The Islamic Art Collection: Beauty Across a Thousand Years

Samanid epigraphic pottery — from the eastern Iranian world, made between the 9th and 11th centuries — is one of the Islamic tradition's most original contributions to ceramic art. The principle is breathtakingly simple: calligraphic inscriptions are the decoration, the words of the inscription becoming the visual pattern. This bowl, with its bold black kufic inscription against a white slip ground, demonstrates how powerfully the technique works. The phrase "Sovereignty is God's" (al-mulk lillah) is both theological statement and formal solution.

This folio from a manuscript of Attar's Mantiq al-Tayr (Conference of the Birds) — one of Persian literature's great mystical poems — was made in Safavid Iran at the height of the manuscript painting tradition. The illustration shows the birds of the world assembled in the heavens, their wings creating a field of vivid colour against a gold sky. The poem is a Sufi allegory about the soul's journey toward God; the illustration translates its ecstasy into visual terms. Manuscript painting on this scale and at this quality of execution is one of the world's supreme art forms.

This folio from a manuscript of the poems of Hafiz — the 14th-century Persian lyric poet whose ghazals remain among the greatest love poems in any language — shows dervishes engaged in the sama, the whirling devotional dance associated with the Sufi orders. The painting is attributed to the Timurid period, when Persian manuscript illustration achieved its classical form. The figures spin with a physical exuberance that seems incompatible with formal miniature painting; the artist found a way to make stillness suggest movement.

Ottoman velvet weaving reached its apex in the 16th and 17th centuries, and this panel — with its carnations, tulips, and hyacinths rendered in cut and voided velvet — is among the finest examples in any collection. The "four flowers" (carnation, tulip, rose, hyacinth) were the canonical motifs of Ottoman court design, appearing on ceramics, metalwork, textiles, and architectural tiles in a vast vocabulary of variations. This panel has the warmth and depth of colour that distinguishes Ottoman velvet from all other traditions.

The Iznik pottery workshops of northwestern Turkey produced, in the second half of the 16th century, some of the most technically accomplished and visually brilliant ceramics in world history. This tile — probably from a wall panel in an Ottoman palace or mosque — shows the Iznik tradition at its peak: the tomato red unique to Iznik slip, the cobalt blue and emerald green on a pure white ground, the cloud-band and floral design drawn with absolute precision. The technical challenge of achieving this palette and this finish is immense; the Iznik potters made it look effortless.

This Mughal painting of a horse — made during the reign of the Emperor Akbar or his son Jahangir — belongs to the great tradition of Mughal animal portraiture, which combined the Persian miniature tradition's formal refinement with a European-influenced interest in naturalistic observation. The stallion is depicted with a specificity that implies a real animal observed from life; the gold ground and the careful attention to the horse's musculature and coat give it an almost heraldic grandeur. The Mughals collected horses as seriously as they collected paintings.

This early Islamic pitcher — from Iran or Central Asia, made in the polychrome glazed earthenware tradition that preceded the refinement of lustre pottery — shows the tradition's formal inventiveness at an early stage. The spout is in the form of an animal head; the handle curves like a tail; the polychrome decoration covers every surface with geometric and floral patterns. It is an object that combines absolute technical control with a kind of playfulness: the animal form is not symbolic but joyful.

This early Islamic panel, made in bone and four different types of wood arranged in geometric mosaic, comes from a period when the Islamic decorative tradition was still being formulated — absorbing Sasanian Persian, Byzantine, and Central Asian influences and synthesising them into something new. The geometric pattern — squares, hexagons, and their subdivisions — is one of the Islamic tradition's most powerful inventions: a way of covering a surface completely while remaining abstract. The technical precision is extraordinary for the period.

This brass finial — the decorative top of a ceremonial object, possibly a flag or canopy pole — in the form of a parrot demonstrates the Islamic decorative tradition's delight in natural forms rendered with stylisation. The parrot was a beloved motif in Indian and Persian art: a talking bird, a messenger of love in Persian poetry, a creature associated with eloquence and intelligence. The brass casting is precise and confident; the surface was probably originally gilded. It was made to catch the light at the top of a ceremonial procession.

Samanid epigraphic pottery — from the eastern Iranian world, made between the 9th and 11th centuries — is one of the Islamic tradition's most original contributions to ceramic art. The principle is breathtakingly simple: calligraphic inscriptions are the decoration, the words of the inscription becoming the visual pattern. This bowl, with its bold black kufic inscription against a white slip ground, demonstrates how powerfully the technique works. The phrase "Sovereignty is God's" (al-mulk lillah) is both theological statement and formal solution.

This folio from a manuscript of Attar's Mantiq al-Tayr (Conference of the Birds) — one of Persian literature's great mystical poems — was made in Safavid Iran at the height of the manuscript painting tradition. The illustration shows the birds of the world assembled in the heavens, their wings creating a field of vivid colour against a gold sky. The poem is a Sufi allegory about the soul's journey toward God; the illustration translates its ecstasy into visual terms. Manuscript painting on this scale and at this quality of execution is one of the world's supreme art forms.

This folio from a manuscript of the poems of Hafiz — the 14th-century Persian lyric poet whose ghazals remain among the greatest love poems in any language — shows dervishes engaged in the sama, the whirling devotional dance associated with the Sufi orders. The painting is attributed to the Timurid period, when Persian manuscript illustration achieved its classical form. The figures spin with a physical exuberance that seems incompatible with formal miniature painting; the artist found a way to make stillness suggest movement.

Ottoman velvet weaving reached its apex in the 16th and 17th centuries, and this panel — with its carnations, tulips, and hyacinths rendered in cut and voided velvet — is among the finest examples in any collection. The "four flowers" (carnation, tulip, rose, hyacinth) were the canonical motifs of Ottoman court design, appearing on ceramics, metalwork, textiles, and architectural tiles in a vast vocabulary of variations. This panel has the warmth and depth of colour that distinguishes Ottoman velvet from all other traditions.

The Iznik pottery workshops of northwestern Turkey produced, in the second half of the 16th century, some of the most technically accomplished and visually brilliant ceramics in world history. This tile — probably from a wall panel in an Ottoman palace or mosque — shows the Iznik tradition at its peak: the tomato red unique to Iznik slip, the cobalt blue and emerald green on a pure white ground, the cloud-band and floral design drawn with absolute precision. The technical challenge of achieving this palette and this finish is immense; the Iznik potters made it look effortless.

This Mughal painting of a horse — made during the reign of the Emperor Akbar or his son Jahangir — belongs to the great tradition of Mughal animal portraiture, which combined the Persian miniature tradition's formal refinement with a European-influenced interest in naturalistic observation. The stallion is depicted with a specificity that implies a real animal observed from life; the gold ground and the careful attention to the horse's musculature and coat give it an almost heraldic grandeur. The Mughals collected horses as seriously as they collected paintings.

This early Islamic pitcher — from Iran or Central Asia, made in the polychrome glazed earthenware tradition that preceded the refinement of lustre pottery — shows the tradition's formal inventiveness at an early stage. The spout is in the form of an animal head; the handle curves like a tail; the polychrome decoration covers every surface with geometric and floral patterns. It is an object that combines absolute technical control with a kind of playfulness: the animal form is not symbolic but joyful.

This early Islamic panel, made in bone and four different types of wood arranged in geometric mosaic, comes from a period when the Islamic decorative tradition was still being formulated — absorbing Sasanian Persian, Byzantine, and Central Asian influences and synthesising them into something new. The geometric pattern — squares, hexagons, and their subdivisions — is one of the Islamic tradition's most powerful inventions: a way of covering a surface completely while remaining abstract. The technical precision is extraordinary for the period.

This brass finial — the decorative top of a ceremonial object, possibly a flag or canopy pole — in the form of a parrot demonstrates the Islamic decorative tradition's delight in natural forms rendered with stylisation. The parrot was a beloved motif in Indian and Persian art: a talking bird, a messenger of love in Persian poetry, a creature associated with eloquence and intelligence. The brass casting is precise and confident; the surface was probably originally gilded. It was made to catch the light at the top of a ceremonial procession.