User:Belleval/Chinese influences on Islamic pottery

White ware

Local potters in Egypt and Syria were producing fine glazed white lusterware as early as the 8th century. After the Abbasid Caliphate overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 CE, the empire’s capital was relocated from Damascus to Baghdad. This move saw the transfer of potters and ceramic manufacturing techniques from Egypt and Syria to Iraq and was also indicative of an emphasis on trade with eastern Asia, namely Tang dynasty China. Porcelain, invented in the 9th century and produced through kaolin clay and high-temperature firing, was introduced to the Islamic world through this trade. Islamic workshops were unable to reproduce porcelain because of their lack of local kaolin clay. However, Islamic potters began to use white-glazed lusterware instead of yellow-glazed lusterware to better mimic the Chinese imports. They manufactured fine earthenware bowls with a gently flaring ridge and covered them with a white glaze rendered opaque by the addition of tin, an early example of tin-glazing. This distinct shape was another characteristic adopted from the imported Chinese bowls.

In the late 11th century, potters further developed stone-paste, or fritware, techniques in order to obtain hard bodies approximating the hardness obtained by Chinese porcelain. Fritware’s popularity and toughness allowed the Persian potters to experiment with a number of techniques, one of the most notable being poking holes in the work before firing it in order to create a number of translucencies in the piece. Examples of this technique are dated as far back as the end of the 11th century in Egypt, 500 years before a similar technique would be used in the production of Chinese “rice grain” porcelain. By the beginning of the 13th century, fritware had become a high-yielding product for Persian potters, especially in major centers like Kashan and Rayy.

Celadon ware

Chinese greenware, or celadon, was the most popular ware imported from China to Iran beginning in the ninth century. During the Ilkhanid period, this manifested in Iranian imitations of the Chinese originals. Persian potters produced lotus bowls, gently sloping bowls with carved petals and a central indent, and decorated them with molded fish, another hallmark of Chinese celadon. However, Iranian copies were often larger than the original Chinese works, reflecting the regions’ differing preferences in size.

Blue and white ware

Beginning in the 14th century, blue and white pottery ware was the site of much cultural interplay between China and Iran. Desire for blue and white Chinese pottery in Iran spurred import of large quantities of the pottery, as well as domestic production of Chinese-influenced blue and white ware.

Islamic potters in the Abbasid period seldom produced pure white ware and often decorated their work with cobalt blue geometric and floral motifs. The use of cobalt later influenced the production of blue and white porcelain in 14th century China. On some occasions, Chinese blue and white wares also incorporated Islamic designs, where elegant forms of the Song wares were transformed into massive forms similar to metalwork, this is possibly attributed to imitations of Middle Eastern metal products. This can be found in the case of some Mamluk brass objects which were converted into blue and white Chinese porcelain designs. Chinese blue and white ware then became extremely popular in the Middle East, where both Chinese and Islamic types coexisted. Most surviving Iranian blue and white ware are bowls with narrow foot-rings and some distinctive shapes of Chinese blue and white wares like a high-shouldered vase known as meiping in China.

Chinese porcelain of the 14th or 15th century was transmitted to the Middle East and the Near East, and especially to the Ottoman Empire either through gifts or through war booty. Chinese designs were extremely influential with the pottery manufacturers at Iznik, Turkey. Material evidence shows that Yuan pottery was often copied by Islamic artisans. The Ming "grape" design in particular was highly popular and was extensively reproduced under the Ottoman Empire. The style of Persian pottery known as Kubachi ware also absorbed influence from China, imitating both celadons and Ming blue and white porcelain. Islamic ceramicists made imaginative hybrid ornaments, which better fit into the context of Islamic art. This transformation occurred through the simplification of the Chinese decoration, and its reinterpretation through the lens and style of the artisan’s culture. Chinese blue and white porcelain of this time could be associated with floral designs and animals, whereas 14th century Iranian porcelain contains geometric motifs and symmetrical arrangement.

Timurid blue and white ware of the late 14th and early 15th centuries display many more similarities between these Islamic ceramics and Chinese porcelain. This Iranian blue and white ware is most comparable to the Yuan period. This period entailed many more similarities between Chinese and Middle Eastern blue and white wares, though there are still some stylistic differences, as evidenced in the Timurid potters’ adoption of the lotus-petal design used in China for their blue and white porcelain. In China, with this framing design, there usually were Buddhist emblems to follow. Persian potters translated Chinese patterns from imported vases in a uniquely Persian way. Islamic ceramicists made imaginative hybrid ornaments, which better fit into the context of Islamic art. This transformation occurred through the simplification of the Chinese decoration, and its reinterpretation through the lens and style of the artisan’s culture. In the case of simplification, artisans would repeat a motif so often that it might become rigid and less expressive. In the case of reinterpretation, a design might become more geometric or floriated. Substitution of Chinese flora and fauna with local plant life was common in landscape scenes.

Timurids instead incorporated their own elements within the lotus-petal framing such as a simplification of these Buddhist elements or a substitution of them with arabesque scrolls. Tall-i Iblis indicated that Kirman was the center of blue and white ware manufacture during this period.

Blue and white tiles made in Damascus were likely made by artisans originally employed under Timur. Geometric designs found on these tiles reference Timurid “panel style.” Landscape motifs found on these tiles reference Samarqand mural painting.

Beginning in the 15th century in Persia and Central Asia, highly ornamented and intricate buildings called chini-kaneh (“porcelain houses”) were constructed in the Islamic world to house Chinese Ceramics. Niches built into the walls and vaults of chini-khaneh. Individual niches were specifically shaped to hold particular ceramic pieces. The chini-kaneh built in Samarqand by Ulugh Beg was also lined with Chinese porcelain tiles.

The expansion of Chinese blue and white porcelain to other countries and the consequential imitations of these products evidences China’s prioritization of their blue and white porcelain as an export product. Maritime routes were the main mode of transportation for Chinese blue and white porcelain, traveling to the West through India across the Maldive Islands, to the Gulf ports, the Red Sea area, and even to East Africa. This is likely due to practicalities like the quantity and efficiency of these routes and the fragility of the objects. Much Chinese blue and white porcelain has been found in Fustat in Egypt, where numerous locally manufactured blue and white ceramics have indicated an already flourishing Middle Eastern blue and white porcelain movement by the 14th century. In Syria, a clear Chinese impact on local potters came from the abundance of Chinese blue and white porcelain in Damascus, which ranged from the Yuan to the Ming period. The late 14th century Hama dish in Damascus National Museum is an example of Syrian potters’ clear intent to replicate Chinese blue and white porcelain. Chinese blue and white porcelain was mainly taken from Gulf ports like Hormuz Island (New Hormuz) to inland towns in Iran, which further supports the significance of maritime routes in the transportation of Chinese blue and white porcelain. Topkapi Saray, Istanbul has one of the finest collections of Chinese ceramics in the world. This water-based expansion of Chinese blue and white porcelain can be confirmed by finds in Japan, Korea, and South-East Asia.

The demand for Chinese blue and white porcelain in the Middle East influenced Chinese production of these products in both the quantity of blue and white porcelain’s production and the type of objects being produced. Muslim merchants in the port town of Quanzhou in Fujian controlled the marketing of this porcelain, and there is little evidence of Mongol patronage in it as a fine art. As found in the vast majority of Chinese blue and white porcelain being outside of China, Chinese porcelain was more often produced for Middle Eastern consumers. Small-sized ware like pouring bowls and stem-cups, as reflected in Mongol metal ware, indicate China’s domestic use of them. The Chinese blue and white porcelain being primarily produced were large-sized dishes used as export products for the Middle East.