Baghdad Kilns History

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

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

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

In the late New Kingdom (1539–1075 BCE), pottery and glassware were created not so much for aesthetic use, but for the practicality of containing . Pottery was less decorative than glassware and its purpose was to serve as urns or a container. It was only until the Dynastic Period when more pottery was molded into more creative forms such as animals and

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.

East Liverpool has been historically known as the pottery capital of the world due to the large number of potteries in the city. Sadly, due to changes in the industry, it is only home to The Hall China Company, the Homer Laughlin China Company and Pioneer Pottery. An example of East Liverpool pottery at it’s finest would be that of the Lotus Ware which was produced there during the 1890s. During the 1893

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.

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.

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

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

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

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,

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.

It was the Silk Road which, according to legend, led a delegation into China inviting the emperor to embrace Islam (Jones‐Leaning & Pratt, 2012). The Arab overthrow of Central Asia was an extensive military takeover which was followed by forced religious conversions (Liu, 2011). According to Islamic empires, the Arab takeover of Central Asia was an extension of the victory of the Sasanian Empire (Liu, 2011). Islam thrived during the harsh but religiously tolerant Mongol Yuan dynasty. While in todays society Muslims can be found in any rural or urban centre throughout China, in earlier times they were settled in more distinct areas. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the areas with the major Muslim capital were those on the south-eastern coast and, in the Ming dynasty, Nanjing became a “major centre of Islamic learning” which from Nanjing, Islam teachings spread even more (Jones‐Leaning & Pratt, 2012). As the spread into Asia came through a trading route, trade is thought to be a crucial role in Islam’s rise.

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.