Star-Shaped Tile

Bowl (Charger; 32.52.2) and Tile (91.1.100)

Some of the finest Persian lusterware was produced in the city of Kashan during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This charger covered in brownish luster, is a refined example of a type known as Kashan-style lusterware.[3] Inscriptions arranged in four concentric bands cover most of its interior, surrounding a medallion in which two musicians—one playing a lute while the other holds castanets—are seated against a background of vegetal scrolls.

The bowl exemplifies the artist’s attention to surface pattern, leaving only select areas in reserve.[4] Its verses, each including blessings, are largely mystical in nature. The text on the outer rim, in naskhi script, is executed in reserve and consists of blessings and good wishes for the owner. The next zone, also inscribed in naskhi, contains four ruba‘is (quatrains), also followed by blessings and good wishes for the owner. The striking decoration of the bowl’s cavetto consists of a wide band of illegible plaited kufic set against a stippled ground with vegetal scrolls. The innermost inscription band that frames the pair of musicians contains verses by the mystical poet Sana’i (d. ca. 1131) and is also followed by blessings to the owner.[5] The striking decoration of the bowl’s cavetto consists of a wide band of illegible plaited kufic set against a stippled ground with vegetal scrolls. The innermost inscription band that frames the pair of musicians contains verses by the mystical poet Sana’i (d. ca. 1131) and is also followed by blessings to the owner.

In its architectural quality, the "new-style" plaited kufic calligraphy in the cavetto resembles the inscriptions on the facades of Seljuq and Ilkhanid tomb towers, including Pir-i ‘Alamdar in Damghan and the Imamzada Yahya in Varamin. The distinct treatment of the vegetal scrolls against a stippled background is closely related to that seen on luster tiles from the Imamzada Yahya in Varamin, a large group of which is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and bears the dates A.H. 661–63 / 1262–64 A.D. Similar tiles from a mihrab of 1264, signed by the famous Kashan potter ‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Tahir, and this tile in the Metropolitan Museum dated A.H. 661 / A.D.1262–63 (cat. 76 in this volume) have also been linked to the Imamzada in Varamin.[6]

After the Mongol destruction of Rayy in 1222, that city’s potters ceased to play a significant role in Iranian ceramic production. By contrast, the potters of Kashan, who produced tiles for the buildings and mosques of other cities, including Qum, Varamin, Mashhad, and Baku, expanded their existing production of lusterware and other classes of ceramics.[7] The increasing production of fine pottery during this period has been linked to expanding mercantile activity and the rise of an urban bourgeoisie.[8]

The Museum’s charger has a lyrical quality. Its central image of musicians is an allusion to a princely feast (bazm) at which people gathered, recited love poetry, and were entertained by musicians. The fact that nearly all its inscriptions include blessings and good wishes for an owner suggest that it was intended as a gift for a celebration, such as a wedding or Nauruz (Persian New Year); its texts personalize and enliven the object. The inclusion of the same verses on a range of luster objects indicates that the potters had a repertoire from which they selected verses for specific objects.[9] With its calligraphic ornament, mystical verses, and performing musicians, the charger would have made a sophisticated and desirable gift.

Maryam Ekhtiar in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]

Footnotes:

3. Watson 1985, pp. 90, 93, 104, fig. 65.

4. Ibid., p. 90, and Dimand 1944, p. 199.

5. The poets of three of the four ruba‘is have been identified as Maulana Rumi (1207–1273), Sadr al-Din Khujandi (d. ca. 1200), and Khwarazmshah Abu al-Faraj Runi (d. ca. 1200).

6. Other examples are in the collections of the British Museum, London, and the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

7. Dimand 1944, p. 199. In fact, the same potter who produced the Varamin mihrab was also responsible for the Qum mihrab of 1264, now in the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

8. Ettinghausen 1970, pp. 113, 115.

9. In research conducted at the Metropolitan Museum in 1998, Abdullah Ghouchani found that a number of objects in other collections contained the same verses.


Luster eight-pointed star tile with vegetal decoration

The earliest dated Ilkhanid luster tiles form the combination of star and cross tiles from the decoration of the dado at the Imämzädah Yahyä in Varamin. According to the inscription on a tombstone now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, this building in Varamin enshrined the body of the Imäm Yahyä, whose biography is unknown. More than 150 tiles are known from the dado of the building, and they have found their way into museums all around the world. They are eight-pointed star or cross tiles with vegetal or geometric designs on the main field, measuring about 12 1/4 in. (31.1 cm), painted in monochrome luster without touches of other colors. Both star and cross tiles are bordered by Qur'anic inscriptions; some of them have dates ranging from the months of Dhul al-hijja 660 to Safar A.H. 661 / October–December A.D. 1262. The inscription running around the border of this tile is from Qur'an 1:1-7 followed by 112:1–4, and finally by the date bi-ta 'rlkh mäh-i sana ihdä wa sittin wa sittumi'a ("in a month of the year one and sixty and six hundred [A.D. 1262–63]"). It is interesting to note that the word mäh for "month" is Persian, while the rest of the date is in Arabic. The use of Persian is highly unusual for a date, or part of it, on tiles in this period. The two pieces in cat. no. 10.b-c in this volume (MMA no. 08.169.4) are fragments of arms of cross tiles of the same series.

[Carboni and Tomoko Masuya 1993]

Inscription: In border in Arabic naskh:
Suras from Qur'an 1:1-7, 112:1-4, followed by the date "in a month of the year one and sixty and six hundred (A.D. 1262–63)". Note that word mah for "month" is in Persian while the rest of the date is in Arabic.

Edward C. Moore (American), New York (until d. 1891; bequeathed to MMA)

Bloomington. Indiana University. "Islamic Art Across the World," June 18, 1970–October 1, 1970, no. 214.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Hagop Kevorkian Fund Special Exhibitions Gallery. "Persian Tiles," May 4, 1993–January 2, 1994, no. 10a.

Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture. "Agents of Faith: Votive Objects in Time and Place," September 14, 2018–January 6, 2019.

Bowie, Theodore Robert. "An Exhibition Prepared by Theodore Bowie." In Islamic Art Across the World. Vol. no. 1970/3. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Art Museum, June 17 to Oct. 1, 1970. no. 214, p. 70, ill.

Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammedan Decorative Arts. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1930. pp. 130, 138, ill. fig. 72 (b/w).

Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944. p. 199, ill. fig. 130 (b/w).

Carboni, Stefano, and Tomoko Masuya. Persian Tiles. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 10a, p. 15, ill. (b/w).

Masuya, Tomoko. "Persian Tiles on European Walls." Ars Orientalis vol. 30 (2000). p. 45, ill. fig. 5 (b/w).

Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 76, pp. 117–19, ill. p. 118 (color).