Although the technology is believed to have originated in Iraq in the early ninth century and first spread westward to Egypt and Syria, lusterware became a dominant type of ceramic production in medieval Iran, possibly having spread from Egypt to Iran in the early 12th century by artisans migrating to set up workshops. Within Iran the town of Kashan was the finest and most prolific producer of lusterware. One aspect that sets Iranian lusterwares apart from their western Islamic counterparts is the remarkable frequency with which these pieces were accompanied by signatures and dates of manufacture. On the tile presented here, a depiction of a sultan surrounded by members of the court is framed by three quatrains of Persian poetry and dated to the year A.H. 608 (A.D. 1211–12). The leopard and birds may imply that the scene is set outdoors
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Title:Luster Star-Shaped Tile
Date:dated 608 AH/1211–12 CE
Geography:Attributed to Iran, Kashan
Medium:Stonepaste; luster-painted on opaque glaze with inglaze painting
Dimensions:H. 3/4 in. (1.9 cm) Gr. Diam.12 3/4 in. (32.1 cm)
Classification:Ceramics-Tiles
Credit Line:H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Gift of Horace Havemeyer, 1940
Accession Number:40.181.1
Luster eight-pointed star tile with a royal scene
This tile belongs to the larger type of secular pre-Ilkhanid tiles, i.e., eightpointed luster-painted star tiles showing human figures, measuring about 12 1/4 inches (31.1 cm). These tiles usually contain a border inscription of quatrains in Persian; nine of these tiles are dated and four are signed by Abü Zayd. As their dates range from A.H. 600 to 609 (A.D. 1203 to 1213), it is clear that they were not all used on one building. The painting of this tile shows a traditional scene: a bearded ruler seated under a canopy and attended by four courtiers. The presence of a leopard crouched in front of him, together with bird motifs, may imply that the scene is set out-of-doors. The style of painting is Oliver Watson's "Kashan style" with minute depiction. Although the inscription here is written in a highly running cursive style and is in bad condition, it is possible to distinguish three quatrains, one of which has been read by Mehdi Bahrami, and a date of A.H. 608 (A.D. 1211–12). The translation of one of the Persian quatrains is as follows: "In the realm of love, sadness is not less than happiness; / Those who are not happy with sadness do not know happiness; / However long the desert of evil might be, / we saw it is less than a step, comparing to love." The painting does not illustrate the text of the inscription. Strangely enough, Persian quatrains written on tiles usually express the agony of love but have no relationship to the paintings except in a very few cases.
[Carboni and Masuya 1993]
Eight-Pointed Tile with Figural Decoration
In the early thirteenth century in Iran, the interior walls of important buildings such as palaces, mosques, and mausolea began to be decorated with luster tiles. This tradition continued until the mid-fourteenth century when the Mongol empire in Iran collapsed. Eight-pointed star tiles like this piece were combined with cross-shaped tiles to form panels. The painting depicted on this tile is a traditional scene of a seated ruler attended by his courtiers. The border inscriptions start at the right-hand point and continue to the left; they contain three Persian quatrains and a date. The contents of the quatrain have nothing to do with the scene painted in the central field. The translation of one of them is as follows: "In the realm of love, sadness is not less than happiness; / Those who are not happy with sadness do not know happiness; / However long the desert of evil might be, / we saw it is less than a step, comparing to love." The date, A.H. 608 / A.D. 1211–12, indicates that this tile is one of the earliest dated tiles. Although its provenance is unknown, this tile is apparently from a secular building.
Tomoko Masuya in [Walker et al. 1994]
Inscription: Three quatrains in Persian and a date of A.H. 608 (A.D. 1211–12)
H. O. Havemeyer Collection, New York (by 1930–40; gifted to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Ceramic Art of the Near East," May 12–June 23, 1931, no. 48.
New York. Hagop Kevorkian Fund Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Persian Tiles," May 4, 1993–January 2, 1994, no. 7.
Mexico City. Colegio de San Ildefonso. "Arte Islámico del Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York," September 30, 1994–January 8, 1995, no. 51.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600–1600," January 22, 2005–April 15, 2005, fig. 25.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Rumi and the Sufi Tradition," October 23, 2007–February 3, 2008, no catalogue.
Dimand, Maurice S. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 12–June 28, 1931." In Ceramic Art of the Near East. New York, 1931. no. 48, p. 12.
Bahrami, Mehdi. "(Etoiles et Croix)." In Reserches sur les Carreaux de Revetement Lustre dans la Ceramique Persane du XIII Au XV Siecle. Paris: Les Presses Modernes, 1937. pp. 57–8, ill. fig. 22.
Ettinghausen, Richard, and Arthur Upham Pope. "Dated Faience." In Survey of Persian Art. vol. 2. 1939. p. 1675, no. 29 (not ill.).
Dimand, Maurice S. "A Gift of Islamic Pottery." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 36, no. 3 (1941). p. 70, ill. fig. 1.
Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944. p. 185, ill. fig. 117 (b/w).
Carboni, Stefano, and Tomoko Masuya. Persian Tiles. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 7, p. 12, ill. (b/w).
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daniel S. Walker, Arturo Ponce Guadián, Sussan Babaie, Stefano Carboni, Aimee Froom, Marie Lukens Swietochowski, Tomoko Masuya, Annie Christine Daskalakis-Matthews, Abdallah Kahil, and Rochelle Kessler. "Colegio de San Ildefonso, Septiembre de 1994–Enero de 1995." In Arte Islámico del Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York. Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1994. no. 51, pp. 146–47, ill. (b/w).
Ettinghausen, Richard, Oleg Grabar, and Marilyn Jenkins-Madina. Islamic Art and Architecture 650–1250. 2nd ed. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001. p. 177, ill. fig. 278 (color).
Roxburgh, David J., ed. Turks . A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600–1600. London, New York: Royal Academy of Arts, 2005. p. 77, ill. fig. 25 (color).
Porter, Yves. "Arts and Archeology of the Islamic World." Under the Adorned Dome : Four Essays in the Arts of Iran and India vol. 19 (2023). p. 101, ill. fig. 2.57.
Canby, Sheila R., Deniz Beyazit, and Martina Rugiadi. "The Great Age of the Seljuqs." In Court and Cosmos. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. p. 96, ill. fig. 52.
Flood, Finbarr Barry, and Gulru Necipoglu. "Volume 1. From the Prophets to the Mongols." In A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture. vol. I. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2017. pp. 516–17, ill. fig. 20.5 (b/w).
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