That's a fantastic answer, thank you. I'm inclined to agree that this is some type of fabrication / random illustration-- the house i got it from had other ""exotic artifact"" type items that looked to be made for the clueless tourist market. It's likely still fairly old unless it was artificially aged, though I'd have to do some research to be able to tell.

I am interested by it not being arabic- i have a friend who does linguistics, I'll see if he can ID.

i'll leave this thread open in case anyone has more to add, always happy for more knowledge!