Tile with a Double-Arched Prayer Niche (Mihrab)
Islamic
1201–1300
- Medium
- Lusterware, fritware with molded decoration and in-glaze painting in cobalt blue and turquoise, and overglaze painting in luster
- Dimensions
- 50.8 × 32.5 × 3.4 cm (20 × 12 3/4 × 1 3/8 in.)
- Genre
- earthenware
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
Islamic (culture or style)earthenwareceramicsasian artfritwareinorganic materialdecorative artsceramicceramic tile
About
This luster tile is carefully decorated with dark blue calligraphy above and below the arches, as well as a cruder, luster-painted passage following the line of the arches. The inscriptions, all taken from different chapters in the Qur'an, discuss the transience of life on earth in contrast to the eternal existence of God. The religious nature of these inscriptions is appropriate for the tile's placement in a mosque, where it would have been used as a mihrab, or prayer niche, indicating the direction of Mecca for prayer.
