Ewer, possibly a pilgrim flask

• Accession Number:AKM540
• Place:Syria or Iran
• Dimensions:19 cm x 8 cm x 4 cm
• Date:9th Century
• Materials and Technique:Earthenware, moulded and with applied decoration under a transparent green glaze

While pilgrim flask shapes can be traced in the pre-Islamic Iranian world to as early as the second millennium BCE (Fehervari 2000, p. 29), flasks covered in glaze date to the later pre-Islamic Parthian (2nd c. BCE - 3rd c. CE) and Sasanian (2nd-7th c. CE) periods. According to Oliver Watson, in the early Islamic period, three distinct trends of glazed pottery appear, including the continuation of pre-Islamic glazed ceramics, the invention of new glazed ceramics, and the addition of new glazes on previously unglazed wares (Watson 2004, pp. 161-62). The present bottle falls within the first category: it has an oval form, its surface decorated with impressed and carved patterns and featuring the figure of a bird with a fish-like tail. The existence of an Arabic inscription in kufic, possibly a blessing, distinguishes the flask from its pre-Islamic models; the outline format of the calligraphy can be found on early ceramic dishes from this part of the world (see, for example, a dish in the David Collection, Copenhagen, published in von Folsach 2001, p. 129 [no. 99, inv. no. 50/1999]; and one in the British Museum, London, published in Pancaroglu 2007, p. 29 [fig. 14, inv. no. OA1963.4-24.1]). The ceramic technique and bird motif, however, pre-date the Islamic period. Representations of birds in profile may have been inspired by Sasanian prototypes of different media (Auld 2005, p. 5) (see Harper 1978, pp. 63-65 [nos. 19, 21, 26, 49, and 77]). The shape of the present flask is rare among the variety of Islamic pilgrim flasks; the closest parallel found for it so far is also a one-handled vessel with a design of birds carved in relief, which is in a Japanese private collection.

References
Géza Fehérvári, Ceramics of the Islamic world in the Tareq Rajab Museum. London 2000. ISBN: 9781860644306
Oliver Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands. London, 2004. ISBN: 9780500976340
Kjeld von Folsach, Art from the World of Islam in The David Collection. Copenhagen: Davids Samling, 2001. ISBN: 9788788464214
Oya Pancaroblu, Perpetual Glory. Medieval Islamic Ceramics from the Harvey B. Plotnick Collection. Chicago 2007. ISBN: 9780300119435