Download the full version of the ebook at ebookfinal.

com

Text and Image in Persian Art From the Samanids to

the Safavids 1st Edition Sheila Blair

https://ebookfinal.com/download/text-and-image-in-persian-
art-from-the-samanids-to-the-safavids-1st-edition-sheila-
blair/

OR CLICK BUTTON

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Download more ebook instantly today at https://ebookfinal.com

Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) available
Download now and explore formats that suit you...

The Image of Christ in Modern Art Richard Harries

https://ebookfinal.com/download/the-image-of-christ-in-modern-art-
richard-harries/

ebookfinal.com

Envisioning the Past Archaeology and the Image New

Interventions in Art History 1st Edition Sam Smiles

https://ebookfinal.com/download/envisioning-the-past-archaeology-and-
the-image-new-interventions-in-art-history-1st-edition-sam-smiles/

ebookfinal.com

Text Image and Otherness in Children s Bibles What Is in

the Picture 1st Edition Hugh S. Pyper

https://ebookfinal.com/download/text-image-and-otherness-in-children-
s-bibles-what-is-in-the-picture-1st-edition-hugh-s-pyper/

ebookfinal.com

Self Projection The Director s Image in Art Cinema 1st

Edition Linda Haverty Rugg

https://ebookfinal.com/download/self-projection-the-director-s-image-
in-art-cinema-1st-edition-linda-haverty-rugg/

ebookfinal.com
Basics Illustration 03 Text and Image Mark 'Wigan'
Williams

https://ebookfinal.com/download/basics-illustration-03-text-and-image-
mark-wigan-williams/

ebookfinal.com

Beyond the Text Franciscan Art and the Construction of

Religion 1st Edition Xavier Seubert

https://ebookfinal.com/download/beyond-the-text-franciscan-art-and-
the-construction-of-religion-1st-edition-xavier-seubert/

ebookfinal.com

Crowds And Democracy The Idea And Image Of The Masses From
Revolution To Fascism 1st Edition Edition Stefan Jonsson

https://ebookfinal.com/download/crowds-and-democracy-the-idea-and-
image-of-the-masses-from-revolution-to-fascism-1st-edition-edition-
stefan-jonsson/
ebookfinal.com

Representing from Life in Seventeenth century Italy 1st

Edition Sheila Mctighe

https://ebookfinal.com/download/representing-from-life-in-seventeenth-
century-italy-1st-edition-sheila-mctighe/

ebookfinal.com

Tango Lessons Movement Sound Image and Text in

Contemporary Practice 1st Edition Marilyn G. Miller

https://ebookfinal.com/download/tango-lessons-movement-sound-image-
and-text-in-contemporary-practice-1st-edition-marilyn-g-miller/

ebookfinal.com
 EDINBURGH STUDIES IN ISLAMIC ART EDINBURGH STUDIES IN ISLAMIC ART

SERIES EDITOR:ROBERT HILLENBRAND SERIES EDITOR:ROBERT HILLENBRAND

Medieval Persian Art

ADVISORY EDITORS: BERNARD O’KANE AND JONATHAN M. BLOOM

Text and Image in

This series offers readers easy access to the most up-to-date research across the whole range of Islamic
art, representing various parts of the Islamic world, media and approaches. Books in the series are
academic monographs of intellectual distinction that mark a significant advance in the field.

Text and Image in

Medieval Persian Art
Sheila S. Blair

Investigates the interaction between word and image in

medieval Persian art through a series of case studies
Technically some of the finest produced anywhere, the artworks created in greater Iran from the tenth to the sixteenth
century are also intellectually engaging in showing the lively interaction between the verbal and the visual arts.
Focusing on five objects produced in the main media used during this period (ceramics, metalwares, architecture,
illustrated manuscripts, and textiles), this beautifully illustrated study shows how artisans played with form, material,
and decoration to engage and “speak to” their audiences. It also shows how the reception of these objects has changed
and demonstrates that their present context – whether on a museum shelf or in the middle of an excavation – has
implications for our understanding of the past. Each chapter begins with a careful study of the object and moves to

Sheila S. Blair
broader theories of function, reception, and display.

Key Features
• Includes over 100 colour illustrations of the objects and buildings explored in the text
• Studies five different media: ceramics, metalwares, architecture, illustrated manuscripts, and textiles
• Looks at what happened to the objects since production and the impact of their current display
• Gives a nuanced view of Persian art in the context of Iranian history

Sheila S. Blair is Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College and
Hamad Bin Khalifa Endowed Chair of Islamic Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has written and edited
numerous books on all aspects of Islamic art, including Islamic Calligraphy (Edinburgh University Press, 2006).
Text and Image in
Medieval Persian Art
Edinburgh

Cover image: Celebrations for the consummation of Humay’s marriage to Humayun © The British Library Board (Add. 18113, f.45v).
Cover design: Cathy Sprent.
Sheila S. Blair
 Text and Image in
Medieval Persian Art

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd i 28/11/2013 11:47

 Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art
Series Editor: Professor Robert Hillenbrand
Advisory Editors: Bernard O’Kane and Jonathan M. Bloom

Titles include:
Isfahan and its Palaces: Statecraft, Shiism and the Architecture of
Conviviality in Early Modern Iran
Sussan Babaie
Text and Image in Medieval Persian Art
Sheila S. Blair
The Minaret
Jonathan M. Bloom
The “Wonders of Creation”: A Study of the Ilkhanid “London
Qazwini”
Stefano Carboni
Islamic Chinoiserie: The Art of Mongol Iran
Yuka Kadoi
The Shrines of the Alids in Medieval Syria: Sunnis, Shiis and the
Architecture of Coexistence
Stephennie Mulder
Amirid Artistic and Cultural Patronage in Al-Andalus
Mariam Rosser Owen
China’s Early Mosques
Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt

www.euppublishing.com/series/esii

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd ii 09/12/2013 16:44

 Text and Image
in Medieval
Persian Art
Sheila S. Blair

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd iii 28/11/2013 11:47

 Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses
in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected
subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining
cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to
produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information
visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com

© Sheila S. Blair, 2014, 2019

Edinburgh University Press Ltd

The Tun – Holyrood Road
12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ

First published in hardback by Edinburgh University Press 2014

This paperback edition 2019

Typeset in 10/12 pt Trump Medieval by

Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire,
and printed and bound in Great Britian by Severn Print

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 7486 5578 6 (hardback)

ISBN 978 1 4744 4632 7 (paperback)

The right of Sheila S. Blair to be identified as author of this work has

been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI
No. 2498).

Published in association with al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar

al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 4 19/12/2018 08:41

 Contents

List of Figures vii

Series Editor’s Foreword xiii
Preface xiv

CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1

CHAPTER 2 The Art of Writing: A Bowl from Samarqand 11

Provenance 17
The ceramic setting 23
Inscriptions 30
Script 35
Clientele 38
Wider horizons 41
Afterlife 48

CHAPTER 3 Perfuming the Air: A Rosewater Sprinkler from

Herat 57
Provenance 61
The geographical and historical setting 67
Metalwares from Herat 78
Patronage 84
Function 87
Decoration 93
Afterlife 97

CHAPTER 4 Monumentality under the Mongols: The Tomb of

Uljaytu at Sultaniyya 112
Construction and redecoration 117
Reasons for redecoration 122
The pious foundation 128
The architectural setting 136
The tomb as inspiration for later Mongol rulers 146
The tomb as inspiration for the Ilkhanids’ rivals 153
Afterlife 159

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd v 28/11/2013 11:47

 vi TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

CHAPTER 5 A Romantic Interlude: The Wedding Celebrations

from a Manuscript with Three Poems by Khwaju
Kirmani 172
The text and its calligrapher 175
The illustrated folios 183
Adding the paintings 193
The royal setting 196
The role of women 203
Afterlife 210

CHAPTER 6 Proclaiming Sovereignty: The Ardabil Carpets 228

Provenance 233
The inscription 234
Gifts to shrines 242
Why Ardabil in the 1540s? 249
The repurposed Jannat Saray 257
Afterlife at the shrine 263
Afterlife in the west 266

CHAPTER 7 Conclusion 284

List of Abbreviations 292

Bibliography 293
Illustration Acknowledgments 319
Index 322

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd vi 28/11/2013 11:47

 Figures

1.1 Silver-gilt dish with relief decoration showing a

banquet in Sasanian style 2
1.2 Small silver dish with harpy and inscription around
the rim 3
1.3 Map of the greater Iranian lands 4
1.4 View of the Ghurid gallery in the David Collection,
Copenhagen 8
2.1 Interior of an earthenware bowl with slip-painted
decoration under a transparent glaze 11
2.2 Profile of the earthenware bowl shown in 2.1 12
2.3 Well of the earthenware bowl shown in 2.1 14
2.4 Rim of the earthenware bowl shown in 2.1 15
2.5 Citadel at Afrasiyab 17
2.6 Excavations by the Metropolitan Museum at
Nishapur 19
2.7 Earthenware ewer with polychrome decoration under a
transparent glaze 19
2.8 Earthenware bowl splashed with green, yellow, and
brown under a transparent glaze 20
2.9 Earthenware bowl with monochrome slip decoration
under a transparent glaze 21
2.10 Fragmentary well of an earthenware bowl decorated
with polychrome slips under a transparent glaze 22
2.11 Earthenware amphora painted in slip 24
2.12 Bowl decorated in manganese with splashes of green in
an opaque white glaze 27
2.13 Group of silver vessels inscribed with the name of
Abu’l-Abbas Valgin 28
2.14 Earthenware ewer painted in black slip under a
transparent glaze 31
2.15 Earthenware bowl painted in black and red slip under a
transparent glaze 32
2.16 Opening spread from a Quran manuscript copied by
Ali al-Razi in 874 36
2.17 Tiraz made at Marv for the Abbasid caliph al-Mustakfi 37

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd vii 28/11/2013 11:47

 viii TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

2.18 Earthenware bowl painted in red and black slips with

touches of green 41
2.19 Earthenware pen box with slip decoration in black 42
2.20 Ikat cotton painted with gold leaf outlined in black
ink 44
2.21 Gilded silver beaker made for Abu Said Iraq ibn
al-Husayn 45
2.22 Large ivory box made for the Umayyad general Abd
al-Malik in 1004–5 46
2.23 Silver medallion made for the Abbasid caliph
al-Muqtadir 47
2.24 Nishapur room in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as
opened in 1975 49
3.1 Brass rosewater sprinkler, hammered and inlaid with
silver and copper 58
3.2 Lions around the body of the rosewater sprinkler
shown in 3.1 59
3.3 Top of the rosewater sprinkler shown in 3.1 59
3.4 Sprinkler before cleaning 60
3.5 Brass candlestick, hammered, chased, and inlaid with
copper, silver, and a black organic material 61
3.6 Brass candlestick, hammered and chased 62
3.7 Brass candlestick, hammered and inlaid with silver
dated 1166 63
3.8 Brass ewer, hammered and inlaid with silver 64
3.9 Brass ewer, hammered and inlaid with silver and
copper dated 1181 65
3.10 Map of the Ghurid domains 68
3.11 Minaret of Jam in central Afghanistan 71
3.12 Two domed buildings at Chisht 73
3.13 Portal inscription on the later eastern building at
Chisht 75
3.14 Plan of the congregational mosque at Herat 76
3.15 Southeast portal of the congregational mosque at
Herat 77
3.16 Page from a bilingual copy of the Quran presented to
the Ghurid ruler Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam 79
3.17 Bobrinsky bucket dated 1163 80
3.18 Inlaid brass pen box dated 1210 83
3.19 Luster jar made for the grand vizier Hasan ibn Salman 87
3.20 Inlaid brass inkwell signed by Muhammad ibn Abu
Sahl al-Haravi 89
3.21 Stemmed cup of high-tin bronze inlaid with silver and
gold 91
3.22 Cast and engraved bronze bottle, possibly a rosewater
sprinkler 93
3.23 Silver saucer, tooled, gilded, and nielloed 94

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd viii 28/11/2013 11:47

 FIGURES ix
3.24 Waterspout carved with the head of a lion 95
3.25 Hexagonal table made of poplar covered with paper
and colored lacquer 99
3.26 Stamped leather purse 100
3.27 Earthenware master mold signed by Faqih of
Samarqand 101
4.1 “Siege of Baghdad,” from Rashid al-Din’s
Compendium of Chronicles 112
4.2 View of Sultaniyya with Uljaytu’s tomb taken by
Antoine Sevruguin 114
4.3 East elevation of Uljaytu’s tomb at Sultaniyya 115
4.4 Ground plan of Uljaytu’s tomb at Sultaniyya 115
4.5 Section of Uljaytu’s tomb at Sultaniyya 116
4.6 Interior view of the main octagonal hall in Uljaytu’s
tomb at Sultaniyya 116
4.7 Stucco decoration of the rectangular room appended to
Uljaytu’s tomb at Sultaniyya 117
4.8 Crypt below the rectangular room appended to
Uljaytu’s tomb at Sultaniyya 118
4.9 Gallery vaults in Uljaytu’s tomb at Sultaniyya 119
4.10 Tile dado preserved in the rectangular hall appended
to Uljaytu’s tomb at Sultaniyya 120
4.11 Dado added in the redecoration of the main octagonal
hall in Uljaytu’s tomb at Sultaniyya 121
4.12 West walls around Uljaytu’s tomb at Sultaniyya 128
4.13 Left half of a double-page painting showing the tomb
of Ghazan at Tabriz 130
4.14 Inlaid brass boss, likely from Uljaytu’s tomb at
Sultaniyya 131
4.15 Folio with Sura 41:9-10 from the enormous Quran
manuscript made for Uljaytu’s tomb at Sultaniyya 134
4.16 “Funeral of Alexander” from the Great Mongol
Shahnama 135
4.17 Tomb of the Samanids at Bukhara 136
4.18 Tomb of Sanjar at Marv 137
4.19 View of Takht-i Sulayman, showing the Ilkhanid
palace 138
4.20 Carved stone moldings at Takht-i Sulayman 140
4.21 Fritware tile decorated in luster, cobalt, and blue 140
4.22 Ruins at Viar 141
4.23 Elevation of the main courtyard in the rock-cut
complex at Viar 142
4.24 Ground plan of the ruined rock-cut complex at Viar 143
4.25 Carved fragments on the ground at the rock-cut
complex at Viar 144
4.26 Relief-carved dragon from the west wall at Viar 145
4.27 Isometric reconstruction of the ruins at Viar 145

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd ix 28/11/2013 11:47

 x TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

4.28 Tile mosaic decoration in the rear vestibule of the

tomb of Turabeg Khanum in Kunya Urgench 147
4.29 Tomb of Ahmad Yasavi at Turkestan 148
4.30 Bronze cauldron endowed by Timur to the shrine of
Ahmad Yasavi 151
4.31 Main iwan at the tomb complex of Sultan Hasan in
Cairo 154
4.32 Matrakçi’s view of Sultaniyya 157
4.33 Bahai House of Worship at Ashgabad, Turkmenistan 160
4.34 Second Bahai House of Worship at Wilmette,
Illinois 162
4.35 View of Sultaniyya from Flandin and Coste’s Voyages
en Perse 162
5.1 “Celebrations for the consummation of Humay’s
marriage to Humayun,” from a copy of three poems of
Khwaju Kirmani 173
5.2 Brass candlestick inlaid with silver and gold 176
5.3 Double-page spread from a copy of Khwaju Kirmani’s
three poems 177
5.4 Page with the colophon to the poem Humay and
Humayun from a copy of Khwaju Kirmani’s three
poems 179
5.5 “Ali slays the infidel,” from a copy of Khwaju
Kirmani’s three poems 180
5.6 “The sculptor Farhad before the princess Shirin,”
from an incomplete copy of Nizami’s Khusraw and
Shirin 181
5.7 Folio from the Divan of Sultan Ahmad Jalayir 182
5.8 Folio with “Ali slays the infidel,” from a copy of
Khwaju Kirmani’s three poems 184
5.9 Folio with the “Celebrations for the consummation
of Humay’s marriage to Humayun,” from a copy of
Khwaju Kirmani’s three poems 185
5.10 Folio with “Malik Shah and the old woman,” from a
copy of Khwaju Kirmani’s three poems 186
5.11 Illustrated folio detached from the manuscript of
Khwaju Kirmani’s three poems 188
5.12 “Isfandiyar approaching Gushtasp,” from the Great
Mongol Shahnama 189
5.13 Page with “Humay fighting Humayun incognito,”
from a copy of Khwaju Kirmani’s three poems 190
5.14 Page with “Humay arriving at Humayun’s palace,”
from a copy of Khwaju Kirmani’s three poems 191
5.15 Folio with “Humay arriving at Humayun’s palace,”
from a copy of Khwaju Kirmani’s three poems 192
5.16 Detail of the lower courtyard from the “Celebrations
for the consummation of Humay’s marriage to

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd x 28/11/2013 11:47

 FIGURES xi
Humayun,” from a copy of Khwaju Kirmani’s three
poems 200
5.17 Frontispiece from a copy of Sadi’s Bustan 201
5.18 Page with an “Enthronement,” detached from a copy
of Rashid al-Din’s Jami al-Tavarikh 204
5.19 Page with the “Jasmine Garden,” from a copy of
Khwaju Kirmani’s three poems 206
5.20 Detail of the accoutrements carried by Humayun’s
serving women in the “Jasmine Garden” 207
5.21 Brass coffer inlaid with silver and gold 208
5.22 Page with “Bahram Gur in the Black Pavilion,” from a
copy of Nizami’s Khamsa made for Shah Rukh 211
5.23 Page with “Khusraw before Shirin’s palace,” from a
copy of Nizami’s Khamsa made for Muhammad Juki’s
wife, Ismat al-Dunya, at Herat 212
5.24 Page with the roundel from a copy of Khwaju
Kirmani’s three poems 216
5.25 Opening page of Humay and Humayun from a copy of
Khwaju Kirmani’s three poems 217
5.26 Opening page of Humay and Humayun from a copy of
Khwaju Kirmani’s three poems 218
6.1 Ardabil carpet in London 229
6.2 Ardabil carpet in Los Angeles 230
6.3 Ardabil carpet on permanent exhibition at the V&A 231
6.4 LACMA Ardabil carpet on exhibition in Doha 231
6.5 Central medallion in the LACMA carpet 232
6.6 Cartouche in the LACMA carpet 233
6.7 Silver bowl found in the district of Perm 236
6.8 Gold wine cup found at Nihavand near Hamadan 237
6.9 Brass tankard inlaid with silver 238
6.10 Folio with the “Celebration of Id” detached from the
Cartier Hafiz 241
6.11 Illuminated heading from the copy of the Shahnama
made for Shah Tahmasp 243
6.12 Brass candlestick inlaid with silver and endowed to
the shrine of Sheikh Safi at Ardabil 244
6.13 Fragment of a silk carpet 245
6.14 Folio showing “Prince before a palace,” from the
Divan of Shah Ismail 248
6.15 Shrine complex at Ardabil 251
6.16 Courtyard at Ardabil, with the Jannat Saray at the
northeast end 252
6.17 Jannat Saray seen from the north and surrounded by
graves 253
6.18 Shrine at Ardabil from the southwest 254
6.19 Cenotaph of Shah Ismail in his tomb at Ardabil 255
6.20 Interior of the Jannat Saray at Ardabil 260

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd xi 28/11/2013 11:47

 xii TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

6.21 Mural showing Tahmasp receiving the Mughal

emperor Humayun on the southwest wall of the
Chihil Sutun Palace in Isfahan 262
6.22 Interior of the Dar al-Huffaz at Ardabil, as depicted by
Friedrich Sarre 264
6.23 Interior of Chini Khana at Ardabil, as depicted by
Friedrich Sarre 265
6.24 Bullerswood carpet 268
6.25 Fragment from the border of the LACMA Ardabil
carpet 269
6.26 Interior of Chini Khana with a new Ardabil carpet in
situ 271

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd xii 28/11/2013 11:47

 Series Editor’s Foreword

“Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art” is a new venture that offers

readers easy access to the most up-to-date research across the
whole range of Islamic art. Building on the long and distinguished
tradition of Edinburgh University Press in publishing books on the
Islamic world, it is intended to be a forum for studies that, while
closely focused, also open wide horizons. Books in the series will,
for example, concentrate in an accessible way on the art of a single
century, dynasty or geographical area; on the meaning of works of
art; on a given medium in a restricted time frame; or on analyses of
key works in their wider contexts. A balance will be maintained as
far as possible between successive titles, so that various parts of the
Islamic world and various media and approaches are represented.
Books in the series are academic monographs of intellectual dis-
tinction that mark a significant advance in the field. While they are
naturally aimed at an advanced and graduate academic audience, a
complementary target readership is the world-wide community of
specialists in Islamic art—professionals who work in universities,
research institutes, auction houses, and museums—as well as that
elusive character, the interested general reader.

Professor Robert Hillenbrand

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd xiii 28/11/2013 11:47

 Preface

A single author typically gets credit for a book, but it is really the
work of many. In writing this monograph numerous colleagues have
assisted me, patiently answering queries, providing references, offer-
ing critiques. I have tried to credit them individually for the help
they so generously offered, and if I have overlooked some names,
I apologize for any inadvertent omissions. Here, I should like to
acknowledge those who offered broader, if sometimes unrecognized,
assistance. I was touched by the generous hospitality offered by
the people of Iran. When I was preparing for the lectures on which
this book is based, I was able to take a fleeting trip to Azerbaijan
in May 2009, and everywhere I traveled, the local residents greeted
me enthusiastically. I wanted to return in 2011 to travel through
Khurasan, but was unable to obtain a visa, a sad commentary on how
politics affects art.
On the academic level, I thank all the students in my classes at
Boston College, who have provided feedback on lectures about these
very kinds of objects. Their input has been invaluable in showing
me what can work and what flops. I am grateful also for the superb
research facilities provided by Boston College and its libraries, espe-
cially the interlibrary loan department which never flinched at my
many, sometimes strange, requests.
Many collaborators at Edinburgh University Press helped me
navigate the sometimes winding path to publication. Nicola Ramsey
willingly took on the project and encouraged me along the way.
Eddie Clark cheerfully oversaw production, never blanching at the
snags and delays. Ellie Bush ably acquired many of the photographs
and the permissions to use them, sometimes from most obscure
places. Anna Stevenson smoothed inconsistences of text and infelici-
ties of style. I thank them all and trust that I was not too snarky in
replying to their well-intentioned comments and queries.
Several colleagues also deserve special mention here. Wheeler
Thackston was ready at every moment to read, reread, and explicate
Persian and Arabic texts. Linda Komaroff and Robert Hillenbrand
both read the entire manuscript and saved me from several mistakes
and oversights.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd xiv 28/11/2013 11:47

 PREFACE xv
But the most credit goes to my family, who support me in all
my scholarly endeavors: our children Felicity and Oliver, who are
amused by their mother’s passion for a country that is typically
reviled in their homeland; our dog Sheba, who affords comfort when
things look gloomy; and most of all my husband Jonathan Bloom,
who not only provides unstinting academic support, including many
of the architectural photographs published here, but also offers
genial company and inspirational cooking that have sustained me
throughout. I thank them, and all the others, warmly.

Richmond, NH,
January 2013

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd xv 28/11/2013 11:47

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd xvi 28/11/2013 11:47
 CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

‫ن‬ ‫م‬ ‫ا‬ ‫بشنو از ن چون‬

‫از ائ ها ش ا م ن‬
‫ز ن س ان ا مرا ببر ه ان‬
‫از نف رم مر و زن نال ه ان‬

Listen to the reed, how it tells its tales;

Bemoaning its bitter exile, it wails:
Ever since I was torn from the reed beds,
My cries tear men’s and women’s hearts to shreds.1

Many readers familiar with Persian literature will recognize

these verses from the Mathnavi-yi manavi (The Mathnavi of
Intrinsic Meaning) by Mawlavi (1207–73), often known as Jalal
al-Din Rumi and since the late twentieth century the best-selling
poet in the United States.2 Sometimes dubbed “the Quran in
Persian,” his 27,000-couplet encyclopedia of Sufism opens with one
of the most stunning images in Persian poetry. The verses relate the
reed’s anguish in being separated from its reed bed. They work meta-
phorically on several levels. Through the act of lamenting, the reed
is personified and thus stands for the poet, who—like the reed—was
torn from his native region of Balkh and forced by the Mongol inva-
sions to flee some 3,000 km/2,000 miles westward to Konya.3 The
reed’s song, then, is the poem. And by analogy, the reed, which is
also the material for the pen (qalam), becomes not just the spoken
but also the written word of the poet. Rumi here alludes as well to
the duality of the Qur’an, first an oral revelation, but soon and more
often seen as a written codex.
But why, readers may ask, did I choose to begin a book on the
visual arts in medieval Persia by analyzing the complex metaphors
of a poem? First, the reference is a tribute to Ehsan Yarshater, the
renowned scholar honored in the series of lectures from which
this book derives,4 for he was one of the first scholars to raise the
connection between Persian poetry and the visual arts produced in
the region. In a paper delivered to the IV International Congress of
Iranian Art and Archeology in New York more than half a century

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 1 28/11/2013 11:47

 2 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

Figure 1.1 Silver-gilt dish with relief decoration showing a banquet in

Sasanian style. Diameter 19.7 cm. London, British Museum.
This dish, probably made in Tabaristan in the seventh or eighth century
before the advent of Islam there, continues a type known from Sasanian
times, showing a ruler banqueting at a wine feast (bazm).

ago in 1960, he analyzed such common themes as abstraction, sen-

suality, and harmony.5 Prof. Yarshater raised an important topic,
and the connection between the visual and the verbal arts is one of
increasing interest to historians of medieval art, whether working on
Europe, Byzantium, or the Islamic lands.6
Prof. Yarshater’s groundbreaking essay drew from the classical
period of Persian poetry, ranging from works by Rudaki (858–c. 941)
to those by Jami (1414–92),7 and thus his time frame—the tenth
century to the turn of the sixteenth—is basically the same as the one
covered in this book. Like Prof. Yarshater, I chose to begin with the
period of Samanid rule, when Persia regained its political autonomy
and its cultural identity.8 In artistic terms, this is the time when one
can draw a break in the visual arts from Sasanian or post-Sasanian
styles (Figure 1.1) to a new “Islamic” style, one of whose characteris-
tics is writing in Arabic script (Figure 1.2).9 The relationship between
the verbal and the visual and the kinds of puns that run through both
are themes that are central to this book.
I end with the rise of Safavid rule in the early sixteenth century.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 2 28/11/2013 11:47

 INTRODUCTION 3

Figure 1.2 Small silver dish with harpy and inscription around the rim.
Diameter 14.2 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
This small silver dish, attributed to Gurgan in the second quarter of the
eleventh century, illustrates the use of writing in Arabic script that became
a hallmark of the new “Islamic” style.

The turn of the sixteenth century was a major watershed not only
in the history of Iran but also in world history, as the crossing of the
Atlantic and the rounding of Africa dramatically shifted the global
situation, ushering in the so-called pre-modern era characterized in
the Islamic lands by the establishment of “gunpowder” empires.10
The Shiite Safavids in Iran, sandwiched between the Sunni Mughals
and Ottomans, were emblematic of this period in which the pre-
eminence of Iranian ideas was challenged by rival powers to the east
and west. Within Persia, this change in global geography is reflected
in the shift of capital and economic focus to the city of Isfahan, set in
the middle of the plateau and within striking distance of the Persian
Gulf, a response in part to the increased role of maritime trade with
Europe and beyond.11 This period also marks a time by which Persia
had developed a tradition of looking back at itself, particularly
through the arts, as shown in Chapter 6.
This book then covers what is often called Persian art in “middle
Islamic period.”12 And, like Prof. Yarshater, I take Persia to mean the
lands where Persian was the main language of culture, thus including

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 3 28/11/2013 11:47

 4 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

Figure 1.3 Map of the greater Iranian lands showing the sites mentioned in this
book, with modern political boundaries indicated in red.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 4 28/11/2013 11:47

 INTRODUCTION 5

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 5 03/12/2013 08:25

 6 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

parts of what is now territory from Afghanistan and Central Asia on

the east to Iraq, Turkey, and Azerbaijan on the west (Figure 1.3).
To trace the artistic changes in Persian art in this middle period, I
have chosen to focus on five individual works of art: 1) a slip-covered
earthenware bowl made in the eastern Iranian lands in the late
tenth century; 2) an inlaid bronze rosewater sprinkler, attributable
to Herat c. 1200; 3) the tomb erected in honor of the Ilkhanid sultan
Uljaytu at Sultaniyya between 1305 and 1320; 4) a painting from
an illustrated manuscript of three poems by Khwaju Kirmani made
for the Jalayirid sultan Ahmad at Baghdad in 798/1396; and 5) the
matched pair of carpets made for the shrine at Ardabil in Azerbaijan
in 946/1539–40.
My choices are far from random. These five works of art exemplify
the main artistic media produced in Persia at this time: ceramics,
metalware, architecture, painting, and textiles.13 This is not to
underrate the importance of other media such as glass, ivory, or rock
crystal, each of which could bear its own study. Rather it is simply
an acknowledgment of the hierarchy of use and the constrictions of
time and space of both lectures and printed form.
I chose these five objects, furthermore, for their chronological
and geographic spread. The first two (the earthenware bowl and the
bronze rosewater sprinkler) exemplify artistic production in eastern
Iran in pre-Mongol times when that region underwent a major eco-
nomic and cultural florescence. The latter three objects (the tomb,
the illustrated manuscript, and the pair of carpets) show the shift to
northwestern Iran and Iraq following the Mongol invasions in the
thirteenth century when that region gained ascendancy and where,
as the historian Bert Fragner has argued, the Ilkhanids “reinvented
Iran.”14
Along with these geographic and temporal divisions, the five
objects also represent a shift in patronage and consumption. The first
two from eastern Iran in the pre-Mongol period exemplify the type
of wares made en masse for the well-to-do and learned classes. The
latter three were made for specific rulers at court.
The five are not newly discovered objects. On the contrary, they
are all well known and well published, often because they represent
the finest of their type, whether the largest, the best made, the best
designed, or the best preserved. I chose them therefore for their
typological value. In each case, I begin with a description of the
object, starting with its material and technique, and then move to a
broader discussion of the type in order to set the object in its wider
context, a context that extends from the time of production up to
the present.
Such a focus on placing the work of art in context relates in turn
to the opening verses from the Mathnavi. As with Mawlavi’s reed,
so too these works of art can often seem deracinated when displayed
in museum cases. Museums have traditionally been dedicated to

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 6 28/11/2013 11:47

 INTRODUCTION 7
displaying works of art as objects of admiration. The Louvre, which
opened in 1793, is often considered the first encyclopedic public
museum, and in the words of Peter Brooks, the critic and professor of
comparative literature, it “realized a kind of Kantian ideal for art as
the object of disinterested contemplation.”15
The battle over the role of the museum as the locus where art
is stripped from its original context and shown in a new setting is
still with us in the twenty-first century.16 Some museums today
are trying to overcome this limitation and better approximate or
evoke the way the work of art was experienced, whether physically
or historically. In the 1990s, for example, when the curators at the
Victoria and Albert museum (V&A) decided to redo the display of
Islamic art, they made their Ardabil carpet the centerpiece of the
new Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, which opened in July 2006. To
do so, they took the carpet off the wall and put it on the floor (6.3)
so that viewers would encounter it physically in the way that it had
originally been designed to be seen.17
Many museums group objects by chronology to provide a sense of
historical setting. In May 2009, when the David Collection opened
its splendid new installation of Islamic art in an adjacent neo-
classical row house facing Rosenborg Castle Gardens in the center of
Copenhagen, the objects were displayed in small rooms arranged by
dynasty, with text panels describing the historical context and touch
screens with displays of coins to provide a dated context for events
that occurred while the objects were being made.18 The rosewater
sprinkler discussed in Chapter 3, for example, is displayed there as
part of a large case holding works in stone, metal, and wood made in
eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and northern India between the tenth and
twelfth centuries during the period of rule there by the Ghaznavids,
Ghurids, and Saljuqs (Figure 1.4).
Buildings, too, can be placed in a setting. Thus, the ongoing exca-
vations around the tomb of Uljaytu considered in Chapter 4 have not
only cleared the crypt and ground around the building to expose parts
of the surrounding walls (4.12) but have also uncovered numerous
fragments of ceramics that formed part of the original setting. Such
information is important in setting an individual building into its
wider context, whether simply architectural, as the tomb was part
of a multi-part pious foundation, or more broadly social, helping us
to understand the services provided there and the links to the com-
munity. A fuller publication of the excavation should provide more
information about the local urban planning and environment.
Nevertheless, few consider these works of art as functional
objects that were meant to be used in everyday life, both tangibly
and metaphorically or symbolically. In other words, scholars often
do not look to elucidate the “social life of things” or their “cultural
biographies,” phrases coined by anthropologists, or, to use the terms
preferred by archeologists, the objects’ “life-histories.”19 Here, I look

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 7 28/11/2013 11:47

 8 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

Figure 1.4 View of the Ghurid gallery in the David Collection, Copenhagen.
In the last few decades the David Collection, a private museum in Copenhagen, has
amassed a first-rate collection of objects from the eastern Islamic lands.

at these works of art not just as “signals from the past,”20 but also as
objects that have continued to have resonance up to and including
the present day.
As a teacher, I have also set out to make this work accessible to
both students and interested readers. The notes and bibliography
provide extensive references, but I am also interested in showing
how close looking, like close reading, can elicit information and how
we can use that information to help reconstruct the past.
In many ways, then, the objects discussed here—both portable
and architectural—are comparable metaphorically to Mawlavi’s
reed, telling tales about their longing for their home. In this book,
therefore, I try to resituate the works of art in the time of their crea-
tion and afterwards up to the present. My broader purpose is to use
art to help us see and understand history and the changing nature of
local society in Persia over the course of six centuries as well as its
enduring impact today. Along the way, I hope to elucidate a recur-
rent theme in Iranian art: the increasingly complex roles of writing
and images, and the evolving interaction between the two.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 8 28/11/2013 11:47

 INTRODUCTION 9

Notes
1. These two couplets alone show some of the headaches involved
in translating Persian poetry. The website of the Mevlevi order at
www.dar-al-masnavi.org/reedsong.html gives twenty variant transla-
tions of the opening twenty lines arranged chronologically from 1772
to the present. The translation here is by R. A. Nicholson, cited on
Richard Frye’s website on classics in Persia: http://richardfrye.org/files/
Classics_in_Persia.pdf
2. There is a vast literature on Mawlavi. One of the most comprehen-
sive in setting the poet in his historical and social context and the
appreciation of his work up to today is the recent study by Lewis,
2000. He cites Alexandra Marks’s article in the Christian Science
Monitor of November 25, 1997 as the source for the information
about Mawlavi as the best-selling poet in America. Since 2010, there
has even been a journal devoted to studying Mawlavi, the Mawlana
Rumi Review.
3. Hence his many epithets: Balkhi from his native region; Rumi from
Rum, the sultanate of Rum to which he moved; and Mawlana/Mawlavi,
our master, from his disciples.
4. This book began as a series of talks delivered at the School of Oriental
and African Studies in London in January 2011 as the Biennial Yarshater
Lectures in Persian Art. I thank Doris Behrens-Abouseif for so kindly
inviting me to deliver them and for the warm hospitality that I received
there.
5. Yarshater, 1967; he also published a fuller version separately in 1962.
6. See, for example, the various essays in the section on visual rhetoric
in Sears and Thomas, 2002, 36–87 and the comments on Byzantine art
in Maguire and Maguire, 2007, especially 24–8 on ekphrasis. Like this
book, these essays cover a range of media, from textiles to stone and
ceramics.
7. Yarshater, 1960. Prof. Yarshater has since maintained a keen interest in
both poetry and art, as is clear from the many articles on these subjects
in the Encyclopaedia Iranica, his lifelong work. These include not only
the biographies of many artists, such as Behzad and Abd al-Samad, but
also more unexpected titles such as “Egypt, vi. Artistic relations with
Persia in the Islamic period.”
8. See also the comments by Yarshater, 1998, 75 on the new culture,
grounded in the Persian language and traditions that arose in Khurasan,
Seistan, and Transoxiana under the Samanids by the tenth century,
and the Persianate culture that flourished in the succeeding centuries,
following the model proposed by Hodgson (Hodgson, 1974).
9. The topic of Iranian cultural identity in pre-Islamic times was the
subject of the 2nd Biennial Ehsan Yarshater lectures on Iranian art and
archeology, given by Prudence Harper (Harper, 2006). The dish in the
British Museum bears a Pahlavi inscription with the name Anushzad,
but its iconography shows that it is a later copy of a Sasanian one; see
the comparison in Ward, 1993, nos 29 and 30. For the bowl in LACMA,
see the entry on the museum’s website at http://collectionsonline.
lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=35113;type=101. For
the role of writing see Bloom, 2012.
10. The term coined by Hodgson, 1974, has become common (see,
for example, the recent book by Streusand, 2010, entitled Islamic

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 9 28/11/2013 11:47

 10 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

Gunpowder Empires, and Part II, “The Gunpowder Empires” in Morgan

and Reid, 2010), but is not without problem: it suggests the main
feature of the period was warfare.
11. For one of these global networks, Portugal, see most recently Levenson,
2007.
12. Another term used by Hodgson, 1974, that has become canonical.
13. The original presentation was limited to four lectures, and I was forced
to omit the arts of the book. I did so reluctantly but felt that they had
been covered in previous lectures in the series, notably those given in
2004 by Adel Adamova on the evolution of Persian painting (published
in 2008) and those given in 2009 by Sheila Canby on manuscript illu-
mination in Safavid Iran. But the arts of the book are such an important
subject in Iranian art that I have added a chapter for the publication.
14. Fragner, 2006.
15. Brooks, 2009, 32.
16. McClellan, 2008, summarizes some of the arguments.
17. Crill and Stanley, 2006.
18. For a review of this wonderful new exhibition, see Blair and Bloom,
2009.
19. The first phrase was the title of a groundbreaking collection of essays on
commodities in cultural perspective; see Appadurai, 1986. The second
was used by his colleague and fellow anthropologist Igor Kopytoff, who
wrote another pioneering essay in the same volume. The third occurs in
Gosden and Marshall, 1999.
20. This was the term used by the director of the British Museum, Neil
MacGregor, 2010, in his Introduction.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 10 28/11/2013 11:47

 CHAPTER TWO

The Art of Writing:

A Bowl from Samarqand

Our investigation of the arts made in Persia during the middle

period, the integration of text and images on these witty objects,
and their continuing impact to the present begins with this deep
bowl (Figure 2.1) acquired by the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington,
DC in 1957 from the New York dealer Khalil Rabenou.1 The vessel

Figure 2.1 Interior of an earthenware bowl with slip-painted decoration

under a transparent glaze. Diameter 39.3 cm. Washington, DC, Freer
Gallery of Art.
This bowl is one of the largest and finest examples of the slipwares made in
eastern Iran and Transoxiana in the tenth century when the region was
under the dominion of the Samanid dynasty.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 11 28/11/2013 11:47

 12 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

Figure 2.2 The profile of the earthenware bowl shown in Figure 2.1.
Washington, DC, Freer Gallery of Art.

exemplifies the finest of its type of slip-painted wares, characterized

in a recent survey as “some of the most impressive ceramics ever
made in the Islamic world, and among the great ceramics of the
world.”2 A profile view (Figure 2.2) of the large bowl (diameter 39.3
cm/15½ in; height 11.2 cm/4½ in) displays its low foot, flaring sides,
and straight rim.
Multiple cracks visible on the surface show that the bowl has
been pieced together from fragments. Such fragmentary condition is
typical of Islamic ceramics. Since Muslims do not bury the dead with
vessels for the afterlife, there are no tomb-groups of pottery and asso-
ciated objects of the type that have elucidated the history of material
production in China, Egypt, and elsewhere. Rather, most ceramics
in the Islamic lands were discarded when broken and found only by
accident or excavation.3 Despite the bowl’s fragmentary condition,
inspection by the conservators at the Freer Gallery suggests that
the breaks are obvious and that all of the fragments belong to the
vessel.4 Furthermore, thermoluminescence (TL) testing on a sample
from the footring recorded on October 17, 1973 showed that the bowl
was fired between 770 and 1,360 years earlier, thus confirming the
medieval dating of the object.
It took several steps to produce this large and fine object. We can
try to reconstruct the process by examining the bowl and compar-
ing its materials and techniques to those still used in the region
and others documented from technical examination of comparable
pieces.5 The potter began with a lump of pinkish/buff-colored clay,
presumably from nearby natural deposits, which was refined to
remove the coarser particles.6 Clay is heavy to transport, and potter-
ies often developed near the clay beds.7 The potter raised the bowl on
a wheel, likely driven by kicking the base, the type of kickwheel still

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 12 28/11/2013 11:47

 A BOWL FROM SAMARQAND 13
used in Iran in modern times.8 He then set the bowl aside to dry, pos-
sibly in a separate drying room, until it was leather hard and ready
for turning. To do this, he set the bowl upside down on the wheel on
top of a chuck with a flattish top to support the inside bottom of the
bowl. Turning the bowl, he used a sharp blade to thin the walls and
shape the base and foot.9
The next step in production was the addition of the colored deco-
ration. First, the bowl was coated with a fine white slip of diluted
clay, sometimes but not in this case, made whiter with tin.10 After
the white slip was almost dry, the potter decorated the bowl with
two colors of slip, one red, probably from iron oxide, and the other
brownish black from manganese.11 The slips were made of the same
base clay as the bowl, with the addition of the colorant, to allow for
parallel shrinkage to body and glaze during firing.
The decoration was then sealed under a transparent glaze made
of lead-frit before the bowl was fired in a kiln, probably at a low
temperature of 850–950°C. The lead acted as flux so that the glaze
would melt at a lower temperature than the same clay of the body.
The bowl was probably fired “green,” that is, it was fired only once.
Several points emerge from this reconstruction of the bowl’s
production. First, there were many steps involved in the work,
and each required control of several variables by a practiced hand.
Furthermore, it seems that a team of skilled artisans was involved
in production. At the top there may have been an owner/manager,
possibly the throwing potter. Under him would have been special-
ists with a wide range of skills including clay preparation, throwing
and turning, painted decoration, glazing, and firing. Such teamwork
would speed up production, as bowls and vessels of the same shape
could be decorated and glazed in different ways (splashwares,
slipwares, etc.).
To judge from signatures on later ceramics, the labor was divided
into two broad categories: making the vessel and decorating it. Later
luster potters like Abu Zayd claimed that they did both and used two
different verbs to designate the different tasks.12 The fact that he had
to claim responsibility for both activities may indicate that this was
unusual and might reflect the monopoly on luster production exer-
cised by a few families of potters working at Kashan.13 Slipwares, in
contrast, were made in great quantity at various sites.
Furthermore, to judge from the range of subjects and quality of the
decoration of the Freer bowl, there may also have been a hierarchy of
painters, say a master painter for the interior and an assistant for the
exterior. The painters also worked in several different ways, painting
freehand some decoration such as the plants on the exterior as well
as the rim and the contour panels on the interior, painting in reserve
the plant in the middle, and copying other parts such as the sophis-
ticated calligraphy from a design worked out in advance on paper by
a trained calligrapher.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 13 28/11/2013 11:47

 14 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

Figure 2.3 The well of the earthenware bowl shown in Figure 2.1.
Washington, DC, Freer Gallery of Art.

As with most comparable pieces of its type, the decoration on the

Freer bowl is concentrated on the interior. It divides the surface into
three zones—the well, the sides, and the rim. The well (Figure 2.3)
is filled with an abstracted plant, which grows from a single stem,
branches out into five trilobed leaves, and encircles a six-petalled
rosette. Not only is the design in the well the most complex of the
three, but it is also done in a different and more elaborate tech-
nique. The painter began by painting the outlines of the design in
red, adding thin strokes or pairs of strokes to suggest veins and to
demarcate the lobes and twists. He painted most of the design in
reserve, using thick applications of the blackish slip for the ground
against which the white plant is silhouetted and of the red slip for
the ground of the central petals, which are likewise decorated with
pairs of red strokes to indicate the stamen’s filaments and small
dots to indicate its anthers. The plant provides an axis for viewing
the interior decoration, as its stem must surely be seen as growing
from the ground, thereby centering the text running around the
walls.
The painter then decorated the interior walls of the bowl with a
wide band of Arabic script painted in brownish black (Figure 2.4). He
used a knife or stick to scratch out thin lines in the middle of the
floral motif or letters such as the final ha or medial sad or kaf. Two
decorative elements break the inscription into parts. Functioning

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 14 28/11/2013 11:47

 A BOWL FROM SAMARQAND 15

Figure 2.4 The rim of the earthenware bowl shown in Figure 2.1.
Washington, DC, Freer Gallery of Art.

like punctuation, they are a tacit indication of the difficulty in

reading the text, as is the finger-like sepal to the right of the stem
that points down to the opening text like a finger on a page.
The first decorative element is a small floral motif with three
lobes positioned about 4 o’clock. It opens the shorter text containing
the phrase:

‫بر ة لصا به‬

Blessings to its owner.

The second decorative element is a teardrop set at 10 o’clock. It

marks the opening of the longer text containing a hadith or Tradition
of the Prophet:

‫اطر من اس ن برأ ه‬ ‫قال ق‬

It is said that he who is content with [his own] opinion runs into
danger.14

The Arabic text ringing the walls reads clockwise. As though to

emphasize both the naturalism of the plant and the importance of
the text around it, four of the five trilobed leaves in the central plant
curl in a clockwise direction and have sepals whose tapering ends
similarly point in a clockwise direction. Like the long, finger-like

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 15 28/11/2013 11:47

 16 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

sepal, they animate, even anthropomorphize the plant. The one

exception to this pattern is the leaf to the bottom left of the stalk:
its trilobed petals curl counterclockwise, and it lacks a sepal. It pro-
vides the counterpoint, interrupting the spinning design and framing
the stalk. The painter here was no amateur: he is both playful in
merging vegetal and human attributes and sophisticated in balancing
direction, mass, and color.
In painting the calligraphy, the artist was copying a design that
a sophisticated calligrapher had worked out in advance, probably
on paper.15 To make the inscription fill the available space, the cal-
ligrapher extended the connectors between letters or the bodies of
horizontal letters such as sad, dal, and kaf (Arabic: mashq, Persian
kashÈda; literally, extension).16 He also carefully pointed the text,
adding two dots above the tooth of ta in istaghna and two dots
below the ya in bi-rayi[hi]), both words that might cause confusion
in reading. But the painter himself was no calligrapher, for he seems
to have omitted the final ha indicating the possessive pronoun.17
The text was likely designed by a calligrapher, but executed by a
master painter/potter.
As with most writing in Arabic script, the weight of the letters in
the inscription on the Freer bowl is concentrated near the base line,
leaving a relatively empty space in the upper zone. So to fill these
voids, the painter decorated the spaces between the upper parts of
the letters with seven contour panels of varying sizes and irregular
dimensions. Outlined in red, each panel is decorated with alternat-
ing red and black four-petalled rosettes set against a ground stippled
with black dots. The design seems to have been painted freehand
directly on the vessel walls without planning, as the strict alterna-
tion of red and black rosettes breaks down in the two adjacent red
ones over the kaf in baraka at 5 o’clock.
The rim, painted with alternating black and red scallops, is the
simplest of the three zones on the interior of the Freer bowl.18 It is
also the most carelessly done. The painter seems to have begun with
a black scallop just above 9 o’clock. He painted freehand, and when
he had finished circumscribing the bowl, he had to end with a black
scallop, thereby interrupting the regular alternation of black and red.
The rim was also the last of the three zones to be painted, as the
painter had to skip a space about 12 o’clock in order to avoid painting
over the descending bowl of the final nun in min.
The exterior of the Freer bowl (2.2) is much simpler, and on most
comparable pieces, the exterior was left plain.19 The design on the
Freer bowl comprises brownish black leafy fronds that divide the
surface into eight compartments, each filled with a red waterweed.
A thin black line at the rim covers any imperfections and knits
together the decoration on the interior and exterior. The painting
on the exterior, loosely painted freehand, is probably the work of an
assistant.20

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 16 28/11/2013 11:47

 A BOWL FROM SAMARQAND 17

Provenance
Like most ceramics produced in the Islamic lands, the bowl in the
Freer Gallery is neither signed nor dated, but it can be localized to
the eastern Iranian lands during the period of Samanid rule in the
tenth century by comparing it to wares excavated at several sites
in the region.21 The two main ones are Afrasiyab, the old part of
Samarqand in the Zarafshan Valley of modern Uzbekistan, exca-
vated by the Russians beginning in the late nineteenth century, and
Nishapur in the province of Khurasan in eastern Iran, excavated first
by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1930s. These two sites
provide a wealth of comparable material and documentation about
the provenance of the Freer bowl.
Afrasiyab was the larger site.22 Covering 219 hectares (more than
500 acres), the archeological site is roughly triangular, bounded on
the east by an irrigation canal and on the west by a deep ravine,
which once functioned as a moat. In the northern part rises the
citadel (90 × 90 m/295¼ × 295¼ ft), with a ramp along its eastern
façade (Figure 2.5). Inside, the ruined site appears as a hilly wasteland
with several depressions sunk over what were once town squares

Figure 2.5 View looking north toward the citadel at Afrasiyab.

The citadel at Afrasiyab (old Samarqand) occupied the northern side of a vast site
that has been excavated for well over a century, as shown by the excavation trench
on the left.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 17 28/11/2013 11:47

 18 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

and reservoirs. Occupied since the first millennium bce, by the

tenth century ce the site included an inhabited area surrounded by
walls with four gates. The citadel on the north had two gates and
contained the ruler’s palace and the prison. An ancient aqueduct
with three main branches lined with lead ensured an adequate water
supply.
Trade and craft suburbs developed in the south and west sectors,
including a potters’ quarter extending along the city’s principal
canal. One of the most important districts in the city, it occupied
more than 1 hectare (2.5 acres) and had streets paved with schist
brought from the nearby hill known as Chupan-Ata. The quarter
was the center for the production of glazed wares. Excavations have
uncovered some fifteen ceramicists’ households, each with a central
courtyard surrounded by three or four rooms, including a kitchen,
reception hall, and bath. Shops for selling wares opened onto the
street.
The excavations also uncovered several kilns used to produce
glazed wares. Each had a central firing chamber room (interior
diameter 90–180 cm/36–72 in), with a low platform. The walls of
the domed structure were pierced with rows of holes. Tapered clay
batons or kiln rods some 60–70 cm/24–27½ in inserted into the holes
provided support for the wares, which could be set directly on the
kiln rods, stacked on tripods (sipåya), or placed in clay cases known
as saggars to protect the objects from the direct heat of the fire.23
Loading the kiln was a skilled job, as the heat had to flow uni-
formly over the objects and care had to be taken to prevent collapse
during firing, thereby ruining most of the contents. The output
was tremendous. Photographs taken in the early twentieth century
by the excavator M. V. Stoliarov show the storeroom packed with
shelves of recovered vessels stacked to the ceiling.24 In 1906, the col-
lection of shards and wasters acquired from the site by the museum
in Berlin amounted to 13,000 pieces.25
The excavations at the site of Nishapur (Figure 2.6) in eastern
Iran were more piecemeal, carried out at four major mounds—Tepe
Madrasa, Vineyard Tepe, Tepe Sabz Pushan, and Qanat Tepe—with
sondages at several more places.26 The small mound known as Qanat
Tepe produced kiln debris such as wasters and spurs, but no kilns
themselves. Three kilns were excavated on the eastern edge of town,
probably located on the urban periphery because of their smoke and
gasses. Although dated to different periods, the kilns all resemble
those found in Afrasiyab, with a central circular pit (firing chamber)
and holes for kiln rods. As at Afrasiyab, the excavations produced a
wealth of ceramics, including tens of thousands of shards.27
The wares from these two sites comprise several technical types,
but most of them fall into three major groups.28 One group comprises
buffwares (Figure 2.7), in which designs are painted directly on the
surface of the vessel, without the use of an intermediary slip, and

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 18 28/11/2013 11:47

 A BOWL FROM SAMARQAND 19

Figure 2.6 Excavations by the Metropolitan Museum at Nishapur.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art excavated several mounds at Nishapur in
the 1930s and 1940s, unearthing large quantities of plaster wall decoration,
ceramics, and glass.

Figure 2.7 Earthenware ewer with polychrome decoration under a

transparent glaze. Height 26.7 cm. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This animal-headed ewer is a charming example of the type of buffwares
excavated at Nishapur.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 19 28/11/2013 11:47

 20 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

Figure 2.8 Earthenware bowl splashed with green, yellow, and brown
under a transparent glaze. Diameter 26 cm. New York, Metropolitan
Museum of Art.

This flaring bowl exemplifies the tricolor splashwares excavated at

Nishapur.

then glazed. The group thus takes its name from the color of the clay
body. The second group comprises splashwares (Figure 2.8), in which
the vessels are covered on both exterior and interior with a white
slip and then decorated with splashes of yellow, green, and a purplish
brown in a colorless glaze.
The third group—and the one most distinctive to this period and
most striking to modern eyes—comprises slip-painted wares, in
which the vessel is first covered with a slip and then painted with
colored slips under the transparent glaze. These slip-painted wares
can be decorated solely in black (monochrome) or several colors
(polychrome) with different types of design. Some are calligraphic
(2.1), others have stylized floral or geometric motifs. Some show
birds or animals, often abstracted and somewhat calligraphic (Figure
2.9), and a unique fragment (Figure 2.10) in the Dar al-Athar al-
Islamiyya in Kuwait has an elaborate figural scene of a female with
long tresses and a patterned robe sitting cross-legged on a platform
and playing a four-stringed lute with a plectrum.29
These slipwares were produced at provincial sites such as Marv,
Utrar, and Hulbuk in Central Asia and Rayy, Jiruft, and Sirjan in

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 20 28/11/2013 11:47

 A BOWL FROM SAMARQAND 21

Figure 2.9 Earthenware bowl with monochrome slip decoration under a

transparent glaze. Diameter 14.7 cm. New York, Metropolitan Museum
of Art.

This smaller flaring bowl exemplifies the slipwares decorated with birds or
animals decorated in a calligraphic style excavated at Nishapur.

Iran, but production was limited to eastern and central Iran.30 From
surface surveys carried out in Iran during the late 1960s and 1970s
as part of his dissertation on maritime trade through the Persian
Gulf, the British archeologist Andrew Williamson concluded that
slipwares were common in an area extending from Khurasan west-
ward across the Great Desert to include Kirman and northern Fars,
but rare in areas further west.31 He found, for example, that at Sirjan,
a site in Kirman province in central Iran, about 25 percent of the
shards in one surface survey were slipwares, whereas at Shiraz, a city
in Fars province in southwestern Iran, they accounted for only ten to
fifteen examples out of 2.5 million shards! This type of slipware was
also produced later during the eleventh and twelfth centuries at such
provincial sites as Sari near the Caspian Sea.32
No testing has been done on the fabric of the slipwares excavated
at the two major sites of Afrasiyab and Nishapur, and Oliver Watson
noted perceptively that the names applied to vessels appearing on the
market often reflect the timing of the sites’ excavation.33 Thus, the
first pieces were identified as Afrasiyab wares, but after the American
excavations at Nishapur, many vessels were identified by the name

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 21 28/11/2013 11:47

 22 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

Figure 2.10 Fragmentary well of an earthenware bowl decorated with

polychrome slips under a transparent glaze. Diameter 13.9 cm. Kuwait,
Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah.
This unique fragment from a slip-painted bowl shows a female lute player
painted in polychrome colors.

of that site. Charles Wilkinson, the excavator there, remarked that

the success of the excavation led to the market being flooded with
objects labeled “Nishapur” and that while many of them came from
clandestine excavations there, many others did not.34
Without scientific testing on several excavated pieces, it is impos-
sible to be definitive about the difference in body composition, but
at least one research scientist considers Afrasiyab wares superior.
Robert Mason’s analysis of one slip-painted ware commonly attrib-
uted to Afrasiyab and now in Toronto (Royal Ontario Museum.18)
disclosed a fine petrofabric with very small grains (generally under
0.01 mm/0.0004 in in diameter) and a significant abundance of
mineral inclusions from granite.35 A similar fabric occurs in slip-
wares found at Hulbuk.36 The Nishapur petrofabric, by contrast,
seems to be coarser, with larger grains (average diameter 0.05
mm/0.002 in), including basalt, volcanics, and ferromagnesian min-
erals. Mason noted further that on slip-painted wares attributed to
Afrasiyab, the slip is generally thick and stands proud of the surface,
with the excess slip-paint excised to produce a sharper outline.37
Some types of decoration, furthermore, seem distinct to Nishapur.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 22 28/11/2013 11:47

 A BOWL FROM SAMARQAND 23
One sub-group, apparently found only at Nishapur, is known as
yellow-staining black, because the black pigment, probably contain-
ing chrome, stains the glaze around it, giving the designs a yellow
halo.38 Another group comprises imitation lusterware.39 There is
no evidence—at least from published material—that these two
sub-groups were found at Afrasiyab.
Using the finds published from both sites, the excavators also
distinguished different iconographic and stylistic characteristics of
the wares from the two locales. Wilkinson noted, for example, that
slipwares from Afrasiyab have wide strokes of calligraphy or inter-
laced bands and open hearts on the walls and foliate forms or inter-
laced bands on the bottom.40 Given the lack of these motifs on most
pieces excavated at Nishapur, he argued that one or two found there
with them must have been imports. These included a large platter,
found in a well at Tepe Madrasa and now in the Islamic Museum in
Tehran, decorated with dotted compartments in the spaces between
the letters, which contained black-centered “eyes” and flowerets.41
He compared this platter to the bowl in the Freer Gallery (2.1),
which has several other features of pieces found at Afrasiyab, such
as spots of green in the glaze and a whirling rosette in the center of
the well. Color photographs of several pieces excavated at Afrasiyab
show similar contour panels with dots.42 Hence, it seems likely
that the Freer bowl was made at Afrasiyab, but pending technical
analysis it is impossible to be absolutely definitive about its original
provenance, and it might well have been found in Iran, especially
since the dealer who sold it to the Freer, Khalil Rabenou, reportedly
acquired most of his wares there.

The ceramic setting

Slip-painted ceramics had been known in the region for centuries.
One dramatic piece (Figure 2.11) is a large amphora now in the State
Museum of Turkmenistan in Ashgabat.43 Found in a Buddhist stupa
at Marv, it was probably made in the sixth or seventh century ce as
a Zoroastrian ossuary. The clay vessel was painted with four scenes.
The largest shows a hero seated on a platform (takht), holding a fan
and feasting with his wife, who grasps a flower. The three smaller
scenes show him hunting, stricken ill, and carried on a funeral litter,
wrapped in an embroidered shroud. The scenes seem to represent the
transitory nature of life and inevitability of death, and the Russian
scholars Vladimir Lukonin and Anatoli Ivanov aptly compared the
fourfold arrangement to a rubai, the lyrical quatrain of Persian
poetry.
The people and objects on the amphora, outlined in black, are
painted on the white slip in various colored slips, mainly red and
black with areas of blue. The figures have large hands and prominent
eyes that are depicted full face and outlined in black with black

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 23 28/11/2013 11:47

 24 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

Figure 2.11 Earthenware amphora painted in slip. Height 47 cm.

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan State Museum
This large ewer found in a Buddhist stupa at Marv was probably used as an
ossuary in the sixth or seventh century; it testifies to the long tradition of
slip-painted earthenwares in the region.

circles for pupils. Eyes with similar large pupils, though rendered in
three-quarter profile, are used in contemporary murals. A fragment
from a palace at Afrasiyab, for example, shows the head of a warrior
with a brilliant blue helmet and similar, though more refined, eyes.44
What these pre-Islamic pieces lack is the clear glaze that seals the
painting and intensifies the colors.
Beginning in the late eighth century, potters in the Islamic heart-
lands developed an opaque white glaze to cover the clay body of a
vessel so that it mimicked the white body of Chinese porcelains and
stonewares. Chinese ceramics had been imported to the wealthy
Abbasid caliphate in significant quantities, to judge from the shards
discovered in the early twentieth century during excavations at
the capital at Samarra.45 Such wares were well known and highly
esteemed in the eastern Islamic lands as well. Seventeen fragments
of Chinese bowls, dishes, and one possible ewer or closed vessel of

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 24 28/11/2013 11:47

 A BOWL FROM SAMARQAND 25
the type found at Samarra were found at Nishapur.46 The excavations
from the site of Rayy south of modern Tehran have never been fully
published, but finds there included shards from Chinese celadons.47
Persian sources from the period speak frequently of Chinese wares
in the region. According to the Persian historian Bayhaqi (995–1077),
the tribute that the governor of Khurasan Ali ibn Isa sent to the
Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809) included 200 pieces
of Chinese imperial ceramics (chÈnÈ faghfËrÈ), dishes (ßahn), bowls
(kåsa), etc., each finer than anything that had ever been seen in any
ruler’s possession. There were also another 300 pieces of Chinese
ceramics (chÈnÈ), chargers (langarÈ), large bowls (kåsah-yi kalån),
large and small Chinese wine vats (khamrahhå-yi chÈnÈ), etc.48
Other contemporary sources confirm the availability of fine
Chinese wares in the eastern Islamic lands. In his Book of Curious
and Entertaining Information, the Abbasid littérateur and native of
Nishapur al-Thaalibi (961–1038) reported that

the Chinese have fine translucent pottery (al-gha∂åir al-

mustashiffa), used for cooking purposes; a piece of this may be used
equally for boiling things, for frying or simply as a dish for eating
from. And the best of them are the delicate, evenly pigmented,
clearly resounding apricot-colored (mishmishÈ) and after that, the
cream-colored (zabadÈ) ware with similar characteristics.49

Al-Thaalibi is probably referring to the early Song porcelains known

as Qingbai or the stonewares known as Yue.
Al-Thaalibi’s contemporary from Khwarazm, the polymath al-
Biruni (973–1048), reported that he saw thirteen different types
of Chinese wares in the house of a merchant from Isfahan who
lived in Rayy—bowls (qißå), dishes (uskarrajåt), bottles (nawfalåt),
plates (a†båq), pitchers (akwåz), drinking vessels (mashårib), pouring
jugs (abåriq), wash-basins (tußËß), ash bowls (ma˙åri∂), censers
(majåmir), lamps (manåråt), lamp standards (masårij), and other
objects (adawåt)—all made of Chinese porcelain.50 The word typi-
cally used in the Arabic and Persian sources for such Chinese wares
is sÈnÈ or chÈnÈ.51
While some of these Chinese wares may have been transported
overland through Central Asia, most were shipped to Iraq from
Chinese ports via the Straits of Malacca around India into the
Persian Gulf, a voyage of some 11,000 km/around 6,800 miles.52 Yue
ware, a fine grey-bodied stoneware with a thin olive-green glaze,
for example, was produced from the ninth to the eleventh century
in southern China, south of present-day Shanghai and close to the
China Sea. Few such shards have been found in Central Asia or
Afghanistan, and so scholars have concluded that the main route of
trade was maritime and that the fragments found at inland sites such
as Gurgan, rather than being transported overland 7,000 km/nearly

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 25 28/11/2013 11:47

 26 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

4,500 miles, were shipped to the Persian Gulf and then carried 1,500
km/almost 1,000 miles from the coast.53
Not all consumers in the Islamic lands could afford such expen-
sive wares imported all the way from China via the Gulf, so they
turned instead to local imitations. Potters at Basra near the Persian
Gulf, who did not have access to the fine white kaolin clay used by
Chinese potters to make porcelain, copied the shape of the imported
bowls—which have a deep well with curved walls and a rounded
flared rim that produces an undulating profile—but covered the
buff-colored clay body with an opaque white glaze to imitate the
brilliant white of the Chinese originals.54 Many of the imports were
plain wares, but some were decorated with splashes and rows of
dots in green, and Basran potters imitated this colored decoration by
adding splashes of green. They also introduced a new technique of in-
painting in the glaze using cobalt blue, a material available from the
mines near Qamsar in the hills behind Kashan in central Iran, as well
as other sites in Azerbayjan and elsewhere in Iran.55 Basran potters
seemed to have had a monopoly on this expensive imported pigment.
Designs on their bowls include simple floral or geometrical motifs or
short phrases written horizontally across the surface of the interior,
often asymmetrically. These ceramics are sometimes described as
“ink-on-snow” wares because of the way that the color bleeds into
the glaze.56 Using the terminology employed by the archaeologist
Colin Renfrew, the “ink-on-snow” wares can be said to “dissemble
porcelain.”57
The Basran wares, identifiable by their yellow clay, were in turn
imitated at provincial sites within the Abbasid realm, with small
but distinct changes (Figure 2.12).58 One site in the eastern lands
was Nishapur.59 The opaque white-glazed wares produced there
are made of a more reddish clay; the bowls typically have a flat and
unglazed base; the inscribed decoration is done in manganese instead
of cobalt; and the text is typically written in a single line, with all the
letters joined at the base. Similar wares from Afrasiyab have spots of
green on the opaque white ground.60
When potters in eastern Iran turned from opaque white-glazed
to slip-painted bowls, the shapes changed. Bowls were bigger: the
typical Iraqi bowl and its eastern imitation with rounded sides meas-
ures about 20 cm/8 in in diameter; many of the eastern wares are 30
cm/12 in, and the Freer bowl (2.1) is nearly 40 cm/16 in across. Such
a change in size may indicate a shift in function and cuisine, with
the smaller bowls used for condiments and the larger ones as serving
dishes.
The bowls’ profile changed as well. The sides of the slip-painted
bowls from eastern Iran are often flattened, tapering from the rim in
an almost straight line, and carinated, cutting in horizontally just
above the foot. The change in angle on the exterior corresponds to
the junction between the wall and the well on the interior. The foot

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 26 28/11/2013 11:47

 A BOWL FROM SAMARQAND 27

Figure 2.12 Bowl decorated in manganese with splashes of green in an

opaque white glaze. Diameter 22.2 cm. Kuwait, Dar al-Athar
al-Islamiyyah.
This bowl imitates Basran “ink-on-snow” copies of Chinese porcelains, but
has a distinctive unglazed foot and inscription written in manganese in a
single line that indicate its Khurasani origins, probably at Nishapur.

is well turned, with two parallel sides, the inner of which sometimes
blends into the base. This is the shape of the bowl in the Freer
Gallery.
The carinated profile of these slip-painted bowls from eastern
Iran probably derives from metal prototypes.61 Few metalwares have
survived from the period, as most were melted down, but a silver
hoard said to have been found near Hamadan in 1908 and now in the
Museum of Islamic Art in Tehran (Figure 2.13), provides a close pro-
totype for the ceramic bowls with straight flaring sides and sharply
inset feet. Inscriptions around the rims of the individual objects
indicate that the set was made for the amir Abu’l-Abbas Valgin
ibn Harun, who is identified as a client of the Commander of the
Faithful (mawla amÈr al-muminÈn).62 He has not been traced in the
sources, but the titulature and style of script suggest an attribution

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 27 28/11/2013 11:47

 28 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

to western Iran c. 1000. The hoard, comprising three silver bowls,

two small dishes, a large tray, a ewer, two jars, a bottle, and a cup,
seems to have been a wine service.
Wine played a large role in the culture of feasting in pre-Islamic
times. The earliest evidence for its production comes from the
residues found in a jar excavated in a Neolithic village at the site of
Hajji Firuz Tepe in the northern Zagros and datable to c. 5400–5000
bce.63 Dionysus, the god of wine, is often depicted on Sasanian silver
vessels. One plate in the British Museum datable to the second or
third century, for example, shows him reclining on a chariot under a
tree with a wine bowl in hand. He is surrounded by attendants, one
of whom seems to be pouring from a ewer, and in the exergue at the
bottom, a feline climbs into a large open-mouthed vase.64

Figure 2.13 Group of silver vessels inscribed with the name of Abu’l-Abbas Valgin.
Tehran, Museum of Islamic Art.
These bowls, part of a hoard said to have been found near Hamadan in 1908 and now in
the Museum of Islamic Art in Tehran, provide the prototype for the typical ceramic
shape adopted in the region.

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 28 28/11/2013 11:47

 A BOWL FROM SAMARQAND 29
The same iconography occurs on the so-called “post-Sasanian”
style of metalwork made during the early centuries of Islam in
Tabaristan and surrounding areas around the Caspian. A dish found
there (1.1) shows the same scene, but with even more details about
wine and feasting. The overhanging tree bears clusters of ripe grapes.
On the bottom left is a cooler with wine jugs, alongside a bottle
made from an animal skin and a cooking pot hung over a fire. A
small attendant holds a wine leg, the Persian equivalent of the Greek
rhyton.65
Wine continued to be the drink of choice for elites in Iran up to
the modern period.66 The Quran presents a nuanced and ambivalent
attitude toward the beverage,67 and terms for it (including båda,
may, sharåb, khamr, and nabÈdh) are common in Persian poetry.68
Numerous vessels were made for it, many amusingly shaped.69 Some
bowls, for example, were boat-shaped or polylobed; some ewers were
formed into birds or had bird-headed spouts. These wares were made
in both ceramics and precious materials, as this silver set shows.
Although the silver set made for Abu’l-Abbas Valgin is one of
the few metalwares to have survived, texts provide evidence for
their extensive production in the region. In the tenth century, the
Samanids controlled the most productive silver mines in the Muslim
world, including those at Panjhir (also Panjshir), the town north of
Kabul whose occupants have been compared to the prospectors in
the early nineteenth century during the California “Gold Rush.”70
Such precious metalwares were copious. According to the historian
Bayhaqi, the gift from the governor of Khurasan Ali ibn Isa to the
Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid included a thousand slave girls, each
carrying a gold or silver bowl.71 Samanid silver coins were plentiful
and circulated widely, following the Russian river system to three
main centers of trade: Khwarazm; Khazar, the capital of Itil; and
Bulgar, the capital on the Volga. The Samanids used the cash to
purchase furs and slaves.
The location of the calligraphic friezes ringing the interior rim of
the silver bowls in the wine service for Abu’l-Abbas Valgin recalls
that of the calligraphic frieze on the earthenware bowl in the Freer
Gallery, but the style of script and the direction of the text differ on
the two types of object. The friezes on the metal bowls are enclosed
at top and bottom with bands, and the beveled endings of both
stems and rising tails fill the space between the letters. There is
little rhythm of filled and void. Furthermore, the script on the metal
bowls faces outward toward the outer edge of the bowl, the opposite
direction of that on the ceramic bowl.
Indeed, it is the use of a bold inward-facing inscription ringing the
interior that distinguishes many of these eastern Iranian slipwares
and makes them so appealing to the modern eye. In the words of
Arthur Lane, the eminent historian of ceramics, “they hold the
essence of Islam undiluted.”72 Both the content and the style of

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 29 28/11/2013 11:47

 30 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

the inscriptions on these slipwares are thus worthy of further

consideration.

Inscriptions
The inscriptions on these slipwares contain a variety of texts. Some,
as on the bowl in the Freer Gallery (2.1), offer blessings to the owner.
Such blessings had been used already on the opaque white-glazed
wares made in the Abbasid heartlands in earlier centuries, some-
times simply with the single word baraka (blessing) such that the
recipient, the owner of the vessel, is implied, rather than actually
written.73 This type of supplicatory or petitionary prayer (dËa) can
also be extended with other nouns linked by the conjunction “and”
(wa), as on a bowl excavated at Nishapur but on stylistic grounds
assigned by Wilkinson to Afrasiyab, and inscribed with the nouns
offering blessing, happiness, beneficence, well-being, and felic-
ity (al-baraka wa’l-ghib†a wa’l-nima wa’l-salåma wa’l-saåda).74
Inscriptions with these strings of nouns offering blessing are also
found on contemporary metalwares and textiles.75
Another group of inscriptions on slipwares relates to the function
of the vessels, which included various tablewares, mainly bowls
and platters, but also ewers, cups, and oil lamps. The most common
text asks the user/viewer to eat or drink with appetite (kul/ishrab
fÈhå hanÈyyan marÈyyan).76 This adage is found, for example, on a
small bowl in the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyya (LNS 126C)77 and on a
ewer with a long spout in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
(LACMA) (Figure 2.14).78
Most of the inscriptions on slipwares produced in the eastern
Islamic lands, however, contain moralizing aphorisms. Oya
Pancaro©lu has made an exhaustive study of these inscriptions,
which reflect the refined literary culture of the period.79 She enu-
merated three major themes in these proverbs. The first comprises
the virtues and ethics of generosity, whether its qualities versus
those of greed, the nature of wealth, or the contrast between the
generous man and the miser. A bowl in the David Collection in
Copenhagen (Figure 2.15), for example, records a well-known hadith
that “He who believes in recompense [from God] is generous with
gifts” (man ayqåna bi’l-khalf jådå bil-atÈya).80 The second theme
Pancaro©lu found on these slipwares is that of virtuous conduct,
including modesty, patience and deliberation, speech and silence,
the noble man, and loyalty and devotion. The aphorism on the bowl
in the Freer Gallery (2.1) exemplifies the qualities of modesty. The
third theme is the pursuit of knowledge. One example is a platter in
the Metropolitan Museum (67.178.2), inscribed with the adage that
knowledge is an ornament for the valorous, and reason is a crown of
gold (al-ilm zayn li’l-fatan wa’l-aql tåj min al-dhahhab).81
In addition to the three themes elucidated by Pancaro©lu, one

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 30 28/11/2013 11:47

 A BOWL FROM SAMARQAND 31

Figure 2.14 Earthenware ewer painted in black slip under a transparent

glaze. Height 10.8 cm; width 17.15 cm. Los Angeles County Museum
of Art.
This small drinking jug whose extended spout made it easier for drinking
without touching it is inscribed with an appropriate adage asking the
viewer to “drink with appetite.”

further type of text on these slipwares deserves mention: adages

that extol Shiism. Many of the hadith can be attributed not just to
Muhammad, but also to his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib.
This is the case with the adage on the bowl in the Freer Gallery
(2.1). The Iranian epigrapher Abdallah Quchani found this hadith
without source in three works but attributed to Ali in four others.82
Similarly, the hadith about generosity on the bowl in the David
Collection is attributed to both Muhammad and Ali, as well as to
the seventh imam of Twelver Shiites, Musa al-Kazim.83
One might speculate that Quchani’s choice of sources in which
these hadith were compiled was selective, reflecting his own her-
itage, but other adages have an even more forthright reference to
Shiism. A platter in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (64.3), for
example, is inscribed with the saying that “there is no youth except
Ali, there is no sword except Dhu’l-Faqar” (lå fatan illå alÈ wa
lå sayf illå dhu’l-faqår).84 It refers to the famous double-edged or
double-bladed sword that Muhammad obtained as booty in the battle
of Badr.85 When he gave it to Ali at the Battle of Uhud, a voice is said
to have uttered this phrase. The sword then passed to the Abbasid

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 31 28/11/2013 11:47

 32 TEXT AND IMAGE IN MEDIEVAL PERSIAN ART

Figure 2.15 Earthenware bowl painted in black and red slip under a transparent glaze.
Height 10 cm; diameter 27 cm. Copenhagen, David Collection.
The inscription on this bowl asks the recipient to be generous with gifts, perhaps a
subtle reminder to the user to reward server or host.

caliphs and became an important Alid symbol. This text was often
inscribed on swords and amulets, and in Sufi letter symbolism the
letter combination lam-alif is often said to represent Dhu’l-Faqar.86
The text contains four such letters, giving the painter ample oppor-
tunity to play with interlacing and create a quadripartite design.
The choice therefore may have been for reasons of design as well as
content, and the adage became a popular saying, found on several
other slipwares.87
More generally, Pancaro©lu noted that the inscriptions of these
slipwares are attuned to both the function of the vessels and codes

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 32 28/11/2013 11:47

 A BOWL FROM SAMARQAND 33
of correct conduct regularizing cordial social settings.88 The concept
of recompense (jazå) is central to Muslim piety, implying an open-
ended notion of divine “return” for human actions, which can come
in the form of reward or punishment.89 But one should add that these
texts, while pious, also invoke a humorous note, playing on the func-
tion of the vessel in social gatherings. The ewer with the inscription
about drinking with enjoyment (2.14), for example, was probably
designed with a long spout so that multiple people could pass it
around and drink from it without the risk of spreading contagion.
The user had to be skilled to aim the liquid into his mouth without
his lips touching the spout, but if he enjoyed it too quickly, the
liquid would splash down his front. Similarly, the bowl in the David
Collection (2.15) whose inscription asks the user to be generous gives
a subtle hint to the user that he should cast a friendly eye on server
or host. The Byzantinists Eunice and Henry Maguire have recently
drawn attention to the humor in the secular art of Byzantium, there
often in connection with nakedness,90 and we must imagine that
their contemporaries in eastern Iran found similar if different means
of humoring their guests.
Some of the jokes on these slipwares are also visual. In her classic
article about the inscriptions on Samanid pottery, Lisa Volov (now
Lisa Golombek) drew attention to a fine slipware platter in the City
Art Museum of St. Louis (37-283:51) that is inscribed with the adage
that “Planning before work protects you from regret” (al-tadbÈr qabl
al-amal yuminuka min al-nadam).91 The artist, perhaps purpose-
fully, did not plan well, and he found himself with extra space left
over at the end of the inscription, which he filled with the single
letter kaf. Volov compared this incomplete inscription to signs in
modern offices that advise the worker to “plan ahead,” but deliber-
ately do not leave enough space for the end of the word “ahead” in
order to drive home the point.
This hadith about planning ahead, also attributed to Ali ibn Abi
Talib, was a popular text on slipware bowls, but since it was often
too short to fill the entire space, potters devised different strategies
to fill out the space left for the text. One was the use of a single letter,
such as the kaf on the platter in St. Louis. Another was to add simple
benedictory nouns such as good fortune and well-being (al-yumn
wa’l-salåma).92 Sometimes the potter also included another short
adage such as “Patience is the key to comfort” (al-ßabr miftå˙ al-
faraj).93 In other examples, the potter added decorative space fillers,
such as a triangular device or a rosette, like the two on the bowl in
the Freer Gallery. These geometrical devices work more effectively
than other methods, not only visually but also grammatically, as
they also serve to mark off discrete sections of text like punctuation,
a feature that is not used when writing in Arabic script at that time.
These inventive painters decorating pottery in eastern Iran may
well have made the same kinds of verbal-visual pun found in other

BLAIR 9780748655786 PRINT.indd 33 28/11/2013 11:47

Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
regular field-work; until then no labour is required of them, except,
perhaps, occasionally they are charged with some light kind of duty,
such as frightening birds from corn. When first sent to the field, one
quarter of an able-bodied hand’s days work is ordinarily allotted to
them, as their task.
From the settlement, we drove to the “mill”—not a flouring mill,
though I believe there is a run of stones in it—but a monster barn,
with more extensive and better machinery for threshing and storing
rice, driven by a steam-engine, than I have ever seen used for grain
before. Adjoining the mill-house were shops and sheds, in which
blacksmiths, carpenters, and other mechanics—all slaves, belonging
to Mr. X.—were at work. He called my attention to the excellence of
their workmanship, and said that they exercised as much ingenuity
and skill as the ordinary mechanics that he was used to employ in
New England. He pointed out to me some carpenter’s work, a part of
which had been executed by a New England mechanic, and a part
by one of his own hands, which indicated that the latter was much
the better workman.
I was gratified by this, for I had been so often told, in Virginia, by
gentlemen anxious to convince me that the negro was incapable of
being educated or improved to a condition in which it would be safe
to trust him with himself—that no negro-mechanic could ever be
taught, or induced to work carefully or nicely—that I had begun to
believe it might be so.
We were attended through the mill-house by a respectable-looking,
orderly, and quiet-mannered mulatto, who was called, by his master,
“the watchman.” His duties, however, as they were described to me,
were those of a steward, or intendant. He carried, by a strap at his
waist, a very large number of keys, and had charge of all the stores
of provisions, tools, and materials of the plantations, as well as of all
their produce, before it was shipped to market. He weighed and
measured out all the rations of the slaves and the cattle;
superintended the mechanics, and made and repaired, as was
necessary, all the machinery, including the steam-engine.
In all these departments, his authority was superior to that of the
overseer. The overseer received his private allowance of family
provisions from him, as did also the head-servant at the mansion,
who was his brother. His responsibility was much greater than that of
the overseer; and Mr. X. said he would trust him with much more
than he would any overseer he had ever known.
Anxious to learn how this trustworthiness and intelligence, so
unusual in a slave, had been developed or ascertained, I inquired of
his history, which was briefly as follows.
Being the son of a favourite house-servant, he had been, as a child,
associated with the white family, and received by chance something
of the early education of the white children. When old enough, he
had been employed, for some years, as a waiter; but, at his own
request, was eventually allowed to learn the blacksmith’s trade, in
the plantation shop. Showing ingenuity and talent, he was afterwards
employed to make and repair the plantation cotton-gins. Finally, his
owner took him to a steam-engine builder, and paid $500 to have
him instructed as a machinist. After he had become a skilful
workman, he obtained employment as an engineer; and for some
years continued in this occupation, and was allowed to spend his
wages for himself. Finding, however, that he was acquiring
dissipated habits, and wasting his earnings, Mr. X. eventually
brought him, much against his inclinations, back to the plantations.
Being allowed peculiar privileges, and given duties wholly flattering
to his self-respect, he soon became contented; and, of course, was
able to be extremely valuable to his owner.
I have seen another slave-engineer. The gentleman who employed
him told me that he was a man of talent, and of great worth of
character. He had desired to make him free, but his owner, who was
a member of the Board of Brokers, and of Dr. ——’s Church, in New
York, believed that Providence designed the negro race for slavery,
and refused to sell him for that purpose. He thought it better that he
(his owner) should continue to receive two hundred dollars a year for
his services, while he continued able to work, because then, as he
said, he should feel responsible that he did not starve, or come upon
the public for a support, in his old age. The man himself, having light
and agreeable duties, well provided for, furnished with plenty of
spending money by his employer, patronized and flattered by the
white people, honoured and looked up to by those of his own colour,
was rather indifferent in the matter; or even, perhaps, preferred to
remain a slave, to being transported for life to Africa.
The watchman was a fine-looking fellow: as we were returning from
church, on Sunday, he had passed us, well dressed and well
mounted, and as he raised his hat, to salute us, there was nothing in
his manner or appearance, except his colour, to distinguish him from
a gentleman of good breeding and fortune.
When we were leaving the house, to go to church, on Sunday, after
all the white family had entered their carriages, or mounted their
horses, the head house-servant also mounted a horse—as he did
so, slipping a coin into the hands of the boy who had been holding
him. Afterwards, we passed a family of negroes, in a light waggon,
the oldest among them driving the horse. On my inquiring if the
slaves were allowed to take horses to drive to church, I was informed
that in each of these three cases, the horses belonged to the
negroes who were driving or riding them. The old man was infirm,
and Mr. X. had given him a horse, to enable him to move about. He
was probably employed to look after the cattle at pasture, or at
something in which it was necessary, for his usefulness, that he
should have a horse: I say this, because I afterwards found, in
similar cases on other plantations, that it was so. But the watchman
and the house servant had bought their horses with money. The
watchman was believed to own three horses; and, to account for his
wealth, Mr. X.’s son told me that his father considered him a very
valuable servant, and frequently encouraged his good behaviour with
handsome gratuities. He receives, probably, considerably higher
wages, in fact (in the form of presents), than the white overseer. He
knew his father gave him two hundred dollars at once, a short time
ago. The watchman has a private house, and, no doubt, lives in
considerable luxury.
Will it be said, “therefore, Slavery is neither necessarily degrading
nor inhumane?” On the other hand, so far as it is not, there is no
apology for it. It is possible, though not probable, that this fine fellow,
if he had been born a free man, would be no better employed than
he is here; but, in that case, where is the advantage? Certainly not in
the economy of the arrangement. And if he were self-dependent, if,
especially, he had to provide for the present and future of those he
loved, and was able to do so, would he not necessarily live a
happier, stronger, better, and more respectable man?
After passing through tool-rooms, corn-rooms, mule-stables, store-
rooms, and a large garden, in which vegetables to be distributed
among the negroes, as well as for the family, are grown, we walked
to the rice-land. It is divided by embankments into fields of about
twenty acres each, but varying somewhat in size, according to the
course of the river. The arrangements are such that each field may
be flooded independently of the rest, and they are subdivided by
open ditches into rectangular plats of a quarter acre each. We first
proceeded to where twenty or thirty women and girls were engaged
in raking together, in heaps and winrows, the stubble and rubbish left
on the field after the last crop, and burning it. The main object of this
operation is to kill all the seeds of weeds, or of rice, on the ground.
Ordinarily it is done by tasks—a certain number of the small divisions
of the field being given to each hand to burn in a day; but owing to a
more than usual amount of rain having fallen lately, and some other
causes, making the work harder in some places than others, the
women were now working by the day, under the direction of a
“driver,” a negro man, who walked about among them, taking care
that they left nothing unburned. Mr. X. inspected the ground they had
gone over, to see whether the driver had done his duty. It had been
sufficiently well burned, but not more than a quarter as much ground
had been gone over, he said, as was usually burned in task-work,—
and he thought they had been very lazy, and reprimanded them. The
driver made some little apology, but the women offered no reply,
keeping steadily and, it seemed, sullenly, on at their work.
In the next field, twenty men, or boys, for none of them looked as if
they were full-grown, were ploughing, each with a single mule, and a
light, New-York-made plough. The soil was friable, the ploughing
easy, and the mules proceeded at a smart pace; the furrows were
straight, regular, and well turned. Their task was nominally an acre
and a quarter a day; somewhat less actually, as the measure
includes the space occupied by the ditches, which are two to three
feet wide, running around each quarter of an acre. The ploughing
gang was superintended by a driver, who was provided with a watch;
and while we were looking at them he called out that it was twelve
o’clock. The mules were immediately taken from the ploughs, and
the plough-boys mounting them, leapt the ditches, and cantered off
to the stables, to feed them. One or two were ordered to take their
ploughs to the blacksmith, for repairs.
The ploughmen got their dinner at this time: those not using horses
do not usually dine till they have finished their tasks; but this, I
believe, is optional with them. They commence work, I was told, at
sunrise, and at about eight o’clock have breakfast brought to them in
the field, each hand having left a bucket with the cook for that
purpose. All who are working in connection, leave their work
together, and gather about a fire, where they generally spend about
half an hour. The provisions furnished, consist mainly of meal, rice,
and vegetables, with salt and molasses, and occasionally bacon,
fish, and coffee. The allowance is a peck of meal, or an equivalent
quantity of rice per week, to each working hand, old or young,
besides small stores. Mr. X. says that he has lately given a less
amount of meat than is now usual on plantations, having observed
that the general health of the negroes is not as good as formerly,
when no meat at all was customarily given them. (The general
impression among planters is, that the negroes work much better for
being supplied with three or four pounds of bacon a week.)
Leaving the rice-land, we went next to some of the upland fields,
where we found several other gangs of negroes at work; one entirely
of men engaged in ditching; another of women, and another of boys
and girls, “listing” an old corn-field with hoes. All of them were
working by tasks, and were overlooked by negro drivers. They all
laboured with greater rapidity and cheerfulness than any slaves I
have before seen; and the women struck their hoes as if they were
strong, and well able to engage in muscular labour. The expression
of then faces was generally repulsive, and their ensemble anything
but agreeable. The dress of most was uncouth and cumbrous, dirty
and ragged; reefed up, as I have once before described, at the hips,
so as to show their heavy legs, wrapped round with a piece of old
blanket, in lieu of leggings or stockings. Most of them worked with
bare arms, but wore strong shoes on their feet, and handkerchiefs
on their heads; some of them were smoking, and each gang had a
fire burning on the ground, near where they were at work, by which
to light their pipes and warm their breakfast. Mr. X. said this was
always their custom, even in summer. To each gang a boy or girl was
also attached, whose business it was to bring water for them to
drink, and to go for anything required by the driver. The drivers would
frequently call back a hand to go over again some piece of his or her
task that had not been worked to his satisfaction, and were
constantly calling to one or another, with a harsh and peremptory
voice, to strike harder, or hoe deeper, and otherwise taking care that
the work was well done. Mr. X. asked if Little Sam (“Tom’s Sue’s
Sam”) worked yet with the “three-quarter” hands, and learning that
he did, ordered him to be put with the full hands, observing that
though rather short, he was strong and stout, and, being twenty
years old, well able to do a man’s work.
The field-hands are all divided into four classes, according to their
physical capacities. The children beginning as “quarter hands,”
advancing to “half-hands,” and then to “three-quarter hands;” and,
finally, when mature, and able-bodied, healthy, and strong, to “full
hands.” As they decline in strength, from age, sickness, or other
cause, they retrograde in the scale, and proportionately less labour
is required of them. Many, of naturally weak frame, never are put
among the full hands. Finally, the aged are left out at the annual
classification, and no more regular field-work is required of them,
although they are generally provided with some light, sedentary
occupation. I saw one old woman picking “tailings” of rice out of a
heap of chaff, an occupation at which she was probably not earning
her salt. Mr. X. told me she was a native African, having been
brought when a girl from the Guinea coast. She spoke almost
unintelligibly; but after some other conversation, in which I had not
been able to understand a word she said, he jokingly proposed to
send her back to Africa. She expressed her preference to remain
where she was, very emphatically. “Why?” She did not answer
readily, but being pressed, threw up her palsied hands, and said
furiously, “I lubs ’ou, mas’r, oh, I lubs ’ou. I don’t want go ’way from
’ou.”
The field-hands are nearly always worked in gangs, the strength of a
gang varying according to the work that engages it; usually it
numbers twenty or more, and is directed by a driver. As on most
large plantations, whether of rice or cotton, in Eastern Georgia and
South Carolina, nearly all ordinary and regular work is performed by
tasks: that is to say, each hand has his labour for the day marked out
before him, and can take his own time to do it in. For instance, in
making drains in light, clean meadow land, each man or woman of
the full hands is required to dig one thousand cubic feet; in swamp-
land that is being prepared for rice culture, where there are not many
stumps, the task for a ditcher is five hundred feet: while in a very
strong cypress swamp, only two hundred feet is required; in hoeing
rice, a certain number of rows, equal to one-half or two-thirds of an
acre, according to the condition of the land; in sowing rice (strewing
in drills), two acres; in reaping rice (if it stands well), three-quarters of
an acre; or, sometimes a gang will be required to reap, tie in
sheaves, and carry to the stack-yard the produce of a certain area,
commonly equal to one fourth the number of acres that there are
hands working together. Hoeing cotton, corn, or potatoes; one half to
one acre. Threshing; five to six hundred sheaves. In ploughing rice-
land (light, clean, mellow soil) with a yoke of oxen, one acre a day,
including the ground lost in and near the drains—the oxen being
changed at noon. A cooper, also, for instance, is required to make
barrels at the rate of eighteen a week. Drawing staves, 500 a day.
Hoop poles, 120. Squaring timber, 100 ft. Laying worm-fence, 50
panels per hand. Post and rail do., posts set 2½ to 3 ft. deep, 9 ft.
apart, nine or ten panels per hand. In getting fuel from the woods,
(pine, to be cut and split,) one cord is the task for a day. In “mauling
rails,” the taskman selecting the trees (pine) that he judges will split
easiest, one hundred a day, ends not sharpened.
These are the tasks for first-class able-bodied men; they are
lessened by one quarter for three quarter hands, and proportionately
for the lighter classes. In allotting the tasks, the drivers are expected
to put the weaker hands where (if there is any choice in the
appearance of the ground, as where certain rows in hoeing corn
would be less weedy than others,) they will be favoured.
These tasks certainly would not be considered excessively hard, by
a Northern labourer; and, in point of fact, the more industrious and
active hands finish them often by two o’clock. I saw one or two
leaving the field soon after one o’clock, several about two; and
between three and four, I met a dozen women and several men
coming home to their cabins, having finished their day’s work.
Under this “Organization of Labour,” most of the slaves work rapidly
and well. In nearly all ordinary work, custom has settled the extent of
the task, and it is difficult to increase it. The driver who marks it out,
has to remain on the ground until it is finished, and has no interest in
over-measuring it; and if it should be systematically increased very
much, there is danger of a general stampede to the “swamp”—a
danger the slave can always hold before his master’s cupidity. In
fact, it is looked upon in this region as a proscriptive right of the
negroes to have this incitement to diligence offered them; and the
man who denied it, or who attempted to lessen it, would, it is said,
suffer in his reputation, as well as experience much annoyance from
the obstinate “rascality” of his negroes. Notwithstanding this, I have
heard a man assert, boastingly, that he made his negroes habitually
perform double the customary tasks. Thus we get a glimpse again of
the black side. If he is allowed the power to do this, what may not a
man do?
It is the driver’s duty to make the tasked hands do their work well. If,
in their haste to finish it, they neglect to do it properly, he “sets them
back,” so that carelessness will hinder more than it will hasten the
completion of their tasks.
In the selection of drivers, regard seems to be had to size and
strength—at least, nearly all the drivers I have seen are tall and
strong men—but a great deal of judgment, requiring greater capacity
of mind than the ordinary slave is often supposed to be possessed
of, is certainly needed in them. A good driver is very valuable and
usually holds office for life. His authority is not limited to the direction
of labour in the field, but extends to the general deportment of the
negroes. He is made to do the duties of policeman, and even of
police magistrate. It is his duty, for instance, on Mr. X.’s estate, to
keep order in the settlement; and, if two persons, men or women, are
fighting, it is his duty to immediately separate them, and then to
“whip them both.”
Before any field of work is entered upon by a gang, the driver who is
to superintend them has to measure and stake off the tasks. To do
this at all accurately, in irregular-shaped fields, must require
considerable powers of calculation. A driver, with a boy to set the
stakes, I was told, would accurately lay out forty acres a day, in half-
acre tasks. The only instrument used is a five-foot measuring rod.
When the gang comes to the field, he points out to each person his
or her duty for the day, and then walks about among them, looking
out that each proceeds properly. If, after a hard day’s labour, he sees
that the gang has been overtasked, owing to a miscalculation of the
difficulty of the work, he may excuse the completion of the tasks; but
he is not allowed to extend them. In the case of uncompleted tasks,
the body of the gang begin new tasks the next day, and only a
sufficient number are detailed from it to complete, during the day, the
unfinished tasks of the day before. The relation of the driver to the
working hands seems to be similar to that of the boatswain to the
seamen in the navy, or of the sergeant to the privates in the army.
Having generally had long experience on the plantation, the advice
of the drivers is commonly taken in nearly all the administration, and
frequently they are, de facto, the managers. Orders on important
points of the plantation economy, I have heard given by the
proprietor directly to them, without the overseer’s being consulted or
informed of them; and it is often left with them to decide when and
how long to flow the rice-grounds—the proprietor and overseer
deferring to their more experienced judgment. Where the drivers are
discreet, experienced, and trusty, the overseer is frequently
employed merely as a matter of form, to comply with the laws
requiring the superintendence or presence of a white man among
every body of slaves; and his duty is rather to inspect and report
than to govern. Mr. X. considers his overseer an uncommonly
efficient and faithful one, but he would not employ him, even during
the summer, when he is absent for several months, if the law did not
require it. He has sometimes left his plantation in care of one of the
drivers for a considerable length of time, after having discharged an
overseer; and he thinks it has then been quite as well conducted as
ever. His overseer consults the drivers on all important points, and is
governed by their advice.
Mr. X. said, that though overseers sometimes punished the negroes
severely, and otherwise ill-treated them, it is their more common fault
to indulge them foolishly in their disposition to idleness, or in other
ways to curry favour with them, so they may not inform the proprietor
of their own misconduct or neglect. He has his overseer bound to
certain rules, by written contract; and it is stipulated that he can
discharge him at any moment, without remuneration for his loss of
time and inconvenience, if he should at any time be dissatisfied with
him. One of the rules is, that he shall never punish a negro with his
own hands, and that corporeal punishment, when necessary, shall
be inflicted by the drivers. The advantage of this is, that it secures
time for deliberation, and prevents punishment being made in
sudden passion. His drivers are not allowed to carry their whips with
them in the field; so that if the overseer wishes a hand punished, it is
necessary to call a driver; and the driver has then to go to his cabin,
which is, perhaps, a mile or two distant, to get his whip, before it can
be applied.
I asked how often the necessity of punishment occurred?
“Sometimes, perhaps, not once for two or three weeks; then it will
seem as if the devil had got into them all, and there is a good deal of
it.”
As the negroes finish the labour required of them by Mr. X., at three
or four o’clock in the afternoon, they can employ the remainder of the
day in labouring for themselves, if they choose. Each family has a
half-acre of land allotted to it, for a garden; besides which, there is a
large vegetable garden, cultivated by a gardener for the plantation,
from which they are supplied, to a greater or less extent. They are at
liberty to sell whatever they choose from the products of their own
garden, and to make what they can by keeping swine and fowls. Mr.
X.’s family have no other supply of poultry and eggs than what is
obtained by purchase from his own negroes; they frequently, also,
purchase game from them. The only restriction upon their traffic is a
“liquor law.” They are not allowed to buy or sell ardent spirits. This
prohibition, like liquor laws elsewhere, unfortunately, cannot be
enforced; and, of late years, grog shops, at which stolen goods are
bought from the slaves, and poisonous liquors—chiefly the worst
whisky, much watered and made stupefying by an infusion of
tobacco—are clandestinely sold to them, have become an
established evil, and the planters find themselves almost powerless
to cope with it. They have, here, lately organized an association for
this purpose, and have brought several offenders to trial; but, as it is
a penitentiary offence, the culprit spares no pains or expense to
avoid conviction—and it is almost impossible, in a community of
which so large a proportion is poor and degraded, to have a jury
sufficiently honest and intelligent to permit the law to be executed.
A remarkable illustration of this evil has lately occurred. A planter,
discovering that a considerable quantity of cotton had been stolen
from him, informed the patrol of the neighbouring planters of it. A
stratagem was made use of, to detect the thief, and, what was of
much more importance—there being no question but that this was a
slave—to discover for whom the thief worked. A lot of cotton was
prepared, by mixing hair with it, and put in a tempting place. A negro
was seen to take it, and was followed by scouts to a grog-shop,
several miles distant, where he sold it—its real value being nearly
ten dollars—for ten cents, taking his pay in liquor. The man was
arrested, and, the theft being made to appear, by the hair, before a
justice, obtained bail in $2,000, to answer at the higher court. Some
of the best legal counsel of the State has been engaged, to obtain, if
possible, his conviction.
This difficulty in the management of slaves is a great and very
rapidly increasing one. Everywhere that I have been, I have found
the planters provoked and angry about it. A swarm of Jews, within
the last ten years, has settled in nearly every Southern town, many
of them men of no character, opening cheap clothing and trinket
shops; ruining, or driving out of business, many of the old retailers,
and engaging in an unlawful trade with the simple negroes, which is
found very profitable.[30]
The law which prevents the reception of the evidence of a negro in
courts, here strikes back, with a most annoying force, upon the
dominant power itself. In the mischief thus arising, we see a striking
illustration of the danger which stands before the South, whenever
its prosperity shall invite extensive immigration, and lead what would
otherwise be a healthy competition to flow through its channels of
industry.
This injury to slave property, from grog-shops, furnishes the grand
argument for the Maine Law at the South.[31]
Mr. X. remarks that his arrangements allow his servants no excuse
for dealing with these fellows. He has a rule to purchase everything
they desire to sell, and to give them a high price for it himself. Eggs
constitute a circulating medium on the plantation. Their par value is
considered to be twelve for a dime, at which they may always be
exchanged for cash, or left on deposit, without interest, at his
kitchen.
Whatever he takes of them that he cannot use in his own family, or
has not occasion to give to others of his servants, is sent to town to
be resold. The negroes do not commonly take money for the articles
he has of them, but the value of them is put to their credit, and a
regular account kept with them. He has a store, usually well supplied
with articles that they most want, which are purchased in large
quantities, and sold to them at wholesale prices; thus giving them a
great advantage in dealing with him rather than with the grog-shops.
His slaves are sometimes his creditors to large amounts; at the
present time he says he owes them about five hundred dollars. A
woman has charge of the store, and when there is anything called
for that she cannot supply, it is usually ordered, by the next
conveyance, of his factors in town.
The ascertained practicability of thus dealing with slaves, together
with the obvious advantages of the method of working them by
tasks, which I have described, seem to me to indicate that it is not so
impracticable as is generally supposed, if only it was desired by
those having the power, to rapidly extinguish Slavery, and while
doing so, to educate the negro for taking care of himself, in freedom.
Let, for instance, any slave be provided with all things he will
demand, as far as practicable, and charge him for them at certain
prices—honest, market prices for his necessities, higher prices for
harmless luxuries, and excessive, but not absolutely prohibitory,
prices for everything likely to do him harm. Credit him, at a fixed
price, for every day’s work he does, and for all above a certain easily
accomplished task in a day, at an increased price, so that his reward
will be in an increasing ratio to his perseverance. Let the prices of
provisions be so proportioned to the price of task-work, that it will be
about as easy as it is now for him to obtain a bare subsistence.
When he has no food and shelter due to him, let him be confined in
solitude, or otherwise punished, until he asks for opportunity to earn
exemption from punishment by labour.
When he desires to marry, and can persuade any woman to marry
him, let the two be dealt with as in partnership. Thus, a young man
or young woman will be attractive somewhat in proportion to his or
her reputation for industry and providence. Thus industry and
providence will become fashionable. Oblige them to purchase food
for their children, and let them have the benefit of their children’s
labour, and they will be careful to teach their children to avoid waste,
and to honour labour. Let those who have not gained credit while
hale and young, sufficient to support themselves in comfort when
prevented by age or infirmity from further labour, be supported by a
tax upon all the negroes of the plantation, or of a community.
Improvidence, and pretence of inability to labour, will then be
disgraceful.
When any man has a balance to his credit equal to his value as a
slave, let that constitute him a free man. It will be optional with him
and his employer whether he shall continue longer in the relation of
servant. If desirable for both that he should, it is probable that he will;
for unless he is honest, prudent, industrious, and discreet, he will not
have acquired the means of purchasing his freedom.
If he is so, he will remain where he is, unless he is more wanted
elsewhere; a fact that will be established by his being called away by
higher wages, or the prospect of greater ease and comfort
elsewhere. If he is so drawn off, it is better for all parties concerned
that he should go. Better for his old master; for he would not refuse
him sufficient wages to induce him to stay, unless he could get the
work he wanted him to do done cheaper than he would justly do it.
Poor wages would certainly, in the long run, buy but poor work; fair
wages, fair work.
Of course there will be exceptional cases, but they will always
operate as cautions for the future, not only to the parties suffering,
but to all who observe them. And be sure they will not be suffered,
among ignorant people, to be lost. This is the beneficent function of
gossip, with which wise and broad-working minds have nothing to
do, such not being benefitted by the iteration of the lessons of life.
Married persons, of course, can only become free together. In the
appraisement of their value, let that of their young children be
included, so that they cannot be parted from them; but with regard to
children old enough to earn something more than their living, let it be
optional what they do for them.
Such a system would simply combine the commendable elements of
the emancipation law of Cuba,[32] and those of the reformatory
punishment system, now in successful operation in some of the
British penal colonies, with a few practical modifications. Further
modifications would, doubtless, be needed, which any man who has
had much practical experience in dealing with slaves might readily
suggest. Much might be learned from the experience of the system
pursued in the penal colonies, some account of which may be seen
in the report of the Prisoners’ Aid Society of New York, for 1854, or in
a previous little work of my own. I have here only desired to suggest,
apropos to my friend’s experience, the practicability of providing the
negroes an education in essential social morality, while they are
drawing towards personal freedom; a desideratum with those who do
not consider Slavery a purely and eternally desirable thing for both
slave and slave-master, which the present system is calculated, as
far as possible, in every direction to oppose.
Education in theology and letters could be easily combined with such
a plan as I have hinted at; or, if a State should wish to encourage the
improvement of its negro constituent—as, in the progress of
enlightenment and Christianity, may be hoped to eventually occur—a
simple provision of the law, making a certain standard of proficiency
the condition of political freedom, would probably create a natural
demand for education, which commerce, under its inexorable higher-
laws, would be obliged to satisfy.
I do not think, after all I have heard to favour it, that there is any good
reason to consider the negro, naturally and essentially, the moral
inferior of the white; or, that if he is so, it is in those elements of
character which should for ever prevent us from trusting him with
equal social munities with ourselves.
So far as I have observed, slaves show themselves worthy of trust
most, where their masters are most considerate and liberal towards
them. Far more so, for instance, on the small farms of North Carolina
than on the plantations of Virginia and South Carolina. Mr. X.’s
slaves are permitted to purchase fire-arms and ammunition, and to
keep them in their cabins; and his wife and daughters reside with
him, among them, the doors of the house never locked, or windows
closed, perfectly defenceless, and miles distant from any other white
family.
Another evidence that negroes, even in slavery, when trusted, may
prove wonderfully reliable, I will subjoin, in a letter written by Mr.
Alexander Smets, of Savannah, to a friend in New York, in 1853. It is
hardly necessary to say, that the “servants” spoken of were negroes,
and the “suspicious characters,” providentially removed, were
whites. The letter was not written for publication:—
“The epidemic which spread destruction and desolation
through our city, and many other places in most of the
Southern States, was, with the exception of that of 1820,
the most deadly that was ever known here. Its appearance
being sudden, the inhabitants were seized with a panic,
which caused an immediate sauve qui peut seldom
witnessed before. I left, or rather fled, for the sake of my
 daughters, to Sparta, Hancock county. They were
dreadfully frightened.
“Of a population of fifteen thousand, six thousand, who
could not get away, remained, nearly all of whom were
more or less seized with the prevailing disease. The
negroes, with very few exceptions, escaped.
“Amidst the desolation and gloom pervading the deserted
streets, there was a feature that showed our slaves in a
favourable light. There were entire blocks of houses,
which were either entirely deserted—the owners in many
instances having, in their flight, forgotten to lock them up
—or left in charge of the servants. A finer opportunity for
plunder could not be desired by thieves; and yet the city
was remarkable, during the time, for order and quietness.
There were scarcely any robberies committed, and as
regards fires, so common in the winter, none! Every
householder, whose premises had escaped the fury of the
late terrific storm, found them in the same condition he
had left them. Had not the yellow fever scared away or
killed those suspicious characters, whose existence is a
problem, and who prowl about every city, I fear that our
city might have been laid waste. Of the whole board of
directors of five banks, three or four remained, and these
at one time were sick. Several of the clerks were left, each
in the possession of a single one. For several weeks it
was difficult to get anything to eat; the bakers were either
sick or dead. The markets closed, no countryman dared
venture himself into the city with the usual supplies for the
table, and the packets had discontinued their trips. I shall
stop, otherwise I could fill a volume with the occurrences
and incidents of the dismal period of the epidemic.”
On most of the large rice plantations which I have seen in this
vicinity, there is a small chapel, which the negroes call their prayer-
house. The owner of one of these told me that, having furnished the
prayer-house with seats having a back-rail, his negroes petitioned
him to remove it, because it did not leave them room enough to pray.
It was explained to me that it is their custom, in social worship, to
work themselves up to a great pitch of excitement, in which they yell
and cry aloud, and finally, shriek and leap up, clapping their hands
and dancing, as it is done at heathen festivals. The back-rail they
found to seriously impede this exercise.
Mr. X. told me that he had endeavoured, with but little success, to
prevent this shouting and jumping of the negroes at their meetings
on his plantation, from a conviction that there was not the slightest
element of religious sentiment in it. He considered it to be engaged
in more as an exciting amusement than from any really religious
impulse. In the town churches, except, perhaps, those managed and
conducted almost exclusively by negroes, the slaves are said to
commonly engage in religious exercises in a sober and decorous
manner; yet, a member of a Presbyterian church in a Southern city
told me, that he had seen the negroes in his own house of worship,
during “a season of revival,” leap from their seats, throw then arms
wildly in the air, shout vehemently and unintelligibly, cry, groan, rend
their clothes, and fall into cataleptic trances.
On almost every large plantation, and in every neighbourhood of
small ones, there is one man who has come to be considered the
head or pastor of the local church. The office among the negroes, as
among all other people, confers a certain importance and power. A
part of the reverence attaching to the duties is given to the person;
vanity and self-confidence are cultivated, and a higher ambition
aroused than can usually enter the mind of a slave. The self-respect
of the preacher is also often increased by the consideration in which
he is held by his master, as well as by his fellows; thus, the
preachers generally have an air of superiority to other negroes; they
acquire a remarkable memory of words, phrases, and forms; a
curious sort of poetic talent is developed, and a habit is obtained of
rhapsodizing and exciting furious emotions, to a great degree
spurious and temporary, in themselves and others, through the
imagination. I was introduced, the other day, to a preacher, who was
represented to be quite distinguished among them. I took his hand,
respectfully, and said I was happy to meet him. He seemed to take
this for a joke, and laughed heartily. He was a “driver,” and my friend
said—
“He drives the negroes at the cotton all the week, and Sundays he
drives them at the Gospel—don’t you, Ned?”
He commenced to reply in some scriptural phrase, soberly; but
before he could say three words, began to laugh again, and reeled
off like a drunken man—entirely overcome with merriment. He
recovered himself in a moment, and returned to us.
“They say he preaches very powerfully, too.”
“Yes, massa! ’kordin’ to der grace—yah! yah!”
And he staggered off again, with the peculiar hearty negro guffaw.
My friend’s tone was, I suppose, slightly humorous, but I was grave,
and really meant to treat him respectfully, wishing to draw him into
conversation; but he had got the impression that it was intended to
make fun of him, and generously assuming a merry humour, I found
it impossible to get a serious reply.
A majority of the public houses of worship at the South are small,
rude structures of logs, or rough boards, built by the united labour or
contributions of the people of a large neighbourhood or district of
country, and are used as places of assembly for all public purposes.
Few of them have any regular clergymen, but preachers of different
denominations go from one to another, sometimes in a defined
rotation, or “circuit,” so that they may be expected at each of their
stations at regular intervals. A late report of the Southern Aid Society
states that hardly one-fifth of the preachers are regularly educated
for their business, and that “you would starve a host of them if you
debarred them from seeking additional support for their families by
worldly occupation.” In one presbytery of the Presbyterian Church,
which is, perhaps, the richest, and includes the most educated body
of people of all the Southern Churches, there are twenty-one
ministers whose wages are not over two hundred and fifty dollars
each. The proportion of ministers, of all sorts, to people, is estimated
at one to thirteen hundred. (In the Free States it is estimated at one
to nine hundred.) The report of this Society also states, that “within
the limits of the United States religious destitution lies comparatively
at the South and South-west; and that from the first settlement of the
country the North has preserved a decided religious superiority over
the South, especially in three important particulars: in ample supply
of Christian institutions; extensive supply of Christian truth; and
thorough Christian regimen, both in the Church and in the
community.” It is added that, “while the South-western States have
always needed a stronger arm of the Christian ministry to raise them
up toward a Christian equality with their Northern brethren, their
supply in this respect has always been decidedly inferior.” The
reason of this is the same with that which explains the general
ignorance of the people of the South: The effect of Slavery in
preventing social association of the whites, and in encouraging
vagabond and improvident habits of life among the poor.
The two largest denominations of Christians at the South are the
Methodists and Baptists—the last having a numerical superiority.
There are some subdivisions of each, and of the Baptists especially,
the nature of which I do not understand. Two grand divisions of the
Baptists are known as the Hard Shells and the Soft Shells. There is
an intense rivalry and jealousy among these various sects and sub-
sects, and the controversy between them is carried on with a
bitterness and persistence exceeding anything which I have known
at the North, and in a manner which curiously indicates how the
terms Christianity, piety, etc., are misapplied to partisanship and
conditions of the imagination.
A general want of essential reverence of character seems to be
evidenced in the frequent familiar and public use of expressions of
rare reverence, and in high-coloured descriptions of personal
feelings and sentiments, which, if actual, can only be among a man’s
dearest, most interior and secret, stillest, and most uncommunicable
experiences. Men talk in public places, in the churches, and in bar-
rooms, in the stage-coach, and at the fireside, of their personal
communions with the Deity, and of the mutations of their harmony
with His Spirit, just as they do about their family and business
matters. The familiar use of Scripture expressions by the negroes, I
have already indicated. This is not confined to them. A dram-seller
advertises thus:—
“‘FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD.’
IN order to engage in a more ‘honorable’ business, I offer
for sale, cheap for cash, my stock of
LIQUORS, BAR-FIXTURES, BILLIARD TABLE, &c., &c.
If not sold privately, by the 20th day of May, I will sell the
same at public auction. ‘Shew me thy faith without thy
works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.’
E. KEYSER.”
At a Sunday dinner-table, at a village inn in Virginia, two or three
men had taken seats with me, who had, as they said, “been to the
preachin’.” A child had been baptized, and the discourse had been a
defence of infant baptism.
“I’m damned,” said one, “ef he teched on the primary significance of
baptism, at all—buryin’ with Jesus.”
“They wus the weakest arguments for sprinklin’ that ever I heerd,”
said another—a hot, red-faced, corpulent man—“and his sermon
was two hours long, for when he stopped I looked at my watch. I
thought it should be a lesson to me, for I couldn’t help going to sleep.
Says I to Uncle John, says I—he sot next to me, and I whispered to
him—says I, ‘When he gits to Bunker Hill, you wake me up,’ for I see
he was bound to go clean back to the beginnin’ of things.”
“Uncle John is an Episcopalian, aint he?”
“Yes.”
“Well, there aint no religion in that, no how.”
“No, there aint.”
“Well now, you wouldn’t think it, but I’ve studied into religion a heap
in my life.”
“Don’t seem to have done you much good.”