This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.

Name of Object:

Dish

Location:

Doha, Qatar

Holding Museum:

Museum of Islamic Art

About Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

Date of Object:

Hegira 4th century / AD 10th century

Museum Inventory Number:

PO.24

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Earthenware, Slip, Glaze; Slip Painting

Dimensions:

Diameter: 42.5cm

Period / Dynasty:

Samanid

Provenance:

Iran or Central Asia

Description:

This is one of the finest and largest of all the known examples of epigraphic pottery from the Samanid era. It is decorated with a proverb, which is a saying of Yahya ibn Ziyad, quoted in the Mu’jam al-Shu’ara. The inscription reads (in Arabic): ‘aajaza; wa ‘ajizu al-ra’yi midya’un lifursatihi hatta itha ma faata amrun ‘ataba al-qadara. (It is a stupid person who misses his opportunity, and when the matter is over reproaches fate.)

Selected bibliography:

Seipel, Joseph H., God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty: The object in Islamic Art and Culture, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
Soueif, Ahdaf, Reflections on Islamic Art, Doha: Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, 2011.
Watson, Oliver, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar, Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2008.

Citation of this web page:

 "Dish" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;qt;Mus21;26;en

MWNF Working Number: QT 26