Lustre-painted ceramic tiles

From Kashan, Iran
Early 14th century AD

From an inscription frieze

These four tiles are part of a longer frieze with an inscription written in Kufic script. It reads ['bism al]lah al-rahmān al-rahīm la 'ilah illa huwa al 'azīz al-hakīm' ('[in the name of] God the most merciful, the most compassionate, there is no god but Him, the all-powerful, the all-ruling').

Pairs of long letter-stems are elaborately knotted together, and then continue upwards to the top of the tile to frame the lustre-painted decoration. Between the cobalt-blue letter stalks, spiralling leafy scrolls are painted in reserve white against brown lustre. This motif of placing a cobalt script in relief against lustre pattern was typical among the tile makers of Kashan since the thirteenth century.

V. Porter, Islamic tiles (London, The British Museum Press, 1995)