Islamic Glass in the Making

Chapter 1Islamic glassmaking in Egypt contingent on local administration• Primary glass workshops in Egypt – the archaeological evidence• Roman and late antique glass groups of Egyptian originRoman antimony-decoloured glassHigh iron, manganese and titanium (HIMT) glassHIMT2 & Foy 3.2 (série 3.2)Glass group Foy 2.1 (série 2.1)Magby – a high Mg Byzantine glass typeCompositions and working properties over time• The beginnings of Islamic glass productionNatron type Egypt 1A-C & Egypt 2Natron type Egypt 1Ax – glass mosaics from the Great Mosque in Damascus• The earliest plant ash glasses from EgyptPlant ash glasses E1 – E4Recycling and chronological evolutionTin-oxide opacified glass weights• Trace element discriminants of Egyptian glass• Egyptian glass and its marketChapter 2Islamic glassmaking in Greater Syria (Bilâd al-Shâm): distribution patterns• Glassmaking and glass-working in the Bilâd al-Shâm –the archaeological evidence• Roman and late antique glass groups of Levantine originRoman manganese-decoloured and naturally coloured glassThe glass from fourth-century JalameLate antique Apollonia glass – Levantine I• The beginnings of Islamic glass productionEarly Islamic natron glass from Bet Eli‘ezer – Levantine IIThe early Islamic mosaic tradition in Greater SyriaAn interlude – the gold in gold leaf tesseraeColours and opacifiers of the mosaic tesserae• The last hurrah of natron-type glass in the Levant• The earliest plant ash glasses from the Bilâd al-ShâmRaqqa group 1 & Raqqa group 4Glass from the primary production site of TyreGlass from the Serçe Limani shipwreck and the secondary workshop at Banias• Ruptures and shifts in the production of glass in the Levant• Distribution patterns and the glass marketChapter 3Glass production in Mesopotamia: preservation of plant ash recipes• Sasanian glassmaking tradition - Veh Ardašīr et al.• The transition to Islamic glassmaking in MesopotamiaMesopotamian group Raqqa 4Two early Islamic glass groups from Mesopotamia: Samarra 1 and Samarra 2Colourless glass from NishapurMillefiori tiles from Samarra and the ‘missing link’Message in a bottleThe port city of Siraf – a trading hub• Glass from Iran and Central Asia – multiple origins of the glassat Nishapur and Merv• Mesopotamian versus Central Asian glass productionsChapter 4“From Polis to Madina” and the flux of glass in Spain• Late Roman and Visigothic glass from HispaniaThe glass from Recópolis – exception to the rule or genuine trend?• The first local production of glass in Islamic al-AndalusThe ‘invention’ of glassmaking – the case of ŠaqundaThe glass workshop in Pechina (Almería)The glass from Madīnat al-Zahrā’ – the Brilliant CityDomestic assemblages in Córdoba and the advent of Iberian plant ash glass• Mosaics from Madīnat al-Zahrā’ and the Great Mosque of Córdoba• The glass supply in eighth- to tenth-century al-Andalus• Glass and the processes of Islamisation• Western expansion: Sicily and the MaghrebByzantine, Islamic and Swabian SicilyIslamic glass in the MaghrebEmancipation of western Islamic glassmakingChapter 5In conclusion – geographical and chronological dimensionsReferencesNew insights into the history of Islamic glassmakingThe ancient glass industry changed dramatically towards the end of the first millennium. The Roman glassmaking tradition of mineral soda glass was increasingly supplanted by the use of plant ash as the main fluxing agent at the turn of the ninth century CE. Defining primary production groups of plant ash glass has been a challenge due to the high variability of raw materials and the smaller scale of production. Islamic Glass in the Making advocates a large-scale archaeometric approach to the history of Islamic glassmaking to trace the developments in the production, trade and consumption of vitreous materials between the eighth and twelfth centuries and to separate the norm from the exception. It proposes compositional discriminants to distinguish regional production groups, and provides insights into the organisation of the glass industry and commerce during the early Islamic period. The interdisciplinary approach leads to a holistic understanding of the development of Islamic glass; assemblages from the early Islamic period in Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Egypt, Greater Syria and Iberia are evaluated, and placed in the larger geopolitical context. In doing so, this book fills a gap in the present literature and advances a large-scale approach to the history of Islamic glass.The ancient glass industry changed dramatically towards the end of the first millennium. The Roman glassmaking tradition of mineral soda glass was increasingly supplanted by the use of plant ash as the main fluxing agent at the turn of the ninth century CE. Defining primary production groups of plant ash glass has been a challenge due to the high variability of raw materials and the smaller scale of production. Islamic Glass in the Making advocates a large-scale archaeometric approach to the history of Islamic glassmaking to trace the developments in the production, trade and consumption of vitreous materials between the eighth and twelfth centuries and to separate the norm from the exception. It proposes compositional discriminants to distinguish regional production groups, and provides insights into the organisation of the glass industry and commerce during the early Islamic period. The interdisciplinary approach leads to a holistic understanding of the development of Islamic glass; assemblages from the early Islamic period in Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Egypt, Greater Syria and Iberia are evaluated, and placed in the larger geopolitical context. In doing so, this book fills a gap in the present literature and advances a large-scale approach to the history of Islamic glass.