In Gallery No. 455 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA, there is a historical tombstone, originally said to be from Yazd, Iran. The inscription on the stone dates to 759 AH. According to information provided by the museum on its website, the tombstone is attributed to a man named «Sheikh Mahmoud ibn Sada Muhammad,» who is described as the leader of a religious brotherhood. However, the study of the stone›s inscriptions, which, fortunately, are fully available
in both the original script and translation (Arabic and English) thanks to the museum, offers clues for further research into the true owner and the story behind it. Research into the gathered information, beginning with the inscriptions on the tombstone, reveals that the stone actually belongs to Sheikh Mahmoud ibn Taqi al-Din Dada Muhammad Yazdi, one of the great leaders of the Dada’iya Sufi order in Yazd, and a renowned Sufi of medieval Islamic Iran. His name and lineage have been mistakenly recorded, and the name of the Sufi order under his leadership, «Dada’iya,» was erroneously interpreted as a common colloquial term for «brother» in the local dialects of central Iran, particularly in cities like Isfahan and Yazd, where «Dadash» and «Dada» are used informally. This error led to his misidentification as the head of a religious brotherhood. According to descriptions from scholars based on local accounts, the tombstone—along with other gravestones of disciples and sheikhs of the Dada’iya order buried around Mahmoud Shah in the Bundarabad complex in Yazd—was taken abroad at an unknown time, likely in the late 19th to early 20th century, and later ended up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. This research note presents a description and narrative of this tombstone and the life of its owner, a story that begins in Bundarabad, Yazd, and continues in New York, USA.
