Slip Painted Bowl

Slip-painted wares of eastern Iran and Central Asia from the Samanid period (3rd, 4th and 5th centuries AH/10th and 11th centuries CE) were often elegantly decorated with calligraphy or geometrical and vegetal patterns of great skill. The centres of the finest manufactures of slip-painted wares appear to be in Nishapur and Afrasiyab (old Samarqand) and widespread of other manufacture centres.
This unusually large bowl is of a deep rounded form with straight flaring walls on a short foot. Covered with a white slip, the interior is decorated with a bold band of an elegant black kufic inscription in Arabic around its rim that reads: الجود احد الاعراض والاموال (Generosity is the guardian of honour and wealth). The rim itself is painted with two black wavy bands; another narrow band encircles the interior of the bowl and the centre is decorated with a pair of split-palmettes.
Many inscriptions on slip-painted wares refer to benedictory phrases and literary or philosophical quotations often in a context of food or eating indicating that these bowls were intended for practical use and not just for decoration.