B A R A K A

Wordsand clay form

a natural pairing in the arts of Islamic lands.Writing and clay are primordial agents inMuslim traditions concerning the Creation;the first thing God created was the pen, whichHe then commanded to write everythingthat would be until the Day of Judgment. OnSaturday, the first day, God created clay, fromwhich He fashioned the earth on Sunday. OnFriday, the last day of Creation, God shaped

B L E S

mankindout of clay.

The use of thepen is an attribute

of God, and the abilityto understand writing sepa-

rates mankind from the rest ofcreation: "And thy Lord is the Most

Generous, who taught by the pen, taughtMan what he did not know" (Qur'an 96:4-5).Writing and clay hold a preeminent place intraditional Islamic cosmology. The physicalworld and all that happens in it flow fromGod's creative employ-ment of words and clay.

What we broadly call "Islamic art" is a com-plex visual tradition that developed largelyin response to words - specifically, the wordsof God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad

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I N G S I N C L A Y

(570-632).The divinerevelation,known as theQur'an, came in oralform: it was spokenby the angel Gabriel toMuhammad, who memorized it andrecited it to his followers, who also memo-rized it. Muhammad was the perfect vessel toreceive God's word, for he is said to have beenunlettered, hence uncontaminated by literarytraditions.

Not long after Muhammad's death in 632,his followers set the Qur'an in writing. In asense, this pivotal action created Islamic art.Because of its divine origin, the text of theQur'an is obviously charged with a certain

W bara-ka, or bless-

ing power, and because Arabic letters wereused to record, preserve, and disseminate theword of God, they too came to partake of thisspiritual force. To write the words of Godbeautifully was an act of worship that con-veyed blessings and forgiveness to the believ-er. In a culture that fused aesthetics and piety,the quality of one's writing was considered areflection of one's soul.

OPPOSITE:

Fig. i. Smallbowl with deer and

W inscriptions: "blessing"(baraka) Iraq (Basra), ninth

"century. Earthenware with lusterpainting over opaque tin glaze (5.6 xr6.2 cm). 2002.50,71.

THIS PAGE: Fig. 2. Bowl with inscrip-

tion and birds. Eastern Iran (Nishapur)or Uzbekistan (Samarkand), late ninth- tenth century. Earthenware withpainting in slip underglaze (5.9 X 20.7cm). 2002.50.92. Both bowls from

Harvard University Art Museums,The Norma Jean Calderwood Collectionof Islamic Art. Photographs courtesyof President and Fellows ofiHarvardCollege.

RIGHT: Fig. 3. Large bowl withtwo inscriptions: "Modesty is a branchoffaith, and faith is in Paradise." (black)"Greed is a sign of poverty. Peace."(red). Uzbekistan (Samarkand), lateninth - tenth century. Earthenwarewith painting in slip underglaze(9.6 X 26.9 cm). 2002.5o.88

OPPOSITE PAGE: Fig. 4. Plaque in theshape of a mihrab with inscription:"Say, He is God, the One, the OnlyGod, the Eternal, the Absolute. Hebegetteth no4 nor is he begotten. Andthere is none like unto Him." (Qur'an,

12). Iran, late i i oos. Fritware,molded with turquoise glaze. (3.97 x25.72 cm). Haruard University ArtMuseums. Gift of Francis Lee Friedman.1955.89. Photographs courtesy ofPresident and Fellows of Harvardcollege.

Arabic script became the most reveredvisual art form in Islamic culture, its presencealone evoking the faith. Non-Semitic lan-guages, such as Turkish and Persian, adoptedits graphemes. Over the centuries, Muslimcalligraphers strove to improve the legibility,beauty, and expressiveness of the script. Proofof their success is the omnipresence of Arabicscript in Islamic art, appearing in all lands, allcenturies, and all media.

Potters have long been among the mostaccomplished and prolific of Muslim artists.Although largely anonymous, the historyof Islamic ceramics is one of inexhaustiblecreativity and continual experimentation,driven by a delight in colorful surface deco-ration. No matter their ethnic or linguisticgroup, Muslim potters have continuallyturned to Arabic script, finding ever-newways to employ its kaleidoscope of forms.

Arabic script serves as one of the principalmotifs in the earliest Islamic ceramics thatcan be considered luxury wares. The bowl

with a fat-tailed deer in FIGURE i is an exampleof these wares. It was made in the town ofBasra, in southwestern Iraq, sometime in theninth century, at a time when the capital cityof the Abbasid empire (750-12 58) was justup the Tigris River in Samarra. Appearingin front of and below the deer is the Arabicword barakca or "blessing." There is a curiousharmony between the lean legs of the deerand the wiry writing. Letters and legs areabout the same thickness and, because Arabicis written from right to left, both terminate intriangular "hooves."

This small bowl represents one of the mostinfluential innovations of the Basra potters:luster painting. Inspired by white-bodiedstonewares appearing from China, Basra pot-ters covered their earthenware vessels witha tin glaze that turned white upon firing. ToMuslim potters, the resulting white surfaceoffered a blank sheet awaiting decoration. Insimplest terms, the luster technique involvedpainting powdered metal oxides (usually sil-

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ver and copper, mixed in solution with clayparticles) onto a tin-glazed ceramic surfacethat had already been fired once. The secondfiring took place at a lower temperature ina kiln with a reduced oxygen atmosphere.When the ceramic was cool, it was buffedwith a cloth to reveal an iridescent stain.

Blessings can take many forms: Encircledby wide-eyed birds, the word baraka holds thecenter of the bowl in FIGURE 2. With its green-ish design painted over a white ground, scal-loped rim, and prominent inscription, thisbowl imitates the luster bowl, with whichit is roughly contemporary. But luster tech-nique was a closely guarded trade secret, sothe potter has painted his birds and inscrip-tion by different means: using colored claysin slip form. The pinkish earthenware bodywas blanketed with a white slip, the designpainted in greenish clay, and the whole cov-ered by a clear glaze. The bowl with birdswas made at the eastern edges of the Abbasidempire, during the reign of the Samaniddynasty (875-999), whose princely realmincluded northeastern Iran and Uzbekistan.

Slip-painting was only one of the tech-niques used by Samanid potters, but with it

they created some of the most majestic exam-ples of Arabic calligraphy in Islamic art. Thelarge, deep bowl in FIGURE 3 is a superb exam-ple of the so-called Samanid epigraphic wares.The two-color inscription is written in anangular and stately form of script popularlyknown as Kufic, which by the Samanid erahad become the preferred script for transcrib-ing the Qur'an. Except for the central dot inthis bowl, the script is the only ornament. Byexaggerating the horizontal sections of theletters, the calligrapher has created a balanceddesign, carefully distributing the verticals,which ascend toward the center. By avoidingsymmetry, he has preserved the counterclock-wise movement of the writing.

Even without knowing the content ofthe inscription, the austere power of thisvessel communicates its authority and spiri-tual force. In fact, the inscription recordssayings attributed to two of the most influen-tial figures in Islamic history, the ProphetMuhammad and Ali b. Abi Talib, his son-in-law and Islam!s fourth orthodox caliph.The quote from Muhammad holds the rim:"Modesty is a branch of faith and faith is inparadise." The quote from Ali is written inthe slender, red letters: "Greed is a sign ofpoverty." At the end of this short statement,the potter has written an appeal for "Peace."

These inscriptions are extracts from avast body of knowledge known as Hadith orTradition literature, comprised of sayingsattributed to the Prophet Muhammad andhis early Companions, as well as narrativesof their actions. Assiduously collected andcatalogued in the decades following thedeath of the Prophet, Hadith is second only tothe Qur'an in sacred authority and spiritualpower. More long-lived than paper or parch-ment, pottery vessels such as this bowl pre-serve the earliest written examples of Hadith.

Easy to break but difficult to get rid of,there is little in this world more durable thanpottery. What, then, could be more naturalthan to fashion out of clay the eternal wordsof God as revealed in the Qur'an? On thebright turquoise plaque in FIGURE 4, the wordsof the I I2th chapter of the Qur'an are mod-eled in relief and run around three edges:"Say, He is God, the One, the Only God, theEternal, the Absolute. He begetteth not, noris he begotten. And there is none like untoHim." This short chapter sets out the funda-

Fig. 5. Bowl with courtly couple andPersian inscriptions. Iran (Kashan),ca. 12oo. Fritware with luster paintingoverglaze and splashes of turquoise(d. 35.cm). Isabella Stewart GardnerMuseum, C15w0o.

mental principles of the unity of God (tawhid),differentiating Islam from Christianity. Thesmall plaque is in the shape of a mihrab, thefocal point in a mosque that marks the direc-tion toward Mecca. It may have been used in ashrine or mausoleum to indicate the directionfor prayer.

Not all writing on Islamic ceramics is ofa sacred nature, as demonstrated by the largeluster plate made in Iran around the year 1200(FIGURE 5). On this luxurious plate, Persianpoetry is written in Arabic script, reflectingthe revival of Persian as a literary languageafter centuries of Arabic domination. On thecavetto, the inscription is written in a spideryscript known as naskh in brown luster againstthe white ground; on the everted rim, it isscratched through a band of luster to revealthe white ground below. The poetry on therim expresses the anguished longing of sepa-rated lovers:

The heart is branded on its soul withthe grief of your love;

Separation from you makes the worlda prison;

The heart that has not the patience forunion with you,

Alas that it can suffer through separation.

At the center of the plate is a courtly couplewhose round, haloed faces and Asian featuresrepresent an ideal of physical beauty broughtto Iran by the Saljuqs, a Turkic people whoinitially arrived in eastern Islamic lands asmercenaries. Rising to power in 1037 in Iran,the Saljuqs, and their successors the Atabegs,sponsored a brilliant era for art, literature, andscience that was brought to a sudden close bythe coming of the Mongols in the 122os. Thewidespread destruction caused by the Mongolconquests - palaces and libraries burnt, andtreasuries looted - is blamed for the loss of anincalculable number of manuscripts. In manyinstances, the Persian poetry written onceramic vessels such as this plate has beenpreserved nowhere else.

For centuries Muslim potters have carved,painted, and molded Arabic letters into theirwork, endlessly inspired by the script's artisticpotential and the power ascribed to its pres-ence. Made by Iraqi artists more than a thou-sand years apart, the vessels in FIGURES 2 and6 both repeat the word baraka, an appeal for

Denevoience ot cilvme ongin.The plate in FIGURE 6 was fashioned in

1993 by an Iraqi-born artist at the RadcliffeCeramic Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts.It employs inventive and modern ceramictechniques to express a timeless grief. TitledBlessings and Peace: Desert Storm, the plate elo-quently expresses the artist's anguish causedby the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and theAmerican response. Its dark brown and tantextured surface shimmers with subtle lustertints, evoking the fiery haze and scorchedearth caused by the burning of the oil fields.The horizon is suggested by a string of scriptstretched across the earth. The word barakais carved into the surface over and again, anappeal not only for God's blessing, but alsoa reference to the despoiled blessings of theearth. The endnote, written just below thehorizon, is a plea for peace (salam).

Pig. t. blessings and Peace: DesertStorm. Wasma'a Chorbachi, 7993.White stoneware, high fire soda glaze,iron oxide, Oribe blue glaze rim,low fire gold luster (d. 35.56 cm).Cambridge, MA, 1993. HarvardUniversity Art Museums. Purchasethrough the generosity of Neil andAngelica Rudenstine, Warren andJane Shapleigh and Mrs. Robert B.Newman in honor of James Cuno andthrough the generosity of Corina andDavid Silich von-Schultess, 2003.7.

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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

TITLE: Baraka: Blessings in ClaySOURCE: Studio Potter 35 no2 Summ/Fall 2007

The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and itis reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article inviolation of the copyright is prohibited. To contact the publisher:http://www.studiopotter.org/