The manufacture of jewellery, and also armour, constituted a separate branch of artistic metalwork. Archaeological finds from excavations in various medieval towns of Transoxania and Khurasan provide evidence of the level of development of the jeweller’s art during the pre-Mongol period. Entire urban districts have been found which were occupied by jewellers and armourers. Women’s jewellery, elements of horses’ harnesses and of military equipment were made of gold, silver, copper, brass and other metals mined in the mountainous regions of Khurasan and Transoxania, and these might be ornamented with insets of emerald, turquoise, cornelian, chalcedony, garnet and crystal.

From the ninth to the twelfth century, jewellery shows the same stylistic changes as other artistic crafts. The growing use of vegetal and geometric patterns is perceptible in the design of many bronze amulet pendants engraved with representations of birds and animals. Artefacts cast in silver, bronze and copper became common: fasteners, belt-buckles, plaques, amulets and pins in the form of birds and animals, and serpentine bracelets. The articles of the period that have survived are mostly common everyday items made of non-precious metals or silver.

It is only possible to form an opinion of the jewellery that was manufactured from precious metals and stones on the basis of the historical chronicles and from artefacts of the post-Mongol period or contemporary miniature paintings. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires and pearls were the most valued insets in secular ornaments of the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, a period during which changes could be observed in both the forms and the style of jewellery. Heavy gold neck-pieces for men and solid crowns disappeared and attention switched to women’s jewellery. As far as male attire was concerned, jewellers focused their attention on belt-buckles made of precious metals and stones and on robes and kaftans, as well as the decoration of various types of weapons and harnesses for horses.