Islamic Ceramic Tiles History

In the same way islamic restrictions greatly discouraged figurative wall painting encouraging the architectural use of schemes of decorative tiles which are the most distinctive and original speciality of islamic ceramics.

Islamic ceramic tiles history.

Tiles are the simplest form of ceramic art. Early pottery had usually been unglazed but a tin opacified glazing technique was developed by islamic potters. Tiles cover walls and floors roofs and pavements furniture and stoves. A lot of the patterns i replicate and reproduce for my islamic illumination are found on ceramic tiles of mosque and palaces in iran turkey morocco spain and portugal there are so many styles and techniques to ceramic tiles.

Berber influenced by the carthaginians and greeks and by the tribal arts of sub suharan africa arab persian sumerian french english moorish egyptian and andalucian. Its roots can be traced at least as far back as the uighurs of the 8th and 9th centuries. They were often used as embellishments for both the outside and inside of buildings. Since the ninth century ad onwards most countries in which islamic culture predominates have had a tradition of producing and using tiles for the decoration of important buildings like mosques palaces religious colleges holy shrines and graves.

From 633 muslim armies moved rapidly towards persia byzantium. Islamic art has notable achievements in ceramics both in pottery and tiles for buildings which reached heights unmatched by other cultures. For most of the period it can fairly be said to have been between the two in terms of aesthetic achievement and influence as well borrowing from china and exporting to and influencing byzantium and europe. They are often combined with other forms of ceramics such as terracotta faience and mosaic.

Through history tiles were made by assyrians babylonians and the islamic. During the islamic period decorative ceramic tiles became popular. The era of islamic pottery started around 622. Medieval islamic pottery occupied a geographical position between chinese ceramics then the unchallenged leaders of eurasian production and the pottery of the byzantine empire and europe.

Its subsequent development was influenced by karakhanid ghaznavid and especially iranian seljuk art. Van lemmen curator historian and president of the tiles and architectural ceramic society has written an authoritative and fascinating book that focuses on european clay tiles but also takes a look at egyptian chinese islamic and american tile history. You ll find beautiful tile works in places such as tunisia 9th century kashan iran 11th century and many mosques dating from the 12th century and on. The earliest known examples are egyptian and from 4 000 bc.