Tile

From the late Seljuq period onwards, secular and religious architecture began progressively to incorporate decoration with colourful and beautiful glazed tilework panels, covering portions of both interiors and external walls. Adopted more consistently during the Ilkhanid domination of Iran, this trend later developed in the more extensive tilework decorative programmes typical of Timurid architecture in Central Asia. Workshops scattered across Iran and Central Asia produced large quantities of glazed tiles in a variety of techniques and displaying a wide range of decorative motifs and designs to answer the need and taste of both architects and patrons. This tile shows a calligraphic decoration in a typical colour scheme of turquoise, cobalt-blue and white, the calligraphy in large and clear naskh script in white is set against the blue background, turquoise tendrils terminating in pointed leaves entwine with the letters. The inscription is a part of a text in Persian, either a poetic quotation or an invocation, possibly translates as "May it be in". The large size of this tile and its legible text suggest that it once belonged to a monumental inscription meant to be read from afar.
Starting from the 19th century CE on and due to excavation campaigns mostly lead by Western scholars and research institutions, numerous examples of tilework from Iran and Central Asia found their way in various museum collections worldwide,