Islamic Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 23, no. 6 ...

excavated material, such as that found at Nishapur, a city in the province of Khurasan,
implies the existence of an industry analagous to that of Iraq.
In the beginning the Arab conquerors, having no artistic heritage of their own,
capitalized on that of the subjects within their new empire. However, before long the
all-pervasive spirit of Islam caused the emergence of a new culture and engendered creative
impulses resulting in manufactured products, such as glass, of great artistic merit.
There seems, during the first part of the Abbasid caliphate (that is, from the mid-
eighth to the mid-eleventh centuries) to have been an empire-wide glass industry.
There was probably as much movement of artisans within the empire as there was flow
of products, which no doubt contributed to a certain universality of style. This makes it
extremely difficult to distinguish with certainty between the glass of one area and
another. In addition, as very little early Islamic glass is signed or dated, dating has
generally had to be based on stylistic comparisons alone.
Providing the most reliable evidence available concerning glass production are the
finds from the scientific excavations of early Islamic sites, of which, unfortunately, there
have been very few, the two most important being Samarra, where digging was interrupted
by the First World War, and Nishapur, in turn interrupted by the Second.
Even in excavations, without the presence of wasters (pieces damaged in the
process of manufacture and discarded) or of kiln sites, there is no proof that a piece was
made where it was found. For example, much early Islamic glass has been attributed to
Gurgan, a city northeast of Tehran near the Caspian Sea, or to Nishapur, because the
quality found at these places would seem to indicate important centers of the industry.
However, many of these attributions are mere speculation. This lack of reliable evidence,
and the fact that stylistic comparisons can be taken only so far, leads to the
conclusion that greater knowledge of the early Islamic glass industry is dependent on
further controlled excavations.
Because of the lack of archaeological evidence, the techniques employed by Islamic
glassmakers for the forming and decoration of glass vessels have had to be surmised.
A knowledge gained by a study of the vessels themselves may be implemented by a
study of the methods used in hand-manufactured glass today since they are probably,
fundamentally, not very different from those of the past. There is not space here to
more than touch on some of the more common methods of manufacture that have been
used in the glass pieces illustrated.
In early Islamic times, glassblowing by means of a hollow-shafted blow rod, when
the glass had been heated to a controlled degree of viscosity, was the most usual method
of forming a vessel, since it was the most versatile. The glass could either be blown into
various forms or shaped after being blown. When the glass was still in a malleable state
it might be decorated by tooling, whereby, with the skillful use of simple implements,
it might be pulled, pinched, or otherwise manipulated to achieve surface decoration or
even freestanding forms. While still viscous, separate glass parts might be added, such
as a foot or handle, or pieces applied as decoration, such as medallions or trailed threads,
either within the glass body or on its surface. Glass vessels could also be formed by
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