Tile with Niche Design and Inscription

early 14th century

Not on view

Inscribed: "He is God, beside whom there is no god, the Knower of the unseen and the seen. He is the Merciful, the Compassionate," (Qur'an 59: 22)

This tile originally formed the upper part of a prayer niche, or mihrab. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a family of potters headed by the patriarch Abu Tahir, and carrying the nisba (epithet) Kashani (indicating their origins in the city of Kashan) were active in the creation of large, luster-glazed composite panel mihrabs. Large-scale, niche-design tiles such as this one formed the centerpiece of the groupings these potters created for mosques and madrasas throughout the region.

Artwork Details

Title: Tile with Niche Design and Inscription
Date: early 14th century
Geography: Made in Iran, Kashan
Medium: Stonepaste; inglaze painted in blue, luster-painted on opaque white glaze, modeled decoration
Dimensions: H. 19 3/4 in. (50.4 cm)
W. 18 3/4 in. (47.6 cm)
D. 3 in. (7.6 cm)
without mount:
H. 19 in. (48.3 cm)
W. 18 in. (45.7 cm)
Wt. 61 lbs (27.7 kg)
Classification: Ceramics-Tiles
Credit Line: H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Gift of Horace Havemeyer, 1940
Object Number: 40.181.4
Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

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