Bowl
Damascus, Syria
National Museum of Damascus
About National Museum of Damascus, Damascus
Hegira late 5th–early 6th century / AD late 11th–early 12th century
ع 13584
Earthenware, painted with metallic lustre.
Height 12.2 cm, diameter 15.5 cm
Fatimid
Syria; possibly Raqqa or Tel Minis.
The development of ceramics painted with metallic lustre was an important advancement in Islamic ceramic art. It was considered luxurious because it gave a metallic sheen, giving the impression of a precious metal. Such ceramics come in various types: normally the lustre is applied on to a transparent glaze; less frequently, it is found on cobalt-blue, manganese and turquoise glaze. This piece is one such example.
A ceramic bowl with a cylindrical body and a columnar base, the bulk of the body decorated with a double border containing a band of repeating angular pseudo-kufic script and curling, stylised vegetal scrolls. Painted semi-circles are arranged around the rim. These designs are executed in dark, reddish-brown metallic lustre underneath a transparent layer of turquoise glaze. While the technique and the designs are familiar in other Fatimid lustre-ware, the shape is somewhat unusual. The emphasis on the decorative quality of calligraphy that this piece exhibits may be evidence of the influence of ceramics derived from the Eastern Samanid Dynasty, which is contemporary to the Fatimid period.
The pseudo-kufic calligraphy and semi-circular rim decoration of this lustre-painted and transparent-blue-glazed bowl is most probably the work of Fatimid Egyptian potters who settled in Syria.
The bowl was dated by comparison with similar pieces found in Tel Minis, a Syrian village near Ma'rrat al-Nu'man. The style was influenced by Egyptian Fatimid pottery of the 5th / 11th century.
Purchased in 1959.
This bowl was found by a resident of Raqqa, but ceramic production in the region did not begin until the early 6th / 12th century. It is thought, therefore, that this piece may be either early Raqqa or Tel Minis ware. Lustre-ware production in Syria was prolific, but the provenance cannot be determined definitively.
Abu al-Faraj al-Ush, M., A Concise Guide to the National Museum of Damascus, Damascus, 1969, p.157.
Porter, V., Medieval Syrian Pottery, Oxford, 1981.
Porter, V. and Watson, O., “'Tel Minis' Wares”, in Syria and Iran: Three Studies in Medieval Ceramics, Oxford, 1987, pp.173–248.
Seipel, W., Schätze der Kalifen: Islamische Kunst zur Fatimidenzeit, Wien, 1998, pp.107–8; fig. 58.
Watson, O., Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London, 2004.
Mona al-Moadin "Bowl" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;sy;Mus01;19;en
MWNF Working Number: SY 25
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