Following the death of the prophet Muhammad in AD 632, the future of Islam lay in the hands of four successive Caliphs, who sought to build on Muhammad’s legacy and expand the frontiers of Islam. The final of these Caliphs, Muhammad’s cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib, deposed various regional governors, whom he considered corrupt. This included Mu’awiya, the brother of a previous Caliph; Mu’awiya would not tolerate such an indignity, and began a brutal and bloody civil war, known as the First Fitna. The conflict ended with the assassination of Ali, as he prayed in the Mosque of Kufa, in AD 661. Mu’awiya became Caliph, and founded the Umayyad Dynasty. No longer would the Caliph be chosen by his predecessor, or by a council of leading Muslims. Instead, the Caliphate became a hereditary monarchy, with Mu’awiya at the centre. For a hundred years, Mu’awiya and his successors dominated the Muslim world. But this was not to last; they were overthrown by the Abbasid Dynasty, descended from Muhammad’s uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, and supported by the followers of Ali, who never accepted his assassination or the new Umayyad rule.

The Umayyads and the subsequent Abbasids laid the foundation for Islamic art. At first, the main influences were the Late Antique naturalistic tradition, and the more formal modes of Byzantine and Sassanid art. But gradually, the Islamic world began to formulate its own artistic forms, focussed especially on animal, vegetal and figural motifs. This remarkable Umayyad or early Abbasid jug shows a the development of this artistic expression. From a firm, nearly vertical, base, the jug rises up through a globular form, below a slender neck, and a tall rim. A long, thin handle sprouts from the shoulder of the vessel, and attaches directly to the rim. The foot of the vessel is undecorated, save a series of concentric lines which serve to delineate this undecorated section from the heavily moulded friezes above. The lower moulded register consists of a number of leaf- or teardrop-shaped motifs, known as boteh, which demonstrate a heavy Persian influence. The upper register consists of a frieze of raised dots, closely grouped. On this field are further boteh patterns, between an image of a man on a galloping horse. The figure is in full flight, tugging harshly on the reins; the horse turns his head towards the viewer. Heart-shaped petals frame the neck of the vessel, which rises up steeply from the shoulder. The neck shows signs of being turned on a potter’s wheel.

Scholarship has been dismissive of the Umayyad and early Abbasid pottery, with one article suggesting that ‘there was little pottery of merit’ from the period. Most scholarly attention is drawn to the later Abbasid: in AD 800, the first traders from Tang Dynasty China made their way to the Abbasid heartland, and brought with them the decorative techniques of the Chinese potters. After then, Islamic pottery is associated with the same ingenious use of glazes, and the same experimentation with form and function, which characterises Chinese porcelain. However, there is much that is noteworthy about these early Umayyad and Abbasid attempts. While it may be unglazed, and the handiwork a little rough and ready, the elegance of the form, and the intricacy of the decoration should not be underestimated.