Polychrome on white ware (Nishapur)

Polychrome on white ware is a group of glazed earthenware from Nishapur decorated in several colours on a white engobe; on the walls of many of its bowls the chief decoration is Arabic script or pseudo-script. ¹

Wilkinson describes many treatments: letters adorned with flourishes, interweavings or knots, or turned into a decorative band; inscriptions running round the wall as continuous text, repeating one or two words, or in short lengths alternating with a small ornament. ¹ A particular type is a simple, closely packed lettering whose verticals look like radii as they repeat round the wall. ¹

Letters are commonly black, occasionally red and rarely green; most of an inscription may be black with a few letters in red. ¹ Wilkinson sees in this an imitation of the long-familiar custom of writing certain words in red in Arabic manuscripts, finds no demonstrable significance in it, and supposes the potter either lacked literary understanding or put artistic feeling first. ¹

Inscriptions are sometimes set among outlined areas filled with dots, a treatment unknown in black on white ware but seen in the ware with yellow-staining black and in tenth- and eleventh-century lustre ware; the earliest known use of such compartments with inscriptions is in a manuscript of about 955, Wilkinson notes. ¹