Raqqa ware

Arthur Lane says the ruins of this great caravan city on the upper Euphrates have yielded quantities of locally made lustre ware, none of which need be dated before the presumed dispersal of the Fatimid potters in 1171, and that manufacture probably ended when the Mongols sacked the city in 1259. ¹

• Lustre: much use of a rich blue with lustre of a distinctive chocolate-brown tone, under a thick greenish transparent glaze that decays readily into an opaque iridescent film hiding the decoration. ^{1 2} Most characteristic are large jars or jugs carved in high relief with vigorous Saljuq arabesques and naskh inscriptions in "contour panels"; Lane finds Raqqa wares coarser and more carelessly painted than the Persian. ²
• Carved: jars carved in relief, either monochrome-glazed or painted in lustre and blue, and household objects such as pierced lamps, incense burners and small floor tables. ⁴
• Underglaze-painted: the Egyptian "black animal" style and the black, blue and red style spread to Raqqa; Raqqa and Egyptian pieces are hard to tell apart, the Egyptian perhaps finer in detail with fewer human figures. ³

All are made of a white quartz body, softer than the Persian and more sugary in texture. ¹