Bowl with Strapwork and Kufic Calligraphy

Slip-painted wares of eastern Iran and Central Asia from the Samanid period (3rd, 4th and 5th centuries AH/10th and 11th centuries CE) were often elegantly decorated with calligraphy or geometrical and vegetal patterns. The centres of the finest manufactures of slip-painted wares appear to be in Nishapur and Afrasiyab (old Samarqand) and spread further to other ceramic manufacturing centres, such as Marv and Utrar. This bowl is of a rounded form with an everted rim on a short foot. Covered with a white slip, the interior is finely decorated with a strapwork and palmette pattern in its centre, and small panels containing red and black dotted motifs spaced evenly between bold black Arabic lettering, written in elegant kufic around the rim. Many inscriptions on slip-painted wares show a wide variety of scripts referring to benedictory phrases and literary or philosophical quotations, often in the context of food or eating, which indicates that these bowls were intended for practical use and not just for decoration.