam. One story is that Allah created a peacock which sat on a tree and for 70,000 years praying using prayer beads. When Allah put a mirror in front of the peacock, it was so pleased by its own beauty that it prostrated itself five times before Allah. In this way the tradition of praying five times a day arose among Muslims. In Islam a peacock stood guard at the gates of Paradise.