Abstract
In this paper we will attempt a macrohistorical examination of the Silk Roads and the resulting dissemination of ceramic techniques. Our research will concentrate on lustre technique in the production of ceramics. Lustre Pottery comes into existence at the beginning of the 9th c. in Abbasid Iraq and remained in use during the Fatimid, Seljuk, Ilkhanid and Safavid eras. Thence, it spread westwards to central and western Mediterranean, to Italy and Andalusia. Lustre Pottery technique was later adopted in Western Europe, finding its way in the workshop of internationally acclaimed British potter and ceramic scholar Alan Caiger-Smith (1930–2020). Our paper will concentrate on the enduring interest in the art of Lustre Pottery and the enchanting qualities of the surfaces it creates, irrespective of the cultural background of their provenance as well as on the strong continuity in the exchange of ideas and commercial goods between Europe and Asia which builds on the Silk Roads.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akbari, A.: The Vessel. Peykareh Publications (2013)
al-Hassan, A.Y.: Studies in al-Kimya’: Critical Issues in Latin and Arabic Alchemy and Chemistry. Olms (2009)
Allan, J.W.: Abū’l-Qāsim’s treatise on ceramics. Iran 11, 111–120 (1973)
Amorós, R.V., Gutiérrez, L.S.: Ceramics in transition: ceramics from the first Islamic period in the western Mediterranean—the example of al-Andalus. Libyan Stud. 51, 99–125 (2020)
Barisitz, S.: Central Asia and the Silk Road: Economic Rise and Decline over Several Millennia. Springer (2017)
Blackman, M.J., Redford, S.: Lustre and fritware production and distribution in medieval Syria. J. Field Archaeol. 24, 233–247 (1997)
Caiger-Smith, A.: Lustre pottery: Technique, Tradition, and Innovation in Islam and the Western world. Faber and Faber (1985)
Çizer, S.: Lüster. Tarihi, Tekniği, Sanatı. İzmir (2010)
de la Vaissière, É.: Sogdian Traders: A History. Leiden (2005)
Flood, F.B.: Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval “Hindu-Muslim” Encounter. Princeton University Press (2009)
Frankopan, P.: The Silk Roads. A New History of the World. Bloomsbury (2015)
Frothingham, A.W.: Lustreware of Spain: Printed by Order of the Trustees. Hispanic Society of America (1951)
George, A.: Direct Sea Trade Between Early Islamic Iraq and Tang China: From the Exchange of Goods to the Transmission of Ideas. J. R. Asiat. Soc. 25(4), 579–624 (2015)
Golombek, L., Mason, R.B., Proctor, S.P., Reilly, E.: Persian Pottery in the First Global Age: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Brill (2014)
Gutas, D.: Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: the Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ʻAbbāsid Society (2nd–4th/8th–10th centuries). Routledge (1998)
Hoffman, E.R., Redford, S.: Transculturation in the Eastern Mediterranean. In: Necipoğlu, G., Flood, F.B. (eds.) Blackwell Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, vol. 1, pp. 405–430. Wiley-Blackwell (2017)
Hunt, L.B.: Gold in the pottery industry. The history and technology of gilding processes. Gold Bull. 12, 116–127 (1979)
Jenkins, M.: Early medieval Islamic pottery: the eleventh century reconsidered. Muqarnas 9, 56–66 (1992)
Kapitaikin, L.A.: Sicily and the staging of multiculturalism. In: Necipoğlu, G., Flood, F.B. (eds.) Blackwell Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, vol. 1, pp. 378–404. Wiley-Blackwell (2017)
Karakitsos, S.: Chinese porcelains embedded in Omani Miḥrābs. International trade and cultural relations. In: Fu, Z., Ziaka, A. (eds.) The Silk Roads Between China and Oman. Networks of Communication and Transmission of Ibadi Knowledge, pp. 121–144. Olms (2021)
Kervran, M.: Les niveaux islamiques du secteur oriental du Tépé de l’Apadana. Cahiers De La Délé Gation Archéologique Frangaise En Iran 7, 75–161 (1977)
Lewicki, T.: Les premiers commerçants Arabes en Chine. Rocznik Orientalistyczny 11, 173–186 (1935)
Lightbown, W.R., Caiger-Smith, A.: Cipriano Piccolpasso. The Three Books of the Potter’s Art = I Tre Libri Dell’arte Del Vasaio: A Facsimile of the Manuscript in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Scholar Press (1980)
Martin, F.R.: Lustre on glass and pottery in Egypt from the period of Hadrian to Saladin. Collana di Studi D’arte Ceramic, 3rd edn. Lega (1929)
Mason, R.B., Keall, E.J.: The ‘Abbāsid glazed wares of Sīrāf and the Baṣra connection: petrographic analysis. Iran 29, 51–66 (1991)
Mason, R.B., Tite, M.S.: The beginnings of Islamic stonepaste technology. Archaeometry 36, 77–91 (2007)
Mason, R.B.: Medieval Syrian lustre-painted and associated wares: typology in a multidisciplinary study. Levant 29, 169–200 (1997)
Messina, M., Arcifa, L., Barone, G., Finocchiaro, C., Mazzoleni, P.: Islamic pottery production in eastern Sicily (10th-11th centuries): preliminary archaeometric data on local and imported products from Paternò (Sicily). Mediter. Archaeol. Archaeom. 18(5), 207–223 (2018)
Necipoğlu, G.: The concept of Islamic art: ınherited discourses and new approaches. In: Benoit, J., Georges, K., Stefan, W., Gerhard, W. (eds.) Art and the Museum. Saqi Books (2012)
Park, H.: Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds. Cross-Cultural Exchange in Pre-modern Asia. Cambridge (2012)
Peponis, D.V.: Peri tis Dimiourgias tou Kratous (on the creation of the state). Cosmoidioglossia. https://cosmoidioglossia.blogspot.com/2021/02/blog-post_7.html (2021). Accessed Nov 2021
Perdue, P.: Silk Road. In: Mokyr J. (ed.) The Oxford Encyxlopedia of Economic History. Oxford (2003)
Roqué, J., Molera, J., Cepriá, G., Vendrell, M., Pérez-Arantegui, J.: Analytical study of the behaviour of some ingredients used in lustre ceramic decorations following different recipes. Phase Transitions 18, 267–282 (2008)
Saba, M.D.: Abbasid Lusterware and the Aestetics of ʿAjab. Muqarnas 29, 187–212 (2012)
Sarre, F., Herzfeld, E., Arnold, H.: Die Keramik von Samarra. Reimer (1925)
Shen, H.M.: The China–Abbasid Ceramics Trade during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. In: Necipoğlu, G., Flood, F.B. (eds.) Blackwell Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, vol. 1, pp. 197–217. Wiley-Blackwell (2017)
Watson, O.: Ceramics and circulation. In: Necipoğlu, G., Flood, F.B. (eds.) Blackwell Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, pp. 479–500. Wiley-Blackwell (2017)
Watson, O.: Persian lustre-painted pottery, the Rayy and Kashan styles. Trans. Orient. Ceram. Soc. 40, 1–19 (1975a)
Watson, O.: Persian lustre ware, from the 14th to the 19th centuries. In: Le Monde Iranien et l’Islam, 3rd edn, pp. 63–80 (1975b)
Watson, O.: Ceramics from Islamic Lands: The Al-Sabah Collection. Thames & Hudson (2004)
Whitehouse, D.: The growth of interest in Islamic glass. In: Carboni, S., Whitehouse, D. (eds.) Glass of the Sultans, pp. 8–13. MET (2001)
Wood, N., Priestman, S.: New light on Chinese tang dynasty and Iraqi blue and white. Bull. Chin. Ceram. Art Archaeol. 7, 47–60 (2016)
Ziakas, G.: Ta Ellinika Grammata kai o Aristotelis stin Araviki Paradosi [The Greek Letters and Aristotle in the Arabic Tradition]. Agra (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Karakitsos, S. (2023). The Lustre Pottery Techniques Continuum Through the Silk Roads. In: Kostopoulou, S., Herrera-Franco, G., Wood, J., Al-Kodmany, K. (eds) Cities’ Vocabularies and the Sustainable Development of the Silkroads. SRSTDCH 2021. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31027-0_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31027-0_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-31026-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-31027-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)