Islamic pottery
Pottery of Islamic landsIslamic pottery occupied a geographical position between Chinese ceramics, and the pottery of the Byzantine Empire and Europe. For most of the period, it made great aesthetic achievements and influence as well, influencing Byzantium and Europe. The use of drinking and eating vessels in gold and silver, the ideal in ancient Rome and Persia as well as medieval Christian societies, is prohibited by the Hadiths, with the result that pottery and glass were used for tableware by Muslim elites, as pottery also was in China but was much rarer in Europe and Byzantium. In the same way, Islamic restrictions greatly discouraged figurative wall painting, encouraging the architectural use of schemes of decorative and often geometrically patterned titles, which are the most distinctive and original speciality of Islamic ceramics.
- 1059Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Baihaki writes about the governor of Khurasan sending porcelain to the Caliph Harun al-Rashid.
- 786Caliph Harun al-Rashid begins his reign.
- 809Caliph Harun al-Rashid dies.