In Muslim cultures, words are used not only to communicate but to decorate. Because it is through writing that the Qur’an is transmitted, scripts in the Arabic alphabet were devised and perfected to be worthy of divine revelation. On this account, calligraphy became the most important art form regardless of the text. This concern with beautiful writing extended beyond the page to inscriptions on buildings as well as objects of all sorts, including metalwork, coins, stone, glass, wood, textiles, and ceramics, as here.
This strikingly modern bowl is made from humble earthenware, disguised and beautified through the application of a white slip, a semifluid colored clay. Its interior is decorated with an encircling black inscription, and the spaces between the letters are filled by abstract decoration that is augmented by the color red, all covered with a transparent glaze. Read by turning the bowl counterclockwise, the beginning marked by a short black vertical line, the Arabic inscription presents a proverb that resonates even today: “Greed is a sign of poverty.” Although we do not know what type of food this vessel once held, we can surmise that part of the pleasure of enjoying its contents was to read its inscription, which would likely involve consuming at least some of the contents to reveal the text.
