Round Mina’I Pottery Dish on Short Foot

Iran
Ca. 1300
D: 21.5 cm

Of truncated conical form on a low foot, painted in blue, red, black and turquoise, the central motif of this ceramic is of a single mounted figure greeting a pair of figures atop the battlements of a castle. The repeated stylised Kufic inscription around the rim is standard, but the polychrome slip-painted interior moves away from the stark simplistic calligraphic dishes one often expects from Islamic pottery. Instead this shows a more textured and closely packed composition full of fantasy and humour.

The iconography of the dish may suggest a literary source and certainly a more narrative approach to decoration. The narrative could be a reference to possibly a fantastical array of figures linked to ancient customs and traditions, as well as possibly local myths and cults that survived into the Islamic period.