This chapter provides an overview of the copious material production that occurred during the centuries when the Mongols dominated much of Asia. Co-authored, the essay offers a fully integrated study that focuses on common themes rather than regional differences. It begins by assessing the sources available for study in order to underscore some of the problems in using them. It then shows that the process of commodity and exchange across the Mongol domains resulted in a shared material culture and in the emergence of a new visual language marked by three features: an interest in perspective and the opening up of space, the cultivation of monumental size in which importance was demonstrated through scale, and a concern for allover surface patterning, often with raised, pierced, or multilevel carving.

Lustre tiles were the prime choice to decorate the interior surfaces of important buildings in Iran during the seventh/thirteenth and early eighth/fourteenth centuries. These tiles comprise three main types, which were often combined in a single space, as shown in old photographs of the tomb room in the shrine of Imam Riżā at Mashhad [Figure 20.1]. Many tiles are flat stars, crosses and other polygons that were installed as panels in dadoes or on the sides of cenotaphs. Others are large rectangles, typically with projecting upper cornices, which were arranged in friezes. The third type, known as mihrab or tombstone tiles, all display an arch but are more varied in form, comprising anything from a single tile to elaborate ensembles containing scores of tiles, some specially shaped and deeply curved, that were inset in the qibla (Mecca-facing) walls of religious buildings.

Six of the large mihrab ensembles survive, in addition to many other individual plaques and pieces. All six have been moved to museums. Three from the shrine of Imam Riżā at Mashhad are in the museum there. A pair of mihrabs – the larger one signed by the potter Abū Zayd Muḥammad b. Abī Ṭāhir and dated Rabī II 612/August 1215, and its smaller mate, likely made by the same potter at the same time – were set in the qibla wall of the tomb room. Positioned opposite the head and foot of the imam's cenotaph, they are known as the miḥrāb-i pīsh rū (‘the mihrab opposite the face’) and the miḥrāb-i pā'īn pā (‘the mihrab at the bottom of the foot’) [Figures 20.2 and 20.3].5 A third smaller mihrab, signed by Abū Zayd's son ‘Alī and dated three decades later in 640/1242–3, was installed in the qibla wall of the Riwaq/Masjid-i Bala Sar, a room to the west of the tomb chamber within the shrine complex [Figure 20.4]. Chronologically between these examples at Mashhad is a fourth mihrab ensemble now in the Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin [Figure 20.5]. Dated Ṣafar 623/February 1226 and signed by Ḥasan b. ‘Arabshāh, it was removed from the Maydan Mosque at Kashan at the end of the nineteenth century. Since the current mosque dates only to the eighth/fifteenth century, the mihrab must have come from another building, whether an earlier mosque on the site or elsewhere.

This chapter explores the visual sources for violence and warfare created over the millennium from 500 to 1500 in the lands where Islam became a major presence. It divides the copious evidence into three chronological blocks (early, middle and late) to highlight the different visual sources that predominate in each period (architectural decoration, portable objects and illustrated manuscripts). The many scenes of violence depicted on these buildings and objects reflect the unsettled times and places where they were made and the constant occurrence of battles and warfare, some of it with sophisticated weaponry. But these vignettes of warfare and fighting also reflect a more positive view of violence, designed to invoke the prowess and heroism of the object’s owner. This triumphal theme extends to nature and the animal kingdom, as man dominates and tames the often-inhospitable landscape and the wild beasts in it. Many incidents also allude to the legendary and literary past, particularly in Iran, and metaphorically tie the object’s owner (and the viewer) to epic heroes. These many scenes of violence are thus multivalent and require decoding.

Qur'ānic inscriptions are ubiquitous, found on buildings and objects produced in many media throughout the Islamic lands from the earliest times to the present. The first example of Islamic architecture, the Dome of the Rock built by the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik (r. 65-86/685-705) in Jerusalem in 72/692, is decorated with a long band of Qur'ānic verses. So are many recent buildings, such as the mosque built in 1983 at the King Khaled International Airport north of Riyadh. These Qur'ānic inscriptions are, quite naturally, used more frequently in religious settings, especially mosques and their furnishings. But they were not exclusive to such sites, and buildings like the Alhambra Palace in Granada also bear Qur'ānic inscriptions deemed suitable for a ceremonial setting. Nevertheless, Qur'ānic inscriptions were not commonly found in utilitarian contexts, where the mundane function of the object might compromise the sanctity of the text. Despite their ubiquity, the study of Qur'ānic inscriptions is a relatively new field, and this chapter begins with a survey of the subject and its history before turning to the question of how and why patrons and artisans selected specific Qur'ānic texts and adapted their form to decorate these myriad objects.