The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates which emerged following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in AD 632. With the Prophet’s death, there was disagreement about who his successor should be; after all, Muhammad was not merely a spiritual leader, but also the political and military driving-force behind Islamic expansion. Umar ibn al-Khattab, one of Muhammad’s most prominent companions, nominated Abu Bakr, one of Muhammad’s close friends, as the first Caliph following the Prophet’s death. His position was not accepted by all, and indeed there was great disagreement over the direction in which he took the Islamic World. But, through a combination of pre-emptive strikes against the Byzantines who dominated the Eastern Mediterranean, and disaffection among the Christian communities of the Levant and North Africa, the Muslims had conquered Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia and most of Persia within a decade of Muhammad’s demise. The unified Islamic Empire, known as the Rashidun Caliphate, soon expanded to Libya and Tunisia, and became the dominant political power in Western Asia. The remarkable success of this first Caliphate, however, did not last. The final, ill-fated, Rashidun Caliph, Ali (AD 656 – AD 661), got caught up in civil war, and was finally killed in a concerted effort to bring about peace through assassinating the various faction leaders. Dynastic hereditary rule was established under the Umayyad Caliphate, set up by a former governor of Syria, Mu’awiya (AD 661 – AD 680). The Caliphate he founded expanded into one of the largest empires in history. His empire lasted a little short of a century, before the Abbasid Dynasty succeeded as Caliphs.

Descended from Muhammad’s uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, the Abbasids were somewhat less powerful than their Umayyad predecessors, but nonetheless created a lasting empire which survived, in one form or another, until the Sixteenth Century AD. The Abbasid world was a great centre of the arts and culture. Positioned on the vital trading routes between Asia and Europe, the Abbasid Empire was subjected to artistic and cultural influences from East Asia, and the Christian kingdoms of Mediaeval Europe, as well as the important native traditions of the lands over which they ruled. But the greatest of all these influences was Tang Dynasty China (AD 618 – AD 908). Situated on the Silk Road, great Abbasid cities like Mosul and Baghdad were one of the first ports-of-call for Chinese traders headed to Italy. In particular, Chinese ceramics flooded into the Arab World from around AD 900. Most famously, Ali ibn Isa, the Governor of Khorasan, obtained twenty pieces of Chinese porcelain, which he presented to the Abbasid Caliph Harun el-Rashid in AD 1059. Such gifts, and the trade between the two cultures, resulted in an Islamic fascination with Chinese porcelain, and especially with the colours achieved in the glazes. Islamic potters sought to replicate these remarkable glazes, a process which was aided by the capture of Chinese ceramicists following the Battle of Atlakh (AD 751), where the allied Abbasid and Tibetan Empires halted the westward expansion of the Tang Dynasty.

Two colours especially fascinated the Abbasid potters: green and blue. Blue was an impossible mystery for the Abbasids, derived from cobalt in a technique which was known only to Chinese potters. Green glazes, favoured by the Tang for their sencai (two-colour) glazes, were created from verdigris, copper salts created using ascetic acid and oxidised copper. The richness of the greens produced was dazzling. Tang potters mastered the use of the green glaze for terracotta tomb-figures and for dip-glazed wares which were highly prized by the Abbasids. This green-glazed tile uses a similar process to that used by the Tang, which implies a date early in the Abbasid Period, before Islamic potters created their own methods. The tile itself is of the moulded relief type favoured in the Islamic World. Presented alongside other tiles of similar design, the wall it once decorated would have seemed to undulate across its width, providing activity and colour to a potentially uninspiring space. The strict Islamic prohibitions on idolatrous images discouraged Islamic artisans from representing people and animals, and this trend was observed closely during most of the Abbasid Period. Instead, Islamic artists produced objects which relied on geometric pattern and abstract decorative forms. This tile, thick and roughly square, seems to imitate a manicured Islamic garden from above. Around the outside, in the four corners are upright elements, which feature like inverted drops, which seem to mimic cypress trees. They surround a circular motif of radiating concentric bands, decorated alternatively with raised dots and a rope motif, surrounding a central fretwork boss, with nine protruding ribs which form a dome. This may represent a garden pavilion. The use of such tiles, to decorate mosques, private homes, and palaces, required richness of colour and intricacy of form.