This tile once formed part of a mihrab, or niche, facing Mecca, toward which prayer is directed in mosques. The inscription at its top includes a Qur'anic reference to the mihrab’s function, and provides the date of the tile’s manufacture in the fourteenth century. This surrounds the modeled vine and tendril motif executed with touches of black and turquoise. We must imagine that the interior walls of the building containing this mihrab were once covered in similar tiles, as was common during the Ilkhanid period in Iran.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Tile from a Mihrab
Date:dated 722 AH/1322–23 CE
Geography:Attributed to Iran
Medium:Stonepaste; modeled, painted under transparent glaze
Dimensions:H. 27 3/8 in. (69.5 cm) W. 26 in. (66 cm) Wt. 74 lbs. (33.6 kg)
Classification:Ceramics-Tiles
Credit Line:Gift of William Mandel, 1983
Object Number:1983.345
Tile from a Mihrab
With its unusual pointed arch shape and Qur’anic inscription, this large-scale tile with interlacing vegetal decoration likely formed part of a mihrab—a niche indicating the direction of prayer within mosques and other sacred structures.[3] Surviving mihrab assemblages incorporating similarly shaped tiles are found in museum collections throughout the world; still others remain in their original architectural context. Complex, puzzlelike configurations, these tile panels were specially designed commissioned works, carefully fitted for installation into specific locations.
Many extant tile panels of this type were produced by a family of potters sharing the nisba Kashani, indicating their origins in the city of Kashan—a traditional center for Persian ceramic production. From the early thirteenth to early fourteenth century, the patriarch of this family, Abu Tahir, and his descendants produced several mihrab tile groupings for mosques and major shrines in the region.[4] In form and content, some of the individual tiles in these assemblages are analogous to the Museum’s example.
While the tiles that this family produced were almost without exception luster-glazed,[5] this one is not. Rather, it is one of the few extant underglaze-painted mihrab tiles. With its simple, fresh palette of bright cobalt blue and white with touches of turquoise, its closest parallel is a tile in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, also executed in an underglaze technique.[6] Roughly the same size and shape as the Metropolitan’s piece, the Cairo tile displays a somewhat similar vine scroll design and calligraphic script.[7] The Cairo niche tile is joined to two other panels, one containing an inscription referring to the grouping as a mihrab, and stating that it was ordered (‘amara) by ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib ibn Abi Nas[r] in A.H. 719/1319–20 A.D.[8] The Metropolitan’s tile, displaying a date of A.H. 722/1322–23 A.D., was produced shortly thereafter. While neither the Cairo group nor the Metropolitan’s tile can be securely attributed to the Abu Tahir family of artists, both survive as testaments to the long-lived tilework mihrab tradition established in the region by this multigenerational line of potters.
Denise-Marie Teece in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]
Footnotes:
3. Carboni and Komaroff 2002, pp. 199, 270, no. 125, and p. 128, fig. 152.
4. For more on the family and the various works that they produced, see Watson, O[liver]. "Abu Taher." In Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, December 15, 1983, available at http:// www.iranica.com/articles/abu-taher-family-ofleading- potters-from-kasan-known-throughfour-generations-602-734-1205-1333; and Watson 1985, esp. Chapter 10: "Tiles," pp. 122ff., and Appendix I: "Lustre Potters and Their Works," pp. 176ff. More recently, Sheila Blair discusses the Abu Tahir family in relation to other families of Kashani potters in Blair 2008.
5. Only one potter in this family, Yusuf ibn ‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Tahir, is known to have worked in the underglaze technique. See Watson 1983 (reference in footnote 4).
6. See Wiet 1933, pp. 134–35, no. 719, and pl. 2. It is published more recently in full color (with restoration) in O’Kane, Bernard, ed. The Treasures of Islamic Art in the Museums of Cairo. Cairo and New York, 2006, pp. 274–75, no. 236. Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo (no. 3745).
7. Carboni and Komaroff 2002, p. 270 n. 2, no. 125, provides the dimensions of the Cairo tile group.
8. See Wiet 1933, p. 135
Tile from a Mihrab
This large tile,[1] fired in a single piece, most likely represents the top of a tall, slender, three-tile mihrab similar to the complete luster-painted niche, also in the Metropolitan Museum (MMA 09.87). The best parallel is provided by by a damaged, underglaze-painted mihrab in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, which is made up of three large tiles of slightly smaller dimensions.[2] Underglaze-painted niches–the so-called Sultanabad type of pottery–are much less common than luster-painted examples in the Ilkhanid period.
A peculiarity of this tile is that the pointed arch actually forms the upper frame of the mihrab, making it a pentagonal object, instead of being contained within a rectangular tile (as in MMA 09.87). Closely following stucco and stone models, the decoration is calligraphic on the outer band, whereas the inner field is filled with vegetal patterns. As in the Cairo mihrab, the central tile would probably have been more elaborate with recessed niches. The inscription is from the Koran, 11:114: "In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Keep up prayer in the two parts of the day and in the first hours of the night. Surely good deeds take away evil deeds. This is a reminder to the mindful." This verse is followed by the year 722 written in Arabic numerals (January 20, 1322–January 10, 1323).
[Komaroff and Carboni 2002]
Footnotes:
1. Schimmel, Annemarie, with Barbara Rivolta. "Islamic Calligraphy." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 50, no 1 (summer 1992), pp. 29–30, fig. 29; Carboni, Stefano and Tomoko Masuya. Persian Tiles. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993, p. 30, no. 25.
2. Approximately 54 x 63 cm (21 1/4 x 24 3/4 in.), with a total height of 160 cm (63 in.) See Gaston Wiet. L'Exposition persane de 1931. Cairo: L'Institut Français d'Archéology Orientale, 1933, pp. 134–35, no. 719, pl. H. The mirhab is dated 719/1319–20 and was ordered by a certain 'Ali ibn Abi Talib ibn Abi Nasr.
Polychrome mihrab tile
Cobalt blue pigment became much more extensively used in the early fourteenth century. In the so-called Sultänäbäd pottery, the patterns are usually painted in reserve on a cobalt-blue background with touches of turquoise, black, green, and aubergine. This is one of a few surviving examples of mihrab tiles in this style. As already noticed on the luster mihrab tiles cat. nos. 15 and 16 in this volume (nos 20.120.219 and 91.1.1525), this polychrome tile has an inscriptional border forming a pentagon and is patterned with vegetal scrolls; only the technique is different. The inscription is from Qur'an 11:114; the date A.H. 722 (A.D. 1322) is given in Arabic numerals.
[Carboni and Masuya 1993]
Inscription: In Arabic in ornamental naskhi script:
بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم أقم الصلوة طرفي النهار وزلفا من اللیل إن الحسنات یذهبن السیئات ذلك ذکری للذاکر ]ین[ 7٢٢لسنة
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
And perform the prayer at the two ends of the day and nigh of the night;
Surely the good deeds will drive away evil deeds.
That is a remembrance unto the mindful (Qur’an 11:114)
A.H. 722 /A.D. 1322–33
(Translation after Arberry, Arthur J. The Koran Interpreted. New York, 1955, pp. 252–53). The transcription presented here reflects the calligraphy as it appears on the tile. Because of damage to the inscription near the top of the tile, the letter ف is missing from the phrase وزلفا من . It also appears that the letters و and ل in the same phrase may have been joined in the course of an earlier phase of restoration.
William Mandel, New York (by 1967–83; 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. 25.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia 1256-1353," October 28, 2002–February 16, 2003, no. 125.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia 1256-1353," April 13–July 27, 2003, no. 125.
Wiet, Gaston. L'Exposition Persane de 1931, Cairo. Cairo, 1933.
Watson, Oliver. Persian Lustre Ware. London; Boston: Faber and Faber, 1985.
Schimmel, Annemarie. "Islamic Calligraphy." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., vol. 50, no. 1 (Summer 1992). no. 37, pp. 29–30, ill. p. 30 (color).
Carboni, Stefano, and Tomoko Masuya. Persian Tiles. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 25, p. 30, ill. (b/w).
Rossabi, Morris, Charles Melville, James C. Y. Watt, Tomoko Masuya, Sheila Blair, Robert Hillenbrand, Linda Komaroff, Stefano Carboni, Sarah Bertelan, and John Hirx. The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353, edited by Stefano Carboni, and Linda Komaroff. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. no. 125, pp. 128, 270, ill. fig. 152 (color).
Encyclopaedia Iranica vol. XII (2004). p. 665, ill. pl. III (b/w).
Blair, Sheila S. "A Brief Biography of Abu Zayd." Muqarnas vol. 25 (2008). pp. 155–76, Discusses the Abu Tahir family in relation to other families of Kashani potters.
Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 80, pp. 123–24, ill. p. 123 (color).
Canby, Sheila R. "The Islamic Galleries at The Met." Arts of Asia, Arts of Asia, vol. 42 (September/October 2012). pp. 82–83, ill. fig. 4 (color).
Ekhtiar, Maryam. How to Read Islamic Calligraphy. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. no. 24, pp. 96–97, ill.
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