Hodhod, the Persian word for hoopoe, carries two roles in the tradition, one older than the other, and both concern the same idea: a bird that goes ahead.
Solomon’s messenger
In the Quranic account (Surah An-Naml, the Ant), the hoopoe is the bird Solomon notices missing when he reviews the birds. It returns with word of the Queen of Sheba’s kingdom, and is then sent back carrying his letter, which sets the story that follows in motion. It is a brief passage but a distinctive one: among the birds said to serve Solomon, the hoopoe is the one entrusted with a genuine errand, sent out and trusted to return with something worth knowing.
The guide
Centuries later, the Persian Sufi poet Attar (about 1145 to 1221) gave the hoopoe a larger role, in Mantiq al-Tayr, the Conference of the Birds. There, the hoopoe becomes the leader of the birds gathered, guiding the whole flock on the long, allegorical journey toward the Simorgh, a quest that stands for the soul’s search for the divine. It is the hoopoe who tells them of the way, and the hoopoe who has to answer a flock of doubters before the journey can begin.
Both readings meet in the same place: a bird trusted to go ahead and see clearly, and, in Attar, to lead.
The piece
The Hamdam Hodhod Roundel Pendant draws the bird in strict profile, in the manner of Sassanian roundel designs, crest raised, a ribbon lifting from its neck, framed inside a pearl roundel, here worked as a single unbroken line of claw-set diamonds. The bird itself carries no stones. Its tail breaks the circle rather than sitting neatly inside the frame, because a guide, in the stories it comes from, was never one to stay where it was put. Turn the pendant over and the bird’s back is a flat panel pierced with eight-pointed khatam stars, a private geometry worn against the skin and found only by the wearer.
Worked in 18ct gold, reference SLX-HAM-12, within the Hamdam family alongside the Ahu Roundel Drops, the pendant is made to order, with a lead time of two to three weeks from order confirmation.
If a guide’s story is one worth carrying, the Hodhod Roundel is where it sits in the collection.
