MARYAM EKHTIAR: I'm Maryam Ekhtiar, Senior Research Associate in the Department of Islamic Art. I'm joined here with my colleague who's an objects conservator, Jean-Francois de Lapérouse. We're here today to discuss this wonderful Mina'i bowl, which depicts a favorite story in Persian literature, often in the Shahnameh; the story of Bahram Gur and Azadeh on a hunt. This bowl shows Bahram Gur and Azadeh on a camel as they set out… to hunt gazelle. …He's a Persian king. …And he throws an arrow and pins the ear of the gazelle to its tail. And of course his lover, Azadeh, who's an Armenian princess, she's not happy about what he did because he had actually performed a cruel act. And she reprimanded him. …And he threw her off the camel. So in this scene, you see her… on the camel with him, as well as being… trampled by the camel down below. Jean-Francois, could you say a few words about the technique used here?

JEAN-FRANCOIS DE LAPÉROUSE: Actually this piece is in excellent condition… And that's rather unusual for Mina'i bowls because… it was formed using a ceramic body consisting of about ten parts crushed quartz stone, one part glass, and two parts clay… And this enabled you to create a very thin-walled but strong vessel. Unfortunately, though, it's not quite as strong as the porcelain type wares that they may have been trying to emulate. And a result, many of the Mina'i pieces, all of which were recovered from the ground, were often shattered into many pieces.

NARRATOR: Mina’i is a distinctly Islamic technique; and you’ll find many Mana’i objects in these galleries. To hear how it’s made, press PLAY.