Square Tile

Green-glazed tile with a winged lion

The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns seven tiles that belong to a series found at Ghazni, the capital of the Ghaznavid dynasty (A.D. 977–1187) now in Afghanistan. The tiles are mostly square in shape, some polygonal, and molded in relief with animals, plants, or occasionally inscriptions. They are all monochrome-glazed in green, yellow, brown, red, blue, or turquoise. During the excavations at the site by Italian archaeologists, these tiles were found in post-Ghaznavid layers and among the ruins of a house destroyed by the Mongol invasion of 1221. Thus, they have been dated between the second half of the twelfth and the early thirteenth century, when the city had to pay tribute first to the Ghurids and then to the Khwarazm Shahs. As none of the tiles was found in situ, one can only speculate on their use to cover either floor or wall, or on how they were arranged. In fact, these tiles are unique in style and there are very few comparable tiles from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Their decoration shows affinities with pre-Islamic motifs of tiles from Susa, such as the "pearl" borders present on 1975.193.4 or an animal in profile confined in a frame. The fragments of linen fabric with stamped decoration (MMA no. 31.106.64)—which show a checkered pattern with lions inside each square—give the idea of a tile composition, but their date and provenance (Iran, tenth-eleventh century) are so uncertain that they do not provide a good comparison.

[Carboni and Masuya 1993]

Marjorie Schwarz, San Francisco (by 1960–75; gifted to MMA)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Hagop Kevorkian Fund Special Exhibitions Gallery. "Persian Tiles," May 4, 1993–January 2, 1994, no. 1a.

Carboni, Stefano, and Tomoko Masuya. Persian Tiles. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 1a, p. 6, ill. (b/w).