However, it reflects the Islamic style of the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt, the culturally dominant power in the Western Mediterranean at the time.

The only woman shown (end to the left of the missing lock) is inside a curtained howdah on a camel.

[2] The territory of Norman Sicily was important from an artistic perspective in ancient Greek and Roman times.

Modern restorations include the front, the upper left corner and the strip along the back of the lid, half of the bottom, the escutcheon plate and maybe other iron fittings.

Even with the reassembly of these parts and restoration of others, the casket is one of the finest examples of the superb era of Gothic carvings.

[2] The year 622 the flight of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

From the Arabian Peninsula the Muslim conquest soon spread to the surrounding areas in the Byzantine and Persian Sasanian empires.

[1] Under Mohammad's successors they ruled over territory ranging from the Atlantic to China while enjoying wealth from the lands.

[8] Both the largest group of carvings and some of the most interesting were the over fifty caskets and the many single panels made by Byzantine carvers and their immediate successors.

The smoothness of the texture made it ideal for carving, but its rarity resulted in ivory objects being expensive.

Due to the expense and the characteristics of the ivory it was used for intricate carvings for items made for royal families.

[4] Images carved on the casket are dressed in royal costumes and mostly consist of men in pursuit of or defending an attack from a wild animal.

The strength and courage of the males are illustrated by the carvings so that the wealth of the family and its capabilities of defending its territory are all suggested by the beautiful ivory casket.

[5] The many different decorations on the casket include medallions of interlaced vine scrolls with hunters, beasts, and birds in them.

[8] The images carved into the panels of the Morgan Casket enable studying the articulation of the figures, their proportion, and how the feet and hands are displayed.

[5] The Oriental nature of the decoration is clear, it has differences in style from other Mohammedan work from Egypt, Syria, or Mesopotamia.

For example, lions, gazelles, bulls and eagles are carved into the casket as they were commonly symbols of royal power.

The images shown of men hunting exotic beasts and birds with spears are repeated on the casket.

Hunting was one of the leisure pursuits of the kings and the royal court and implied authority, skill, and courage to challenge these wild and ferocious animals.

The hunting scenes illustrate the superiority of the royal family to the animals suggesting the same characteristics in their ruling of the kingdom.

At that time Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick described the collection of antiquities given him by Francis Douce’s will.