Tamerlane, known in the Islamic world as Timur, was perhaps the greatest general in history, rivalling the memory of Alexander the Great and Napoleon. Undefeated on the battlefield, Tamerlane was also known for his brutality and ruthlessness. Born into a family of Barlas, who originated as one of the regiments of Genghis Khan’s Mongol army, Tamerlane rejected his Mongol roots in favour of the Turko-Persian Islamic culture. His campaigns took him from the Ottoman Empire and Mamluk Egypt in the west to the Delhi Sultanate in the east, and from Southern Russia to the Indian Ocean. His power was unrivalled in the Muslim world, and he referred to himself in Persian as shamshir aslam (‘the Sword of Islam’). Established in Tamerlane’s genocidal campaigns, the Timurid Empire became something of a bastion for the survival of Islamic arts and culture following the end of the Golden Age of Islam in the Middle East. Cities under Timurid control, including the legendary Samarkand in what is now Uzbekistan, flourished, and became important centres for trade. Much of this trade was with Ming China, perhaps the most powerful state in Asia, who regularly sent diplomats – Ma Huan and Cheng Cheng among them – to the Timurid capital.

Chinese arts also came along this route, alongside the silks, spices and incense which was exported to the west via Timurid Persia. Ming ceramics, as famous in the Middle Ages as they are today, were especially prized by the Timurids, and were important influences on Timurid artists. One such ceramic influence was a particular type of globular jug with a tall upright neck and slightly everted rim, with a handle in the form of a sinuous Chinese dragon (e.g. British Museum 1950,0403.1). While often described as jugs, it is more probable that these were drinking vessels, tankards for the consumption of alcoholic beverages such as rice wine. The Ming examples are exclusively porcelain, and are painted in elaborate underglaze blue, emphasising floriate motifs. For whatever reason, these vessels caused a sensation in the Timurid Empire, where they were called mashraba. Timurid metalworkers enthusiastically adopted the form, and began to replicate it in bronze, sometimes with silver inlay. In one outstanding example, made for the Timurid ruler Ulugh Beg, was even produced in nephrite jade by Samarkand artisans (Gulbenkian Museum 328; another jade example is in the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Asian Art LTS1985.1.292.1). And it was not just the Timurids who employed the motif: later in the Sixteenth Century AD, Ottoman metalworkers (particularly in Constantinople) began to explore the form in silver and silver-gilt (e.g. Victoria and Albert Museum 158-1894, Benaki Museum 14003). The popularity of this form perhaps had something to do with the significance of dragons in Mediaeval Islamic culture. Dragons were an embodiment of opposing forces in Islam, somewhat akin to the yin and yang concept in Chinese Taoist culture. It stood for the darkness of the eclipse, and the light of Allah, the satanic and the divine, the transcendent and the earthly. The fire of the dragon was considered to simultaneously represent the fires of Hell (Jahannam) and the cleansing divine light. This combination of positive and negative forces represented the universal balance, without which life was not possible.

This is an exceptional example of a heavy bronze jug in the same style. The round inwardly-flaring foot is elegantly decorated with concentric rings, and leads up to the oblate spherical globular body. The body is richly decorated with dense, floriate arabesques, slightly raised from the surface, and interspersed with pseudo-calligraphic roundels. The globular body is separated from the vertical neck of the vessel by a collar bearing elegant, flowing, naskh calligraphy. Many of these vessels are signed, or bear poetic extracts praising the owner or the Timurid monarch. The upright neck, also covered in rich arabesques, leads to the slightly everted rim. From the shoulder to the rim, the S-shaped dragon handle is the vessel’s most defining feature. The tail of the dragon encircles a radiate orb, a circle with star-like rays. The dragon holds another orb in its abstract mouth, which attaches to the rim of the vessel. Jugs or tankards in this form are mostly, almost exclusively, dated to the reign of Husayn Bayqara, a Timurid ruler based in Herat, Afghanistan. His remarkable reign was considered the second Timurid Renaissance; Husayn was an active sponsor of the arts, an important patron of Islamic scholarship, and was especially admired by his cousin Barbur, who founded the Mughal Empire in India.

References: examples of Timurid dragon-handled jugs are well-attested, known from collections in London (British Museum 1878,1230.730; Victoria and Albert Museum 943-1886; the Khalili Collections MTW 288, MTW 305), Cairo (Islamic Art Museum 15201), Doha (Museum of Islamic Art MW.471.2007), New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art 91.1.607).