Raqqa ware

An incomplete Raqqa ware jar, c. 1200, currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Raqqa or Rakka ware is a style of ceramic pottery that was a mainstay of the economy of ar-Raqqah in northeastern Syria during the Ayyubid dynasty. The city experienced a resurgence during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, but when it was sacked by the Mongols in 1259 and destroyed in 1265, manufacture of its ceramics virtually ceased.^[1]

Ceramics

Ar-Raqqah's ceramics were varied in character, but have been identified during the 20th century by on-site excavations that securely linked the highly sought-after surviving pieces to ar-Raqqah.^[2] Over a heavily potted body of coarse stone-paste often covered with a white slip, monochrome and polychrome underglaze stains of copper (turquoise), cobalt (blue) or manganese (purplish-brown) were covered with a greenish clear glaze and fired. Lustreware was also developed at Raqqa, after the Fatimid collapse in Egypt (1171), which until then had been the only center of lustreware production.^[3]

Collections

Major collections are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Ashmolean Museum.

References

1. Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn (2006) Raqqa Revisited: Ceramics of Ayyubid Syria (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
2. Ashmolean Museum: Characteristics of Raqqa lustre.
3. Ashmolean Museum: the history of lustreware in Syria.