A glazed ceramic tile

Description:

Kashan / Persia, 13th cent.
22,5 x 15,5 cm
Relief-moulded tile. Centrally a “mihrab” prayer niche with a prayer lamp. Border frame with pseudo-kufic decoration. Turquoise glaze with vitrification. This type of tile was also used as a grave slab or attached to the sarcophagus of a deceased person.
From a North German private collection, assembled before 1967 by the grandfather according to the present owner - Cf. Islamic Ceramics, Müller-Wiener, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt (1996), fig. 144 - Restored break, with partial glaze damage.