Dish with giraffe

The decorations on this circular dish were applied using the metallic lustre technique which requires two firings: the first is done in an oxidizing atmosphere, to fire the paste and the glaze; the second firing took place in a reducing atmosphere to set the decorations, which were done with monochrome or polychrome copper and silver oxides.

On this piece, the chrome lustre decorations cover the entire space. The background is entirely adorned with small spiral motifs that originate from the ocelli used in Abbasid ceramics during the ninth century. They were then used for the decorations on certain Alhambran vases[1]. The main motifs, like on the tenth-century Abbasid ceramics[2], are surrounded by a border that is left uncoloured. In the centre, a person who seems to be running while pulling the animal by its halter, leads a harnessed giraffe. He is wearing a short-sleeved tunic marked with two strips of tirāz, a sort of loincloth, and a pointed turban. On the other side of the giraffe a stylized tree that appears to sag under the weight of its fruit forms a curve that follows the dish’s contours and gives the composition balance.

The precision of the details both in terms of the animal’s anatomy (the accurate representation of the head and hairs under the belly and the tail) and its harness (the halter, the decoration of the horns etc.) is thought, according to R. Ettinghausen, to be one of the finest examples of Fatimid ‘realism’, and contrasts with the stylized Abbasid forms. Meinecke-Berg has likened this dish to fragments held in Berlin, where the same scene is represented twice  symmetrically. These fragments are signed by ‘Muslim’—a potter known for sixty pieces created in very different styles—who probably worked in Fustāt under the reign of Caliph al-Hākim (reigned AD 996–1021)[3]. However, it is difficult to know if this name designates the potter himself or the workshop. 

On the back, three large circles alternate with the chevrons. This treatment, sometimes interpreted as a workshop mark, was also influenced by Abbasid Iraqi ceramics.

Contrary to other animals, giraffes appear rarely in Islamic art; Meinecke-Berg believes this representation was the first of its kind. Others examples exist from the same period, for example on an ivory cassette in the Museum of Berlin[4].  This scene, no doubt inspired by an antique model, also exists in the Kitāb al-Hayawān of al-Jahiz (1299–1300)[5], and on a fourteenth-century Syrian copy[6].

The giraffe, with its highly decorated saddle cloth, was probably an animal that was part of a menagerie, which often existed in Islamic courts. Syrian mosaics from the beginning of the sixth century attest to this tradition[7], which was also present in the Sassanid world and then spread to Europe: it is known, for example, that Caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd gave Charlemagne two elephants. The king of Sicily, Frederic II (reigned 1212–1250), is said to have exchanged a white bear for a giraffe with the Egyptian Sultan. Later, in 1261, Baybars is reported to have offered a giraffe to Manfred, one of the sons of Frederic II. The giraffe was known in Europe thanks to the Islamic world, as its name derived from the Arabic zarafa. It brings to mind the famous giraffe that, in the era of Napoleon III, crossed the whole of France before astounded onlookers.

[2] Bowl with musician, tenth century, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

[3] Fragment of dish in the Benaki Museum (No. 11122) with the name of Muslim in full, mentioning the reign of al-Hākim.

[4] Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, K. 3101.

[5] The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, M 500, fol. 16 r.

[6] The Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan.

[7] Mosaic from the Baptistery of Moses, Jordan, Mount Nebo, AD 531