The Samanid Empire which began in 819 CE and ended in 999 CE, formed the first native Persian dynastic empire following the Arab conquest. The Samanid dynstay’s rule encompassed the regions known then as Khorosan and Transoxiana, stretching from what is now modern-day Eastern Iran, across Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and reaching as far as Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. The Samanid rulers patronised the arts and intellectual knowledge which blossomed into both a rebirth of artistic innovation and a drive for the creation of a Persian national identity, a period now known as the Persian Renaissance.

Samanid potters at this time can be credited with the invention and perfection of slip-painted pottery. Previously, designs painted onto the bare earthenware would be ill-defined and absorb into the clay. 

These examples are amongst the first pottery produced in the Islamic world where calligraphy is the sole ornament and must, at their best, rank alongside the great achievements of calligraphy in the typical media of manuscripts and architectural decoration. 

A unique clarity of design was achieved by this painting of black/brownish pigment mixed with slip onto the stark white englobe.  The script is Kufic in the 'New Style' which reached its zenith in this period and played a pivotal role in progress and spread of the Persian Renaissance which saw the creation of a Persianate culture and identity that brought Persian speech and traditions into the fold of the Islamic world.  Rather than relying on expensive or luxurious materials, the greatest practitioners of this craft used only earthenware, the powerfully abstracted designs convey a confidence and clarity that is rarely equalled in all Islamic pottery.  The elaboration and artistry of the Kufic script elevates this bowl, which has fine craftsmanship but simple design, to another level of artistic creation and significance.  

The incredible skill of the potter to work with clay at such fine margins and delicacy is amplified by our knowledge that the soft, unfired bowl would have been put through two further processes of handling before final firing: entirely dipping in white slip ('englobe'), laying out for further drying, then inscribing with the dark slip.  A final layer of transparent glaze painted on sealed the design.

Calligraphic bowls such as this were discovered at excavations in the late nineteenth and mid twentieth century in Nishapur and Samarkand (modern-day Afrasiyab), centres of the Samanid Empire. Examples have not been found west of central Iran or at Rayy suggesting they were produced for local consumption rather than mass export and the lack of archaeological data makes it difficult to gauge their precise function.  Although the inscription here has not at been deciphered at this time it likely follows similar examples and contains an expression of good wishes or a pious aphorism relating to noble qualities of wisdom, faith, generosity, often in the context of eating and thus indicates that these had a functional use and were not merely decorative pieces.