The Atabegs and Ayyubids
Travelling and Trading
‘The travellers found suqs selling an impressive range of goods such as silk, perfume, jewellery and gold.’
Muslim merchants frequently travelled in the same caravans as those on pilgrimage, stopping for the night at caravanserais, or khans, most commonly built on trade routes, and within the main cities. Both provided shelter, food and water for travellers and their animals. Once in a city, the travellers would have found markets (suqs), selling an impressive range of goods such as silk, perfume, jewellery, gold, spices, glassware, metalwork and ceramic vessels. The suq in Aleppo, for example, contained a khan, a hammam and a mosque ensuring that all the travellers’ needs were met.
Raqqa lustre bowl

Hegira late 6th–early 7th century / AD late 12th–early 13th century
Ayyubid
Museum of Islamic Art at the Pergamon Museum
Berlin, Germany
A precious commodity, the production of lustre-painted pottery flourished in Egypt and Syria during the 5th / 11th century.