This is a pitcher of well-known shape (used
throughout the Islamic period) with turquoise
glaze and black slip lettering under the outer
clear
glaze. Surmounting a strong tapering foot, the
main body widens quickly, much like and Islamic
bowl, and reaches maximum width in about 1/3
of
its main body height. It then tapers – almost
linearly most of the way – to the point of
narrowest
width, where it is surmounted by a narrow ring
band and a flaring mouth with a pinched beak-
spout. (Such a top mouth and short pinched
spout
ultimately derives from archaic plain oil-lamps
found across the near east). The body-material,
with a grain of medium coarseness, is fired, when
exposed, to brownish-buff. The simple, rolled
handle is pasted to the body just above a point of
maximal diameter, ascends linearly at a steep
angle and curves back, downwards, to meet the
vessel at its narrowest (neck).
The “Hebraic” inscription appears on the main
body on two levels:
(1) A continuous band of letters, (2) a lower
band, whose centre-line surrounds the vessel.
This
band contains three strings, of roughly the same
number of letters. Despite some apparent
differences, these strings seem to be intended as
repeating the same sentence.
There is little doubt that the letters are intended
as
square Aramaic ones (so-called Assyrian in the
Hebrew tradition) and couldn’t belong to any
other
alphabet. Furthermore, they conform in some
details (e.g., bottom horizontal lines are
“humped”)
to Medieval Irano-Jewish square script.
The greatest difficulty is encountered in making
sense of the inscription itself. It was intended as
a
Hebrew one or as quasi-Hebrew with Magical
power. The following can be concluded:
(A) The inscription is a distorted result of an
attempt at a reiterated meaningful name or
phrase
(or acronym).
(B) The execution strongly suggests that the
potter himself did not know any Hebrew and was
not very familiar with the square Aramaic
alphabet.
As far as the meaning of the inscription goes as
possible, but not fully satisfactory explication is
the
following: (i) Each string in the lower band
consists
of twice repeated the name of God. (ii) The upper
band consists of a concatenated reiteration of a
contracted form of the name of God.
This item is a typical turquoise glazed pitcher
from
central/northern Iran in the late Seljuk period. Its
inscription can be considered Hebraic. Even if
such
an item was commissioned by a Jew, it is
doubtful
that it could be used ritually in a Synagogue, E.g.,
for Netillat yadayim (ritual cleansing of
hands). On the other hand it could retain a
magical
aura even in Islamic Iran (since square lettering is
found on pre-Islamic coins and Persian Magic
bowls from Hozistan, with Hebrew, Aramaic and
Iranian words). The same applied to many Iranian
Jewish merchants, who were not scholarly, but
used the square Aramaic script in their letters.
