Name of Object:

Vase

Location:

Tetouan, Morocco

Holding Museum:

Archeological Museum

About Archeological Museum, Tetouan.

Date of Object:

Hegira 7th / AD 13th century

Museum Inventory Number:

1977.51.284

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Fired, painted and excised earthenware.

Dimensions:

Height 6.5 cm, max. diameter 11.5 cm, diameter base 4.8 cm, diameter mouth 8.2 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Almohad

Provenance:

Lixus, Morocco.

Description:

A vase with a spherical body resting on a foot-ring with a high tulip-shaped neck almost the same height as the body. The two curved handles starting at the neck rest on the upper part of the body. The clay is clear, highly fired, and the walls are very thin. Brown manganese-oxide paint covers the handles, and decorates the neck and the upper part of the body. Two different styles can be found on the neck. On the upper part, a painted strip is decorated with repeated excised motifs, in a shape of concentric half-circles. A frieze of arabesques divided by slightly curved vertical lines reminiscent of calligraphic characters seems to clumsily imitate the word 'Allah'. The same ornamental layout and design appear on the body. This type of drinking vase, or jarrita, with its elegant shape and a pseudo-epigraphic design that mixes the techniques of paint and excision, was widespread during the same period in the south of al-Andalus.

View Short Description

This type of round-bellied drinking vessel (jarrita) with a tall tulip-shaped neck, curved handles and pseudo-epigraphic decoration crudely imitating the word 'Allah' was very common in the south of al-Andalus at this time.

How date and origin were established:

Found during the excavations in the ruins of a medieval bourgeois house at the archaeological site of Lixus. The date has been confirmed by the stylistic and comparative study with reliably dated objects found in Murcia and Huelva in Spain dating from the end of the first third of 8th / 13th century.

How Object was obtained:

Excavated.

How provenance was established:

Excavated at Lixus.

Selected bibliography:

Ataallah, M., “La céramique musulmane à paroi incisée ou peinte à Lixus”, Bulletin d'archéologie marocaine VII, 1967, pp.627–39.
Bazzana, A., “La céramique médiévale”, in Maroc, les trésors du royaume, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1999.
Navarro Palazón, J., La céramique hispano-arabe à décor esgrafié, trans. Bazzana, Madrid, 1986.
Ponsich, M., Lixus, le quartier des Temples, Études et travaux d'archéologie marocaine series, Vol. IX, Rabat, 1981, p.127.

Citation of this web page:

Naima El Khatib-Boujibar "Vase" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;ma;Mus01_F;12;en

Prepared by: Naima El Khatib-BoujibarNaima El Khatib-Boujibar

Archéologue et historienne de l'art, titulaire d'une licence en lettres (française), N. Elkhatib-Boujibar a également étudié l'archéologie et l'histoire de l'art à l'Institut d'art et d'archéologie de Paris, l'art islamique et la muséologie à l'École du Louvre (Paris), et suivi des cours à l'Institut d'ethnographie de l'Université de Neuchâtel (Suisse). Elle a occupé plusieurs postes de responsabilité, parmi lesquels directrice des Musées et de l'Archéologie, inspectrice générale des Musées et de l'Archéologie, déléguée régionale du ministère de la Culture.
Elle a dirigé un chantier de fouille durant 20 ans et enseigné à l'Institut national marocain des sciences de l'archéologie et du patrimoine (INSAP). Elle a organisé différentes expositions sur le patrimoine marocain, au Maroc comme à l'étranger, et animé des cycles de conférence, dont celui sur l'art islamique à la “Villa des Arts” à Casablanca.
N. El Khatib-Boujibar a publié différents articles sur le patrimoine archéologique, artistique et architectural marocain, mais aussi sur d'autres sites islamiques et sur les arts mobiliers. Elle a également participé à la rédaction du catalogue Musée Sans Frontières Le Maroc andalou, à la rencontre d'un art de vivre.

Copyedited by: Margot Cortez
Translation by: Laurence Nunny
Translation copyedited by: Monica Allen

MWNF Working Number: MO 14

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Islamic Dynasties / Period

Almohads


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