Baghdad Kilns History

(Doc G) Thirdly, the architectural and legal legacy of the Islamic empire continues to shape societies worldwide. Islamic architecture is renowned for its grand mosques and palaces adorned with intricate designs and towering minarets, such as the Great Mosque of Cordoba, which features columns made of jasper, marble, and granite (reference to supporting document A). These structures serve not only as places of worship, but also as centers of learning and community gatherings. The architectural innovations of the Islamic empire, including the use of pointed arches and domes, exerted influence beyond its borders, shaping architectural styles in distant regions. The enduring architectural and legal legacy of the Islamic empire underscores its profound and lasting impact on the development of human

Islam soon acquired vast amounts of territory in Afro-Eurasia, and according to the map, “The Growing Worlds of Islam (900-1500),” it occupied an area from parts of central Asia to West Africa and Eastern Europe by the start of the sixteenth century. This map documents the phases of the growth of Islam for six hundred years, which combined with further analysis will reveal each step in the conquest of each new phase of territory. Controlling all of these nations created standardized trade and common business practices throughout the empire. Using already intact trade routes, such as the Silk Roads, documented in the map provided as document 1, the Islamic empire built an economic system that was unified by common religious beliefs. Comparing the trade routes mapped on both the Silk Roads map and the “The Growing Worlds of Islam (900-1500)” map, one can see that they are very similar, suggesting that they remained the same and that the Islamic empire just took over the control of each. Yet it was not just the Silk Roads that saw a revival at the hands of Muslim commercial excursions. The Mediterranean and Indian Ocean sea routes, as well as the trans-Saharan routes were given new life as well due to the Islamic empire. These routes not only produced trade, but they also opened up opportunities for new agricultural products and a sharing of ideas and innovations. These

Five hundred years ago, the Portuguese first arrived in China and were enchanted by the crystal-looking structures. As they brought large quantities of Jingdezhen blue and white porcelain items back to Europe, they did not realize that porcelain would become the first global product, expect to have created the first global trade market. Blue and white manufacturing began under the under the rule of the Mongols during the Yuan dynasty and has left traces around the world in faraway places such as Central Asia, England, Portugal, Spain, Kenya, the Maldives, and the Americas. Moreover, not only was porcelain spread throughout the world, but each country it touched, spread its own cultural influence on the manufacturing and decoration of porcelain.

Starting near the Fertile Crescent region around the fourth millennium BCE, the first civilization of Mesopotamia emerged and the artists techniques improved, resulting with more complex pictorial pieces of work in such ways that it over passed the Old Stone Age artists. These complex and intricate techniques can been seen through their various styles, the different mediums used, and also geometrical accuracy of the pieces. The works, The Standard of Ur, Head of Akkadian Ruler, The Victory stele of Naram-Sin and The Lamassu displays how the pieces of art have advanced and the concept of absolute monarchs play a role in design of the sculptures.

During the rise of the Silk Roads, there was little cultural influence. This is because negotiators carried on the trade between the Han and Roman empires causing the two empires to have no direct contact with each other. During the Tang dynasty this actually changes. The Islamic and European medieval periods were influenced by Chinese paper. Their written works started to become normal in saving and transmitting cultural knowledge such as written bibles, histories, math and other intellectual discoveries. Crusaders were reintroduced with Eastern goods such as spices and cloth but were also influenced when they saw large energetic, urban cities. Greeks were re-introduced to ancient works because they were reconnected with the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid caliphate. Also eastern works were spread along the Silk Road. These works inspired Muslim and European

During the outward-looking rule of China's Tang dynasty (seventh-ninth century C. E. ), sophisticated people in northeastern Iran developed such a taste for expensive, imported Chinese pottery that they began to imitate it in great quantity for sale to people who could not afford the real thing. And in northern China there was a vogue for beautiful pottery figurines of camels laden with caravan goods or ridden by obviously non-Chinese merchants, musicians, or entertainers. Non-Chinese camel figurines found in Mesopotamia carry loads that duplicate the distinctive appearance of the loads on the Chinese figurines. So it is clear that by the time of the rise of Islam in the seventh century, contact across the Silk

There are many different types of styles and cultures that affect the work of ceramics. One type of culture that was very interesting was the Pre-Columbian Maya culture of Mesoamerica. The natural environment that the Mayans lived in offered a wealth of materials and ideas to give works of beautiful art. “The Maya used ceramics every day, small cups for drinking vessels, tall cylinders for storing and pouring ritual beverages, and plates for all sorts of delicious foodstuffs, from tamales to corncakes served with sauces” ( Miller 190). The Maya had specific techniques and shared similarities with the ancient Greeks regarding how they formed their own clay slips.

Sasanian influence was widespread throughout the Islamic world. But it is quite hard to differentiate the earliest Islamic objects from their archetypes in Persian or Sassanid art. And it took a significant amount of times, sometimes even centuries for the majority of the population to convert, including artists, after the Muslim conquest. But even in the objects that were created later on, an effect of the predecessor cultures can be seen. Islamic architecture, especially in places such as Baghdad for example, was based on Persian precedents such as Firouzabad in Persia.

In the 13th and 14th centuries in northwestern Iran, a style of decorative arts emerged under the rule of the Ilkhanid Dynasty- a branch of the Mongol Dynasty led by Hulegu or “Il Khan.” (metmuseum.org) The artistic traditions of the Mongols quickly assimilated into the Islamic lands as a result of the cross fertilization of trade amongst craftsmen and artists along trade routes, thus breeding the production of a new style of decorative art that combined Eastern Asian motifs with Western Asian colors and pattern work. Islamic art styles expanded during the rule of the Ilkhanid Dynasty, and included objects ranging from ceramics, textiles, jewelry and manuscripts. The intricate bowl presently exhibited at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, CA, was produced in approximately 1275-1400 in the Kashan region of Iran, and inhabits the cross-cultural style that flourished during the Ilkhanid period. It measures 4 inches in diameter by 8 inches in height, and most likely functioned as a decorative art object for display purposes and not as a utilitarian item for every day use. (asianart.org) The demure and dainty bowl is visually powerful

"Chinese blue and white ware became extremely popular in the Middle-East from 14th century, where both Chinese and Islamic types coexisted.

The early Timurid art displayed strong Chinese influences. T. Lentz and G. Lowry found that cursive and poetic lines and contours in Persian manuscripts might be the outcome of Persians' study of the Chinese literati paintings. Some of the Chinese sketches on Buddhist monks or birds such as hawks were reproduced in the Timurid Court. The admiration of the Chinese styles was more evident in the paintings by Kamal al-Din Bihzad whose advocacy of Romanticism and Naturalism had their references to pre-modern Chinese still-life and landscape paintings. Besides paintings and manuscripts, the record of trade transactions in Turfan specifies that the major export from the Central Asia to China was horses, while the imports were robes, silk and paper money. In this case,

Production of oil in the land of Israel/Palestine created a need for storing the finished products. Huge pottery operations emerged in order to infiltrate foreign markets all over the Mediterranean basin with beautiful Greek artistry (Oxford Handbook of Engineering, “Ceramic Production”). The Greeks saw a cultural vacuum to influence Persian society and they ran with it.

Here, we see many pieces of pottery. In particular, there are potteries for everyday use, decoration, and luxury pottery. While the potteries used for everyday use were either a polished red ware, or a black-topped red ware, the potteries used for decorative purposes was made from a clay found only in Egypt/Nubia with its designs in red. While pottery made from this clay is costly due to the fact that more fuel is needed to fire the clay, luxury pottery was even more valuable and was only owned by the wealthy who commonly used it to contain valuable cosmetic ointments. These potteries were referred to as “stone vessels”, which were imported from desert quarries.

Ancient China and the ancient world of Islam have paved the way for the rest of the world in regards to many things, one of which being art. Though these two worlds reside far from each other, their art is still similar in some ways. In China, the people have mastered the skills of calligraphy, ceramic pottery, painting, and of creation silk. In the world of Islam, the people have mastered the skills of calligraphy, ceramics, metalwork, and of creating carpets. Ancient Chinese calligraphy is similar to the Islamic worlds calligraphy because the symbolism around the practice was the same.

Starting their empire in 750 C.E., the Abbasids were certain to leave a major impact on the Arab world. The Abbasids had moved the empire’s capital to Baghdad, from Damascus, after gaining control. The empire had spanned across three continents and was drenched with many open ideas, as the empire had been widely involved in trade. Being spanned over such a vast array of land, the Abbasids had many ideas in front of them, and they were capable of drawing out the best of those from the areas in which they had conquered. These ideas were not even from extensive trade routes that they had carved out themselves, but they had just used the ones that were established by the Persians, before the Umayyad Dynasty had taken them over. Through somewhat minimal work, this empire was capable