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Samanid Epigraphic Ceramics

Research · April 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.28742.09284

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Tel Aviv University
The David and Yolanda Katz Faculty of the Arts
Department of Art History

Course: Objects of Islamic Art, Spring 2015

Scope: Seminary
Lecturer: Hannah Targan

Samanid Epigraphic Slipware

Submitted by: Gil Erlich

Id: 034160531
Date: 20 September 2015
 Table of Contents

1. Introduction​……………………………………………………………………...2

2. The Samanid Realm​..……………………………………………………………4

background…………………………………………………………………...4
origin………………………………………………………...…………….....4
Politics and Trade…………………………………………………………….5
culture…………………………………..…………………………………….5

3. Ceramic Production in Samanid Lands​………………………………………...7

provenance………………………………………………………..…………..7
sites of production………………………………………………………….....8
production…………………………………………………………..….…….10
ceramic setting……………………………………………………..…….…..10
glazed slipware………………………………………………………….…....13
inscriptions…………………………………………………………………...14
additional decorative elements…………………………………...……….….17
development of epigraphic styles…………………………………….………18
dating……………………………………………………………...………….19

4. Social Context of Samanid Epigraphic Ware​……………………………..……21

Content of inscriptions……………………………………………..…………21
Social Environment……………………………………………..…………….22
Patrician Class……………………………………………………………..….23
Clientele………………………………………………………...…………….24
The Alids………………………………….…………………….…………….26

5. Conclusion​…………………………………………………………….………….28

6. Bibliography​………………………………………………………..…………….29

1
 Introduction

Since first coming to the attention of art historians and collectors in the late 19th century,
Samanid epigraphic slipware has been acclaimed as among the finest artistic
achievements of Islamic art. Beautiful and enigmatic, numerous attempts have been made
to explain its distinctive “modern” look, often no more than an unadorned inscription in
Arabic over a bare background. Circumscribing the rim in a delicate balance between the
thin black letters and the white space, creating a harmonious rhythm of long and short
strokes, the visual effect appears almost like a pulse of a heartbeat on an
electrocardiogram (fig. 1). These ceramics are the product of a sophisticated urban
society which developed in Eastern Iran and Central Asia under the Samanid dynasty
(819-999 ​CE​) at the meeting point of many peoples and cultures. Persians, Arabs, and
Turks, the figurative legacy of the Sassanids, the abstract geometric and calligraphic
tendencies of Islam, and the influence of Chinese porcelains, all contributed to the
emergence of a unique, immediately recognizable style.
In this paper we will present an overview the cultural, technical, and stylistic
developments leading up to the appearance of Samanid epigraphic slipware in the 9th
century, and attempt to briefly touch upon the various questions surrounding these
ceramics, such as how such a minimalist style developed in a medieval milieu where
“horror vacui” was the norm, the use of inscriptions in the Arabic language in the midst
of a Persian cultural revival, the puzzling content of these inscriptions, the difficulty in
dating and specifying their site of production, and the possible identity of the clientele for
whom they were produced.

2
figure 1​: Bowl,Samanid, 10th Century
Nishapur or Afrasiyab, 45.7 x 17.8 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art

3
 The Samanid Realm

Background
The eastern areas of the Islamic realm spanning Iran and and central Asia witnessed the
rise of many local dynasties in the era between the political fragmentation of the
Abbasids in the 9th century and and the conquest of the Seljuks in the 12th, a period often
called the ​interregnum. ​These dynasties were practically independent, although often
maintaining symbolic fealty to the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad. One of these dynasties,
called the Samanids, rose to power in the mid 9th century, at first controlling Transoxiana
in today’s Uzbekistan , and in the early 10th century adding to their domains Khorasan in
eastern Iran among other areas, until finally collapsing in the closing year of the 10th
century. The Samanids were the first native Persian rulers in Iran since the Islamic
conquest, and under their rule began a great flowering of trade and culture which
continued long after their fall until coming to an abrupt and violent end with the Mongol
invasions of the 1220’s.

Origins
The Samanid dynasty originated with Saman Khuda, an 8th century member of the
Persian land-owning class who had converted from Zoroastrianism to Islam. His
grandsons become rulers of several cities in Transoxiana as a reward from the Abbasid
Caliph al-Mamun after helping him quell a rebellion. One of these grandsons, the ruler of
Fergana Ahmad ibn-Asad, slowly took over and consolidated territories from his brothers
until becoming ruler of Transoxiana and Khwarizm - rich and fertile lands straddling the
Amu-Darya (Oxus) river, including the major cities of Samarkand and Bukhara.
After Ahmad’s death, a struggle ensued between his sons in which the governor of
Bukhara Ismail ibn-Ahmad emerged victorious. Ismail subjugated many states to the east,
extending his rule to the Syr-Darya (Jaxartes) river. After a request by the Abbasid
Caliph al-Mu’tadid he turned west and defeated the Saffarid ruler Amr i-Laith in a battle
near Balkh in northern Afghanistan in the year 900 ​CE​, thereby taking control of the area
of Eastern Iran known as Khorasan. Although owing nominal fealty to the Caliph in
Baghdad and never claiming a title higher than Emir, Ismail was now the de-facto
independent ruler of a large empire ranging from central Iran to the Indus river, with
Bukhara as its capital (fig.2).

4
Politics and Trade
The Samanid realm lay on the famed Silk Road, at the nexus of several trade routes to the
Abbasid caliphate, Byzantium, the Vikings via Russia, the Turkic tribes to the north-east
and to China1. The Samanids were in possession of large and productive silver mines at
Pahnjir, and even today Samanid coins are found as far afield as Scandinavia, which are
evidence of a flourishing trade with the commercial centers along the Volga.
The Samanids were known for their frequent incursions East in an ultimately
successful attempt to convert to Islam the pagan Turkic tribes. This “Drang nach Osten”
served to legitimize Samanid rule by portraying them as both devout religious warriors
and successful military commanders. The increasing Turkish integration and influence
inside Samanid realms, however, ultimately led not only to the fall of the Samanids, but
the end of Persian political dominance in the region and the emergence of Turkic
dynasties such as the Ghaznavids, the Qarakhanids and the Seljuks2.

Culture
People of diverse ethnic groups, cultures and religions such as Sunnis, Shiites (both
Twelvers and Ismailis), Jews, and Christians, Persians, Arabs, and Turks, themselves
divided into countless other sects and ethnic groups, all coexisted and intermingled in the
lands under the control of the Samanids.
The Samanid rulers saw themselves as the champions of Sunni Islam on the one hand,
and the heirs of the cultural inheritance of their Persian ancestors on the other. Along
with the military expeditions to the East, another factor in the conversion to Islam of the
population in the Samanid lands was the first translation of the Quran into Persian,
completed in the 9th century.
The Samanids encouraged the revival of the Persian language and culture, and their
court drew many notable men of learning and poets such as Ba’lami, Daqiqi, Rudaki, and
Ferdowsi. Many artists were patronized as well, and an extensive building program took
place, especially in the Samanid capital in Bukhara. This flowering may have been a

1
Trade with China took place both on the Silk Road itself and a maritime route via the port of Basra on
the
Persian Gulf
2
D.G.Tor, ​The Islamization Of Central Asia in the Samanid Era and the Reshaping of the Muslim World,​
Bulletin of SOAS, 72, (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 2009), 279
5
reaction to the Arab elitism in culture and religion which had existed in Iran since the
Arab conquest, much as the Abbasid takeover of the Caliphate was the result of
marginalized groups such as the Shiites and Persians re-asserting themselves politically
in the face of the Arab political dominance under Umayyad rule.

figure 2​: The Interregnum: fragmentation of the Abbasid Caliphate

brown​: ​Abbasid Caliphate before fragmentation (c. 800)
orange ​Samanid maximum extent (c. 900)
magenta ​Silk Road
copyright: Times Books 2007

6
 Ceramic Production in Samanid Lands

Provenance
The Samanid realm during the 9th and 10th centuries was a major center for the
production of pottery, especially a type of ceramics painted with a diluted clay containing
pigment known as ‘slip’. Although this slipware was produced in many towns such as
Gurgan, Merv and Sari, the main production centers in Samanid times were Afrasiyab,
the old part of Samarqand in the region of Transoxiana, today in Uzbekistan, and
Nishapur, situated in the region of Khorasan in Eastern Iran. These cities were major
trade centers on the Silk road, described by the author of ‘Hudud al-Alam’ as “large, rich,
and the resort of merchants”.3
Several archaeological sites around these cities were excavated extensively, in
Samarqand mostly by Russian teams starting in the 19th century4, and in Nishapur by
teams from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1930’s and 40’s.5 The excavations
produced thousands of shards as well as complete pieces of pottery, which display a
dazzling range of styles, techniques, and quality. Wilkinson divided the Nishapur pieces
into 12 categories6 such as buffware, glazed black-on-white, unglazed, yellow-staining
black and imported Chinese porcelain. Watson7, and later Blair8 organized the
lead-glazed pieces, which comprise the first 10 of these categories, into three groups.
Using Blair’s notation, Group 1 includes buffware, in which designs are painted directly
on the surface of the vessel with no underlying base slip. Group 2 comprises splashware -
pieces covered with a base layer of white slip, and then decorated with splashes of green,
yellow, brown and purple engobe. Group 3 are the slip-painted ware - pieces covered in
base white slip and then painted in colored slips, either exclusively black or polychrome.
The decoration of this group can be figurative, such as the famous bird plates (fig. 3),

3
Hudud al-Alam (982), trans. V. Minorsky as ​Regions of the World​ (London: Gibb Memorial Series, n.s.
II.,
1970) 102, 113
4
t​ ​he best known excavation being by Stoliarov in 1914
5
Several illustrated reports of these excavations written by Charles Wilkinson were published by t​he
Metropolitan Museum of Art, e.g. ​The Glazed Pottery of Nishapur and Samarkand, 1961​, and ​Nishapur:
Pottery of the Early Islamic Period, 1973
6
Charles Wilkinson, ​Nishapur: Pottery of the Early Islamic Period ​(New York: The Metropolitan Museum
of
Art, 1973)
7
Oliver Watson, ​Ceramics from Islamic Lands​ (London: Thames and Hudson, 2004)
8
Sheila Blair, ​Text and Image in Medieval Persian Art ​(Edinburgh University Press, 2014), 18-20
7
geometric or floral motifs (fig. 4), epigraphic, or any combination of the three. It is the
epigraphic ware of group 3 which is the focus of this paper.

​ ​figure 3​: bowl,Samanid, 10th or 11th century ​figure 4​: ​bowl, Samanid or Ghaznavid, 10th century
Nishapur, Eastern Iran, ​ 41 x 16.3 cm Binkat, ​Uzbekistan
The Khalili Collection ​Mardjani collection

Sites of Production
It is extremely difficult to assign a site of production to these pieces, as the were rarely
signed or dated.9 Wilkinson has noted some decorative attributes which allow with some
degree of certainty place a piece in either Samarqand or Nishapur (fig. 5). Many of the
purely epigraphic pieces, however, match none of these criteria and so cannot be
attributed with any confidence to either Nishapur or Samarqand. Although there is
evidence of mutual exchange of ceramic ware between Samarqand and Nishapur10, it is
interesting to note that Samanid epigraphic slipware was rarely found outside of Eastern11
and Central Iran, and so the conclusion can be drawn that the market for this kind of
slipware was mainly regional.12

9
Blair, ​Text and Image,​ 17
10
Wilkinson, ​Nishapur: ​many of the pieces found in the Nishapur sites were attributed by Wilkinson to
Samarqand on stylistic and technical ground. See TABLE
11
The term “Eastern Iran” in the context of this paper includes Transoxiana
12
Melanie Michailidis, ​Samanid SIlver and Trade along the Fur Route​, Medieval Encounters, Volume 18,
Issue 4-5, (Leiden: Brill, 2012) 319.
8
figure 5​: Table: decorative features suggesting probable production site

No. Attribute Probable Origin Source Example

1 ‘open hearts’ motif13 Afrasiyab Wilkinson, 196114, 109,

Wilkinson, 197315, 131

2 whirling rosette Afrasiyab Wilkinson, 1961, 109-110

Wilkinson, 1973, 131

3 the word ‘barakeh’ in the center Afrasiyab Wilkinson, 1961, 113

4 the word ‘ahmad’ in the center Nishapur Wilkinson, 1961, 113

Wilkinson, 1973, 99 no.24

5 wide strokes in writing Afrasiyab Wilkinson, 1973, 130

6 spots of green in glaze Afrasiyab Wilkinson, 1973, 131

7 dotted compartments and flowerets Afrasiyab Wilkinson, 1973, 130-131

8 black-centered eyes Afrasiyab Wilkinson, 1973, 130

9 heavy border at juncture of side and Afrasiyab Wilkinson, 1973, 98 no.19

bottom Wilkinson, 1973, 130

10 sawtooth or semicircles on rim Afrasiyab Wilkinson, 1973, 91

13
the ‘open heart’ motif is of pre-Islamic origin and is found in Parthian and Sassanian decorations.
Wilkinson, ​Nishapur,​ 108 no.77
14
Charles Wilkinson, ​The Glazed Pottery of Nishapur and Samarkand​, (New York: Metropolitan Museum
of
Art, 1961)
15
Wilkinson, ​Nishapur
9
​production
Samanid epigraphic slipware was produced in several steps. First the clay, probably from
local deposits16 and of a color ranging from buff to reddish, was refined to remove the
coarser particles and then thrown on a wheel to be shaped by the potter. The form was
usually a flat plate or a bowl with flaring straight sides, although several other shapes
such as ewers and pen boxes are known.17 The vessel dried until it was leather hard, and
was then turned - placed on the wheel again and worked with a knife or some other
pointed object to shape the foot, sides, and any other precise details. It was then left to
dry again.
After becoming bone-dry, the vessel was coated with a white slip, which is a diluted
liquid clay containing a white pigment, usually but not always tin. When the white slip
base layer was dry, the vessel was decorated with colored slips, most commonly a
purplish or brownish manganese black, and at times also iron red. In several cases the
coloring scheme is reversed - a white decoration is placed on a black background. When
using a thick impasto as colored slips, the painter would often use a sharp tool to incise
details or remove excess slip so as to sharpen the letters, a technique known as sgraffito.
When the decoration was completed, the bowl was covered with a transparent lead
glaze and fired in a kiln, probably at a temperature of 850-950​℃​. It is possible that
several specialized artisans worked on the vessel at different stages, such as throwing and
decoration18, much like the separation of roles in the production of Attic red-figure
pottery.

Ceramic Setting
Production of ceramic ware is attested in the Middle East since prehistoric times, and
during the late classical period ceramic ware of high quality was being produced across
the Byzantine Empire in Egypt, Anatolia and Syria, as well as in Persia and
Mesopotamia. The early history of Islamic pottery remains somewhat obscure as only a
few ceramic vessels have been attributed to the period right after the Islamic conquest,
mainly Umayyad vessels decorated with a green glaze (fig. 6), and tiles belonging to
architectural decoration.

16
Blair, ​Text and Image,​ 12
17
ibid., 31, fig. 2.14 and 42, fig. 2.19
18
ibid., 13
10
 Islamic ceramics first attained the status of an art form in late 8th century Abbasid Iraq
under the influence of imported Chinese porcelain and stoneware.19 Tang period
(618-907) ceramics were found at several sites in the Islamic world, including Fustat and
Nishapur20, and we know that ͑Ali ibn ͑Isa, the ruler of Khorasan, sent the Abbasid caliph
Harun al-Rashid (r. 786-809) a tribute which included 200 pieces of imperial Chinese
ceramics of very high quality.21 It seems that most of this Chinese ware did not reach
Khorasan directly from China, but was rather imported by sea via the Persian gulf and
then hauled overland over a distance of 1,500 km.22 Chinese ware was highly regarded in
the Islamic lands for its pure white color and luminescent quality, but kaolin, the clay
from which porcelain is produced, was not available to the potters of Iraq and Iran and so
the desire for white ware in the Chinese style pushed local artisans to look for
alternatives.
The existing method of covering a clay vessel with a white slip and a clear lead-based
glaze proved unsatisfactory, as the glaze made any decoration run and blur.23 The
Abbasid potters sidestepped this problem with the ingenious innovation of adding tin
oxide to the lead-based glaze, achieving a pleasing opaque snowy white color mimicking
the Chinese porcelains. The local potters attempted to imitate the imported Chinese ware
both in shape - usually small shallow bowls with rounded sides, and decoration - some
were left plain white, while others carried splashes and rows of dots by utilizing colors
such as copper green and a ‘magnificent deep’ cobalt blue24, applying them over the
glaze. In this type of Abbasid pottery, sometimes called “ink-on-snow” because of the
way the color bleeds into the white glaze, the decoration consisted of “sparingly applied,
small-scale patterns” drawn in “small quick brushstrokes”.25 Many bowls carried
inscriptions in Arabic26, some being placed asymmetrically, again probably inspired by
Chinese models.27 These Iraqi white-glaze bowls, with their overall minimalistic

19
Ernst Grube, ​The Art of Islamic Pottery​ (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 1965), 209
20
Richard Li, ​Maritime Silk Road​ (China Intercontinental Press, 2006), 68
21
Abu’l-Fadl Muhammad b. Husayn Bayhaqi, ​Tārīkh-i bayhaqī,​ ed. Manuchihr Dānishpazūh
(Tehran, Hoinarmand, 1376), 631-2. Quoted from Blair, T ​ ext and Image​, 25
22
​ ext and Image,​ 26
Blair, T
23
At this time, the decorations were painted in colored glazes ​over ​the clear glaze, as underslip painting
was not yet utilized.
24
Cobalt blue was an e ​ xpensive pigment which, although mined near Qamsar in the hills of central Iran,
seems to have been a monopoly of the potters in Basra, in southern Iraq. See ​Blair, 2014, p.26
25
Grube, ​Art of Islamic Pottery​, 210
26
These inscriptions were often names, probably of the artist or the owner
27
Grube, ​Art of Islamic Pottery​, 210
11
decorative effect, seem to presage and may well have influenced the later Samanid
epigraphic ware (fig.7).

​ ​figure 6​: plate, Umayyad, 8th century ​figure 7​: bowl, Abbasid, 9th century
Eastern Mediterranean, 15.8 cm Iraq, prob. Basra, 20.3 x 6 cm
Christie’s Sale 7987 Lot 19 Metropolitan Museum of Art

Perhaps the greatest innovation of the Abbasid potters was the invention of lusterware,
an “entirely new technique which revolutionized pottery production in the Near-East”.28
The pigments for lusterware are produced by combining sulphur with either copper or
silver, giving a yellowish or reddish tint respectively. The pigments are then painted on
top a ceramic surface which has already been glazed and fired. After a second firing, the
resulting vessel glows with a brilliant metallic sheen, with the final hue dependant on the
chemical composition of the pigment as well as the thinness of the application. Although
lusterware production eventually spread to the far reaches of the Islamic domain such as
Al-Andalus, Fatimid Egypt and Persia, at first the knowledge was a well guarded secret
and in the 8th and 9th centuries potters in Nishapur did not have the means to make it
locally.29 Imported lusterware from Iraq was widely admired, however, and the desire to
imitate it was probably the driving force behind yet another great innovation in ceramic
technology, this time originating in Eastern Iran - the invention of glazed slipware.30

28
Grube, ​Art of Islamic Pottery​, 211
29
ibid.
30
ibid., 213
12
Glazed Slipware
Slip-painted ceramics had been produced in Transoxiana since at least the 7th century31,
although they lacked the glaze which intensifies the colors and seals the surface, fixing the
decoration and protecting it from damage. This technique of underglaze painting probably
reached Nishapur, which by then had also come under control of the Samanids, in the 10th
century. When Samanid potters switched to the clear glaze from the opaque white
previously used, special pigments were developed to stay fixed to the clay and not
dissolve under the lead glaze32, and a new technology was born which “carried pottery
decoration to new heights”.33 At first the glazed slipware was used to imitate the
lusterware from Iraq in size and decoration (fig.8), but eventually larger bowls and plates
appeared, perhaps hinting at a shift in function. The shape changed as well, from a
rounded profile to straight flaring sides with a carinated joint at the foot, which may have
been influenced by metal prototypes34, such as a group of silver vessels found near
Hamadan in Northwestern Iran35. This silverware also resembles the Samanid epigraphic
ceramics in that it displays a radial Arabic inscription which runs along the circumference
of the plates and bowls, a design not seen in epigraphic ware from Iraq. The style is
different however, with the letters on the silverware pointing outwards towards the rim,
unlike the majority of the slipware where the letters point inwards toward the center of the
vessel. Another difference is the dedicatory content of the inscriptions on the metalware
which has no parallel in the ceramics.

31
Blair, ​Text and Image,​ 24
32
Grube, ​Art of Islamic Pottery​, 214
33
ibid.
34
Blair, T ​ ext and Image,​ 27
35
Ibid.,​ ​27-28, fig. 2.13. The function of these vessels, which bare the name of Abu’l-Abbas Valgin and
are
dated c.1000, was probably a wine service. They are dated c.1000, and are currently in the Tehran
Museum of Islamic Art.

13
 figure 8​: Bowl, Samanid, 10th century (imitation lusterware)
Nishapur or Afrasiyab, 17.2 x 8.5 cm
The David Collection

Inscriptions
The ornamentation of Samanid glazed slipware was extremely varied, including abstract
geometric patterns and occasionally figural designs, especially birds, but one type of
decoration stands out both by the large amount of pieces found as well as the quality and
inventiveness of the designs - Arabic inscriptions. Although inscriptions in Arabic were
already occasionally used to decorate ceramic ware in Abbasid Iraq, the Samanid
slipware was the first group of ceramics to be consistently decorated with calligraphic
writing36, and the script reached such a high artistic level that at times it “equals the best
calligraphy in Qurans of the period”.37
The inscriptions on Samanid slipware are mostly in Kufic, a rectilinear script often
utilized for Quran manuscripts and monumental inscriptions on buildings. On the
slipware two types of scripts can be discerned. The first, utilizing straight lines and
geometric shapes, was produced by applying a thick layer of slip and then removing the
excess with a sharp tool, thus producing crisp sharp lettering (fig. 9). The second type,

36
Oya Pancaroglu, ​Functions of Literary Epigraphy on Medieval Islamic Ceramics,
​http://islamicceramics.ashmolean.org/Samanids/oya-part-one.htm​,
(Oxford: The Ashmolean Museum Website, accessed Sep. 5, 2001)
37
Ernst Grube, ​Cobalt and Luster: the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, vol. IX,​
(New York: The Nour Foundation, 1994), no. 66
14
perhaps related to the widespread adoption of paper taking place at the time, is more
calligraphic in nature with strokes of varying thickness and opacity seems to have been
applied much like brush and ink, and often displays characteristic vertical strokes with
tails or bodies leaning to the left in a 45° angle (fig.10). Variously designated ‘eastern
kufic’, ‘kufi-naskhi’, or ‘broken cursive’, in was in wide use by the second half of the
10th century.38

​figure 9​: detail of Samanid bowl ​figure 10​: detail of Samanid Bowl
Nishapur or Afrasiyab, 10th / 11th century Nishapur or Afrasiyab, 10th century
Harry B. Plotnick Collection Arthur M. Sackler Museum

A radial layout was usually employed, although some vessels display linear
inscriptions much like the earlier Iraqi cobalt-blue ware. The base of the letters was near
the rim, with the letters pointing inwards and in the finer pieces the tall verticals such as
​ nd ​lam​ w
alif​ a ​ ere spaced so as to give a pleasing visual rhythm, at times resembling
spokes on a wheel (fig.1). In some cases two concentric bands of inscriptions were
employed, either all in black or with one of the bands a bright red (fig.11). The word
​ laced in the center of some bowls attributed to Nishapur (fig.5, no. 4) is
ahmad​ p
interpreted by Wilkinson to be a form of blessing (may he do that which is praiseworthy)
rather than the name of a potter or workshop39, paralleling the word ​barakah​ (blessing)
placed in the center of bowls attributed by Wilkinson to Afrasiyab (fig.5 no.3). Only in

38
Blair ​Text and Image,​ 35
39
ibid., 94
15
rare instances is the name of the patron inscribed, such as on a large bowl in the Doha
Museum of Islamic Art where the name Abu Ja ͑far ibn ͑Arib is written in red.40

figure 11​: bowl, Samanid, 10th century

Nishapur or Afrasiyab, 26.9 x 9.6 cm
Arthur M. Sackler Museum

40
Blair, ​Text and Image,​ 41 fig 2.18
16
Additional Decorative Elements
Additional markings occasionally found on on the epigraphic ware include diacritical dots
to distinguish between letters, and symbols with differing shapes such as bells, rings or
foliate leaves to mark the beginning and end of phrases within the text (fig.12). Many
times the center of the dishes often displays a decorative mark, most often a simple dot but
including groups of several dots, interlaced patterns, swastikas and a derivative version of
the Chinese ‘Yin-Yang’ symbol resembling a pair of tadpoles41 (fig.13). The Samanid
ware often exhibit additional abstract or vegetal decorative areas in addition to the
inscriptions, such as ornamental bands, whirling rosettes, half-circles or wedges on the
rim, and any other number and combination of devices which at may even fill up the entire
surface. Wilkinson has shown that several of these markings may give hints regarding the
origin of the ware to a specific site (fig.5).

figure 12​: symbols marking the end of phrase

figure 13​: markings found in the center of Samanid slipware

41
Wilkinson, ​Nishapur​, 91
17
Development of Epigraphic Styles
In her seminal study about plaited kufic inscriptions on Samanid pottery, Lisa Golombek
[Volov] grouped the kufic letters into five basic forms42, developing further a method
created by Samuel Flury. At first decorative devices were confined to a specific basic
form affecting all letters of that form in the same way43, while in later examples
decorative “themes”44, such as elongation and floriation, would be applied across letter
groups. The kufic letters were at the same time treated as ‘building-blocks’ of both
epigraphic and aesthetic content - they served in parallel to construct a verbal message
and create an effective design.
Golombek also noticed that the decorative devices affect the letters in three different
“degrees of transformation”. The first is a change in proportions of a letter, such as
elongation, with no other changes. Transformations of the second degree consist of
modification of the basic structure of the latter, such as knotting a tall letter or plaiting the
bars of a square one. The third degree is the superposition of ornaments such as scrolls
and palmettes on the letter, leaving the basic form intact (fig.14).

figure 14​: degrees of transformation

reproduced from ​Plaited Kufic on Samanid Epigraphic Pottery​ by Lisa Volov [Golombek], 1966

Samanid epigraphic ware proved to be a true melting pot of decorative motifs, with
some of them ‘mined’ from older decoration and others inspired by artistic media from
the far reaches of the Islamic world. Foliated Kufic originated in Egypt in the early 9th
century45, eventually becoming the magnificent floriated style which was the hallmark of
the Fatimids. The arc also arrived from the west, first appearing on Samanid coins by the

42
Vertical, Rectangular, Round, Low and Oblique
43
Lisa Volov, ​Plaited Kufi​c on Samanid Epigraphic Pottery, Ars Orientalis Vol. 6 (1966), 113
44
A theme is the underlying transformation behind similar decorative devices, e.g. the rising tail on “waw”
and the extended vertical “alif” are both manifestations of the theme of “elongation”
45
Sheila Blair, ​Islamic Inscriptions​ (Edinburgh University Press, 1994), 79
18
end of the 9th century.46 The interlace, which was a more distinctive feature of Eastern
Iran, is first recorded in Yemeni ikat cotton fabrics on which interlaced kufic letters in
gold thread were embroidered47. All these decorative motifs were integrated by the
Samanid artists into a single coherent style, which in some cases appears to become a
purely abstract form of art. The inscriptions had become virtually illegible, the textual
content relegated a to secondary role in relation to the aesthetic value of the calligraphy.
Commenting on this apparent lack of concern for legibility, Wilkinson stated that

Actually, the borderline between comprehension of a verbal meaning and

acceptance of simply a pattern may have been as vague to the
Nishapurians themselves [...] as it is to those of us who study their
ceramics.48

Dating
Another observation made by Golombek was that the three degrees of transformation did
not appear simultaneously, and she devised a chronology of three “series” roughly
corresponding to the degrees described above. The first series consists of a rather
straightforward script with the only decorative device being tall extended verticals,
spaced out to achieve a pleasing rhythm by the elongation of connectors and square
letters. The script on these dishes is a simple kufic of often exceptional calligraphic
quality, with the stark contrast between the black letters and pale ground recalling the
effect of a Quran manuscript page49 (fig.15). The second series is similar to the first but
includes the addition of plaited rectangular letters (fig.16). The third series shows an
explosion of innovative decorative themes, with devices such arcs, knots, scrolls,
foliation, and floriation, often placed in a separate decorative “band” above the letters
themselves (fig.17). Additional ornamental motifs are also common, especially in wares
from Afrasiyab (fig.5). Basing this chronology on studies of other media such as coins
and monumental inscriptions, Golombek assigned the starting dates of the three series to
the middle 9th, late 9th, and early 10th centuries respectively, allowing us to give a rough
time frame to the various styles of Samanid pottery.

46
Volov, ​Plaited Kufic,​ 123
47
Blair, ​Text and Image,​ 43, fig.2.20
48
Wilkinson, ​Nishapur​, 93
49
Grube, ​Cobalt and Luster,​ no.66
19
 figure 15​: detail of Samanid bowl (series I), 9th / 10 century
Nishapur or Afrasiyab​, 26.6 x 8.2 cm
Sotheby’s, Art of the Islamic World, ​Oct 3, 2012, London, Lot 12

​ āl​’​),​ 10th Century

figure 16​: detail of Samanid bowl shown in fig.1 (series II - note plaited ​‘d
Nishapur or Afrasiyab, 45.7 x 17.8 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art

figure 17​: detail of Samanid bowl ( series III), 10th century

Nishapur or Afrasiyab​, 27 x 10 cm
David Collection, Copenhagen

20
 Social Context of Samanid Epigraphic Ware

Content of Inscriptions
The contents of the inscriptions on epigraphic ware generally fall into three groups. The
first consists of blessings, usually to the owner of the vessel, either in a single word such
as ​barakeh (​ blessing), or in a chain of nouns connected by the word ​wa​ (​ and), like the
inscription on a bowl from Afrasiyab (fig.18) - ​al-barakah wa’l-ghibta wa’l-ni’ma 
wa’l-salama wa’l-sa’ada​ (blessing, happiness, beneficence, well-being, and felicity). The
second group of inscriptions includes exhortations to eat or drink, such as the formula ​kul 
hanniyan mariyyan​ (eat with pleasure and appetite) on a bowl in the Museum for Islamic
Art in Jerusalem (fig.19).

​figure 18​: bowl, Samanid, 10th / early 11th century figure 19​: bowl, Samanid, 10th / 11th century
Afrasiyab (?), 35.6 x 15.5 cm Nishapur or Afrasiyab, 12.5 x 6.2 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum of Islamic Art, Jerusalem

The third group, which comprises most of the epigraphic slipware produced under the
Samanids, contains moralizing sayings and aphorisms concerned with virtues such as
generosity, patience, modesty, deliberation, and the pursuit of knowledge. Unlike the two
previous groups, which have precedents in the cobalt-blue ware of Abbasid Iraq,
aphorisms of this type are found almost exclusively on Samanid slipware.50 Thanks to the

Oya Pancaroglu, ​Studies in Islamic and Later Indian Art (​Cambridge MA: Harvard University Art
50

Museums, 2002), 61.

21
extensive study of these proverbs by scholars such as O.G. Bolshakov51, Abdullah
Ghouchani52, and Oya Pancaroglu53, several interesting facts have come to light. While
there are almost no verses from the Quran, and a few are saying attributed to Muhammad
or other Islamic scholars, a surprisingly large number of them are related to Muhammad’s
son-in-law ͑Ali ibn Abi Talib.54

Social Environment
Oya Pancaroglu posits the possibility that the proverbs which adorn this type of pottery,
dealing with virtues such as generosity and knowledge, may be linked to the concept of
adab,​ the process of education in moral and intellectual contexts in medieval Islamic
society.55 Developed during the Abbasid period, this term refers to the ideal upbringing of
a gentleman-scholar, or ​adib,​ who would be

conscious of notions of ethical behaviour, be familiar with [...] the major

branches of learning, and equipped with the eloquence necessary to
distinguish himself in social and intellectual gatherings called ​majlis.​ 56

Pancaroglu suggests that these gatherings are precisely the backdrop for the display and
use of this type of ceramic dishes, where most if not all of the participants, by virtue of
their education as ​adib,​ would be able to recognize and appreciate the moral content of
the inscriptions. Moreover, sayings related to ideals such as generosity would have a
visible application when the dishes on which they are inscribed are utilized to offer food
and drink to the participants of the ​majlis,​ g​ iving these plates and bowls a ‘voice’ in a
direct communication with the person using them. Several sayings which have no relation
to the context of a social gathering may be a secondary development arising from the
original function.

A few exceptions exist, such as a 9th century Abbasid bowl in the British Museum inscribed with a line
of poetry.
51
Bolshakov publishes a series of studies of these inscriptions in Russian under the title “​Arabskie
Nadpisi
na polivnoy keramike sredney azii IX-XII​” in the journal “Epigrafika Vostoka” in the years 1958-1969
52
Abdallah Ghouchani, ​Inscriptions on Nishapur Pottery​ (Tehran: Reza Abbasi Museum), 1986
53
Pancaroglu, ​Studies​, 59-75. See footnote 36
54
Sheila Blair, ​Islamic Inscriptions,​ 150
55
Pancaroglu, ​Studies​, 62
56
ibid.
22
 The idea of inscribing everyday objects with poetic texts related to their use was
considered by several contemporary writers in other regions of the Islamic lands, such as
the 10th century Baghdadi author Abul Tayyib Muhammad al-Washsha, who devoted the
last 20 of 56 chapters to the subject in his book ​Kitab al-Muwashsha.57 ​The ​Qābūsnāma,
written in Persian in 1082 by a member of the Ziyarid dynasty in Tabaristan58 as a guide
for his son, discusses in several chapters the proper manner of eating, drinking, and
hosting. Pancaroglu notes that this text is

closest to the Samanids in period, geography, and cultural orientation [...] the
chapter on the etiquette of eating states that it is the “rule of Islam” (​shart-i
islam​) that while eating in company [...] one must take time from the
consumption of food to converse with one’s fellow diners. The author then
emphasises the importance of of generosity on the part of the host and
moderation on the part of the guest59

Here then are the rules and guidelines of a refined culture, prescribing the manner in
which to participate in social activities which by nature require the wealth, free time, and
polite behaviour which are everywhere the hallmarks of the upper classes, whether the
patricians of ancient Rome or 19th-century British aristocrats. These prescriptions “fit
remarkably well with the content and tone of the proverbs”60 and allow us to imagine the
cultural environment in which the Samanid slipware was produced.

Patrician Class
The upper class of Samanid society took the form of a merchant patrician class, which
was made up of ​dihqans,​ the Persian land-owning elite which had existed before the
Muslim conquest, together with Arab families which had arrived in the wake of the
conquest of Eastern Iran and had assimilated culturally as well as via intermarriage
relatively quickly.61 Although ultimately subject to the regional or imperial ruling

57
Pancaroglu, ​Studies​., 63
58
An area bordering Khorasan on the south shore of the Caspian sea
59
Pancaroglu, ​Studies ​64
60
ibid.
61
Richard Bulliet, ​Patricians of Nishapur​ (Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press, 1972), 16-17
While from the title it is clear Bulliet is dealing only with the city of Nishapur, I am assuming that the
social processes were at least similar in other cities of the region, such as Samarqand.
23
dynasty, the patrician classes kept considerable power, and they were often consulted in
decisions concerning affairs of their city.62
Much like the upper classes in any other period or place, in Samanid society a good
education was “symbolic of good breeding and wealth”, and it implied family
connections and social status63. Although a wide range of subjects was taught, including
medicine and ‘belles lettres’, much of the material was religious in nature and taught in
Arabic, creating a de-facto barrier preventing the majority of the lower classes, who
spoke only Persian, from taking part.64

Clientele
One of the central unanswered questions regarding Samanid epigraphic slipware is the
identity of the intended market. It seems logical that the bilingual, sophisticated patrician
class described above were the social group for whom the epigraphic ceramics were
probably intended, and the use of Arabic on these dishes fits well with the fact that
knowledge of this language was a marker of a good education and thus of membership in
this exclusive group.
And yet, some questions remain unanswered. As we have seen, these pieces were
produced during a ‘renaissance’ of Persian culture whose natural inclination was figural
imagery, as can be seen both in Sassanid artworks and many artefacts of the Islamic era
itself, such as a silver plate displaying a Senmurv (fig.20), a textile emblazoned with two
bulls (fig.21), or the many buffware ceramics decorated with animal and human figures,
yet surprisingly the epigraphic slipware display an absolute lack of imagery.65 The almost
total lack of mention of Allah or verses from the Quran, also bears explanation, as the
patrician classes were on the whole highly religious, and the Samanids themselves based
their legitimacy on their devotion to Islam.

62
Bulliet, ​Patricians​, p.62
63
ibid., p.47
64
ibid., p.54
65
There are some famous examples of Samanid slipware decorated with birds, but they are not
epigraphic
and may have been intended for a different market.
24
 ​ figure 20​: plate, Samanid, 10th century figure 21​: textile fragment, 8th / 9th century
Eastern Iran or Central Asia, 35.8 cm Eastern Iran or Central Asia, 38.5 x 32.5 cm
silver, partly gilded samitum-woven silk
Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin David collection, Copenhagen

Lisa Golombek [Volov] mentions two possible social groups to whom this style may
have catered. The first is an “Arab aristocracy residing within Samanid domains”, and the
second a “highly moralistic class of Defenders of the Faith on the borders of the
Dar-al-Islam”66. It seems to me the latter group of religious warriors are an unlikely
market, mainly due to the fact that the ceramics are fragile and expensive, and thus would
not have great appeal to religious warriors who by their very nature must constantly be on
the move and have little love for material luxury. Another reason to discount these devout
soldiers as possible consumers of the slipware is that they bear no hint of religious
attitude, and what’s more, many of the pieces carry inscriptions attributed to Ali. While
of course Ali himself is greatly respected by all Muslims, the emphasis almost solely on
him (as opposed to Muhammad, or other well known figures) is, at the very least, strange
when we are concerned with ​Sunni r​ eligious warriors.
These very references to Ali, however, may be pointing us in the right direction. The
first proposed group mentioned by Golombek is an “Arab” aristocratic class. This is a
curious term, since although it has been shown above that the patrician classes in
Samanid urban society were the most obvious candidates for the clientele of this ware, on
the whole there was no clear distinction between Arab and non-Arab in the upper classes

66
Volov, ​Plaited Kufic,​ 108. In her article, Golombek attributes these suggestions to Dr. Oleg Grabar
25
due to assimilation and intermarriage67. There was, however, one group which jealously
guarded its Arab legacy for reasons of religious and social prestige - the Alids.

The Alids
The Alids are those families descended from the ͑Ali ibn Abi Talib, who was the fourth
and final Rashidun Caliph. Ali was the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad by his
marriage to Muhammad's daughter Fatima, and therefore the Alids can also trace their
bloodline back to Mohammed himself.
Although especially revered by the Shiites as the first Imam, the figure of Ali is
respected in all Muslim culture for his courage, wisdom, devotion to Muhammad and
deep faith in Islam. Thus the individuals descended from him were also shown this
respect and Richard Bulliet describes the Alids in Nishapur as “a blood aristocracy
without peer, a special category in Islamic society whose individual members may belong
to any other social category as well”.68
The Alids did not have an exclusive religious affiliation69, and prominent Alid
individuals were just as likely to be Sunni, Shiite, or Sufi, a mystical branch of Islam
which itself counted among its members both Sunnis and Shiites. The Alids are attested
in Khorasan in the mid-9th century70, arriving from the west via Tabaristan and Jurjan,
and by the early 10th century Nishapur seems to have had a substantial Alid population71
while Samarqand also had an Alid elite.72 On the whole Samanid-Alid relations were
generally good73, and the Alid families quickly became part of the ruling patrician
classes.
Taking into account the characteristics of the Alid families in Samanid lands, we see
that they provide a virtually perfect match for the attributes of the supposed ‘Arab
aristocracy’ mentioned by Golombek as the probable clientele of the epigraphic slipware.
First of all they were highly conscious of their Arab ancestry and so would have the
cultural inclination, shared across the patrician class, to appreciate epigraphic ware
written in Arabic with no figural decoration - a glaring divergence from the Persian
cultural renaissance taking place around them. Secondly, as members of the patrician

67
Bulliet, ​Patricians ,​ 16
68
ibid., 234
69
Teresa Bernheimer, ​The Rise of Sayyids and Sadat,​ Studia Islamica No. 100/101 (2005), 47
70
ibid., 50
71
ibid., 51
72
ibid., 44
73
ibid., 55
26
class they had the wealth, leisure time, and scholarly upbringing necessary to purchase,
understand, and appreciate these high quality ​objects d’art​ ware which Arthur Lane
described as having a beauty of the “highest intellectual order”.74 Thirdly, as members of
families descended directly from Ali and owing to this descent their high place in society,
the Alids would certainly have a high affinity for the content of the inscriptions on many
of these dishes - proverbs concerning or attributed to Ali. Indeed several plates, such as
one in the Islamic Museum in Jerusalem (fig.22), are inscribed with the statement “There
is no youth but Ali, and no sword but Du’l-Fikar” referencing the famous bifurcated
sword given by Muhammad to Ali and which became an “important Alid symbol”,75 and
the high prestige awarded them by their descent would certainly be a motivation to
display dishes bearing these inscriptions in public. Despite the claim by Sheila Blair that
many of the adages on these dishes “extol Shi’ism”,76 on the whole these saying are
concerned specifically with the person of Ali to the exclusion of any other Shiite ideal or
religious figure, and so would seem to have had far more appeal to the Alids as a social
class rather than to the marginalized minority of Shiites in eastern Iran. It therefore seems
likely that the Alids were a major part of the market for Samanid epigraphic ware.

figure 22​: plate, Samanid, 10th / 11th century

Nishapur or Afrasiyab, 38 x 3.5 cm
Museum of Islamic Art, Jerusalem

74
Arthur Lane, ​Early Islamic Pottery​ (London: ​Faber and Faber​, 1958), 18
75
Blair, ​Text and Image​ , 31-32
76
In one instance, a proverb about generosity is attributed to both Ali and the seventh Imam,
Musa al-Kazim. See Ghouchani ​Inscriptions on Nishapur Pottery,​ no.14
27
 Conclusion

In this paper we have presented an overview of the development of Samanid epigraphic

ware, including the historical, cultural and social background, stylistic influences and
innovations, and technical methods.
Ceramic imports from China, which were highly valued in Islamic lands, created a
market which local potters tried to exploit by imitating the look of the brilliant,
translucent porcelain. These Iraqi dishes, covered with an opaque white glaze and bearing
Arabic inscriptions in Cobalt blue, were in turn imported to the Samanid domain were
they themselves became the object of imitation by potters working in Nishapur and
Samarqand, thus giving their products the distinctive minimalist look of bare white
surface bearing inscriptions in Arabic.
These Inscriptions, initially written in a Kufic script similar to that used in Quran
manuscripts, were developed by the introduction and assimilation of decorative motifs
from across the Islamic world, such as arcs and floriation from the West, and interlacing
from the East and South. Methods to approximate the date and origin Samanid epigraphic
pottery were described, taken from studies by Lisa Golombek and Charles Wilkinson
respectively, and finally, based on studies by Pancaroglu, Bulliet, and Bernheimer, a
theory was put forth to explain the form, style, and content of the inscriptions of this
slipware as either directly commissioned by or simply catering to the Patrician classes of
the Samanid cities, especially the Alid families who were the most logical clientele of
sophisticated, expensive ceramics which often bear proverbs related to Ali ibn Abi Talib.
The development of the unique style of Samanid epigraphic slipware can be compared
to the development of medieval Gothic architecture from the preceding Romanesque. All
the elements which make up the Gothic style - pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying
buttresses - already existed in the Romanesque, but it was the integration of all these
elements into a coherent unified whole which defines the Gothic style. And so it is in our
case - various decorative elements, all already utilized in Islamic pottery, such as
epigraphic decoration, sparse covering of the surface, restrained color scheme, and kufic
script - coalesced in the mid 9th century in the Samanid lands into a highly distinctive
style which is considered today an exceptional artistic achievement.

28
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