Intaglios set in medieval seal matrices: indicators of political power and social status?

The contribution discusses a seal matrix, said to have been found ‘near Norfolk’ in the early 1980s, set with an inscribed Arabic cornelian intaglio. The matrix is of bronze and its Latin inscription is not unusual and reads: Ie Sv Sel Bon E Lel (I am a seal good and loyal). Seal matrices of this type employing re-used gems are not rare and similar objects have been found in Norfolk. What renders this example special is its gem which contributes to the archaeology of Islamic contacts in Britain. The Arabic inscription reads: Muḥammad yaṯiqu bi-Allāh / šākir lillāh (Muḥammad trusts in God / He is thankful to God). Certain characteristics of its script are suggestive of a date long anterior to the matrix, seemingly the 10th century AD. Therefore, the gem might have arrived in Anglo-Saxon England in the late Viking period (10th to mid-11th century), and later have been rediscovered and employed or, more probably, have been brought back to England from the Middle East at the time of the Crusades either as spoil or in the course of trade.