Bowl with Horseman Iran, Nishapur, 900s glazed earthenware, 8 1/2 inches (21.6 cm) diameter Museum exchange 1967.93

Nishapur, in northeastern Persia, was once a thriving cosmopolitan city on the east-west trade route between China and the Mediterranean. The brown, green, and yellow underglaze on this bowl probably reflects the popularity of Chinese ceramics of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), which have been found there. Though Arab Muslims were ruling the area by 900, their prohibition against using images did not interfere with this potter’s splendid depiction of a mounted horseman on a hunting expedition.


To Southwest Asia