From the ninth century, pottery was one of the most widespread of the crafts. Potters occupied large quarters of the towns in the region, producing both everyday ware and unique pieces, and Afrasiab, Chach, Ferghana, Merv, Nasa, Khwarazm and Nishapur were among the leading centres of ceramic production in the ninth to the twelfth century.

The pottery of the period may be divided into two main categories: glazed and unglazed ware. The unglazed ware can be subdivided into several groups on the basis of the techniques employed in its production. Vessels with moulded decoration were still common in the eighth and ninth centuries although, with the advance of ceramic technology, the archaic designs gave way to new ones. Stamped ware became widespread in the twelfth century, with that from Merv, the chief centre for its production in the area, offering a particular wealth of decorative design. A vast craft-workers’ quarter has been discovered there with large quantities of pottery, mostly thin-walled mugs of grey clay and pot-bellied jugs, the surfaces of which appear to have been entirely covered by a woven pattern. Their bodies were made in qâlibs (moulds). The decorative motifs were very varied: plant shoots, providing a background for birds, animals, scenes of royal receptions, mythical creatures and well-wishing epigraphic inscriptions. Combining these motifs, the craftsmen created ornamental patterns running horizontally around the bodies of the vessels.

Between the eighth and the twelfth century glazed pottery appeared in the towns of Khurasan and Transoxania, achieving a high level of technical sophistication. The main centre for glazed pottery in the latter province was Afrasiab, but the wares from Chach, Ferghana and Chaghaniyan were also well known at the time. In Khurasan, the centres were Merv, Nasa, Abiward and, above all, the school of Nishapur whose glazed ware was similar in style to that of Afrasiab (Fig. 1). By the twelfth century, however, pottery of the Afrasiab type was found only in Transoxania.

Afrasiab ware stands out not only in terms of the high quality of the clay body, the glazes and the colours, but also because of the refinement of its forms and patterns. The decorative motifs most frequently encountered are sprouting plants, pomegranates (flowers and fruit) and tulips. The letters of the epigraphic inscriptions are often transformed into vegetal patterns, as are the tails and beaks of birds. Geometric patterns consisting of wickerwork, squares and triangles are the principal decorative feature of many vessels. Pheasants, cocks, doves and ducks are among the most commonly depicted birds, whereas the animals most often encountered are mountain goats, horses, cheetahs and lions. Compositions depicting fish, which possessed a religious significance, are quite frequent. All of these motifs regularly occur together on the same piece. Anthropomorphic and composite scenes are practically never found on Afrasiab pottery.

The decorative style employed on this ware developed in its own particular way. In the ninth and tenth centuries there was still a certain unity in the draughtsmanship and a naturalistic approach to representation, although there was a tendency towards stylization. The eleventh century witnessed a fundamental stylistic transformation: the ornamental-decorative pattern became dominant and all other design elements were made subordinate to it. A typical example of this process is the transformation of birds or animals into decorative elements by means of stylization.

The potters of Khurasan and Transoxania achieved excellent results in their exploration of the decorative potential of colour on glazed ceramics. Particularly elegant are the round plates typical of Samarkand and Nishapur, with their white background to which a fine design was applied in the form of inscriptions or else stylized representations of birds or animals resembling letters of the alphabet (Fig. 2). The inscription occupied the rim of the plate and the remaining surface was undecorated, a feature which lent this ware a characteristic appeal. A high level of craftsmanship is evident in the glazed ware of the period, with a typical olive-green pattern on a white background or a black-and-white design on an ochre-brown background. Different glazing techniques played a particularly important part in the artistic effect achieved by glazed pottery; thus the transparent lead glaze imparted a particular gloss to the ware.

For all their similarities, the ceramics of Afrasiab and Nishapur differ in certain respects. Nishapur ware was influenced by the art of the central regions of Iran; this influence found expression in the iconography of the painting, which covered a much greater range of motifs, and also in the techniques employed and the style (see Fig. 3). We quite frequently encounter thematic compositions on Nishapur ware which are never found on pottery from Afrasiab.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, centres of ceramic art were re-established after the region recovered from the Mongol invasions, but the artistic and technical quality of the ware was inferior to that of the pre-Mongol period. Examples of glazed pottery from this period are in a rather unexpressive greenish-brown ware with a minute plant pattern.

The development of glazed pottery revived at the end of the fourteenth and in the fifteenth century. As a result of wide-ranging commercial links established with other countries across Timur’s empire, a new type of ceramic ware appeared in Central Asia in the fifteenth century, imitating the imported Chinese porcelain and based on the use of a local silicate body and kashin. This porcelain-like ware was produced in various towns of Central Asia, including Bukhara, Shahr-i Sabz, Merv and Urgench, but the principal centre was Samarkand. Whereas the earliest examples employed copies of Far Eastern motifs and themes, the local craftsmen gradually began to introduce their own decorative elements and a new syncretistic style took shape. The decorative artist positioned birds, flowers, the mythical phoenix and wandering goats over the surface of the plates at will. In addition to this imitation porcelain, blue ware with a black underglaze design also circulated during the Timurid period, mainly in the form of common household items decorated with stylized vegetal patterns.

The difference between Timurid ceramics and those of the pre-Mongol period involved changes both in the colour of the ware and in the style of decoration. The artistic style employed on the warm-toned ceramics of the tenth to the twelfth century was replaced by the more graphic decorative style and colder hue of the blue Timurid ware. At that time, the craftsmen making glazed ware were also involved in the production of tiles for the façades of buildings. These tiles were among the most outstanding achievements of ceramic art in that period (Fig. 4).

In the sixteenth century the artistic traditions of the previous century were still maintained in glazed pottery, but towards the end of the century the costly imported cobalt was replaced by pigments of a lower quality and the kashin body gave way to clay. This affected the entire appearance of the ware, which became coarser and thick-walled.