| Summary: | Throughout the ninth to eleventh centuries, in nearly every region of the Islamic world, Arabic script became ubiquitous amongst glazed ceramics and firmly established in the decorative language of potters. This thesis examines the trajectory and development of Arabic script throughout the period on such wares. The origins of glazed script can be traced to vessels of the Yellow Glaze Family in the ninth-century Eastern Mediterranean, many of which followed established epigraphic modes of other media, particularly metalwork and glassware. The practices and traditions first exhibited in the region subsequently spread throughout the entirety of the Islamic world over the ensuing centuries, developing into disparate local variations, and, in many instances, distinctly ceramic typologies. The opaque white glazed wares of southern Mesopotamia established standard epigraphic formulae and styles, many of which had little precedent in other media. The inscribed slip-painted ceramics of the eastern Iranian world developed into a robust assortment of illegible epigraphic patterns and legible Arabic aphorisms, exhibiting a diverse array of epigraphic types produced by local potters. The polychrome and lustre types of Egypt spread across North Africa into the repertoire of potters on the Iberian Peninsula, disseminating epigraphic ceramic practices throughout the Islamic West. Across the entire breadth of the Islamic world, both legible and illegible inscriptions were created by potters and desired by buyers. Epigraphic configurations more akin to pattern than legible text were widespread, suggesting that the appearance of script was of foremost importance. Though precise epigraphic preferences differed from region to region, they collectively reveal the growing fashion to create and own epigraphic materials, the aestheticisation of Arabic writing, as well as the increasing appreciation of Arabic script amongst the non-courtly class.
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