ceramics

(engineering) The art and science of making ceramic products.

A durable material with a history spanning 10,500 years that is significant to the study of archaeology and history.

Ceramic figurines and pottery vessels in Anatolia and the Iranian Plateau date to 8500 B.C.E.. The archaeological, ethnographic, and historic evidence for ceramic production in the Middle East and North Africa is complex and has a voluminous literature. The earliest Islamic potters (Umayyad dynasty, 661 - 750 C.E.) inherited extant traditions: Blue- and green-glazed wares had been produced in Egypt since Roman times; the alkaline-glazed ceramics of Syria, Iraq, and Iran had been made since Achaemenid times (seventh to fourth centuries B.C.E.); and the Roman lead-glazed ceramic tradition had been continued by the Byzantines. Chinese influences (Tang stoneware, ninth to eleventh centuries; Song whitewares, twelfth to fourteenth centuries, and Ming blue- and whiteware, fifteenth to nineteenth centuries) were significant. The spread of Islam correlates with the distribution of hybrid production methods (molds, tin glazes, under-glazes, polychromy, and metallic pigments) and products (architectural tiles). Early Islamic wares included Umayyad (Mediterranean/Middle Eastern influence), Abbasid (Tang influence), Central Asian Samanid, Egyptian Fatimid, and Mesopotamian/Persian wares (twelfth to fifteenth centuries) from Rayy, Raqqah, and Kashan. Later Persian ceramics (fifteenth to nineteenth centuries) were made at Kubachi, Tabriz, and Kerman; Syrian artisans produced work at al-Fustat, Raqqa, and Damascus; Seljuk Turks fabricated wares at Iznik and Kütahya. Lusterware, Mina'i, Iznik, Gombroon, and Zillij are notable Islamic contributions to ceramic history.

The Museum of Islamic Ceramics in Cairo, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York house specimens from different Islamic eras that span the region from Morocco in the west through Iran, Afghanistan, and Indonesia in the east. Although Iznik ceramics were prized by the Ottoman court into the early twentieth century, ceramic vessels and tiles produced from the earliest times to the present in Islamic lands, including Central Asia, are esteemed by museums, art historians, and collectors. With the availability of metal and plastic replacements, utilitarian production has diminished, but ceramic art and tile production remains strong.

Bibliography

Watson, Oliver. Ceramics from Islamic Lands. London: Thames and Hudson, 2003.

Whitehouse, David; Grube, Ernest J.; and Crowe, Yolande. "Ceramics: Islamic." In Encyclopedia Iranica. London; Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1995.

— ELIZABETH THOMPSON UPDATED BY CHARLES C. KOLB

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: the art of making and decorating pottery