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Description

The base of a bowl on a ring foot, belonging to the circle of fritware ceramics of the Mamluk state, with underglaze polychrome painting. The ornamental composition of the inside has a clear geometric structure: the main division is made by thick cobalt-blue lines crossing at right angles to form a central square and four branches running out to the walls. The central medallion is formed by a square frame containing a four-petalled flower rosette with a marked central dot; the outlines of the petals are drawn in dark pigment, and the ground around the flower within the square is filled with turquoise glaze. The four pentagonal sections running from the centre contain pseudo-Kufic inscriptions in dark pigment. As the script is highly stylised, only some letters can be recognised (el-...); ceramics of this type often use words connected with blessing, power or healing (possibly el-mulk or el-izz). The symbols are outlined in dark along the shape of the section, and the ground inside is filled with fine dotted stippling. In the centre of each epigraphic element a local touch of turquoise paint is added. In the white sections formed between the cobalt lines are laconic floral motifs: thin twigs with three leaves in dark pigment. The surviving outside is undecorated. Published by E. R. von Stern (Stern 1906, pl. IX: 93). In an unpublished article V. I. Selinov mentions this fragment and assigns it to the Lower Volga centres, "Sarai ceramics" (Selinov 1938, p. 455). The researcher Zeynep Meriç points to a possible origin in the Ilkhanid state or Anatolia of the 13th–14th century. In the author's opinion, given the features of the sectoral ornament and the epigraphic elements, the fragment can also be assigned to the production centres of 14th-century Syria, the Mamluk state. Attributed with the help of Prof. S. O. Biliaieva, Dr. of History, associate professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and Zeynep Meriç, Dr. Sanat Tarihçisi, researcher in Byzantine and Turkish art. Scientific description by Yaroslav Chentsov.