Bowl depicting Bahram Gur and Azadeh

Unknown artist

late 12th to early 13th Century

Fritware, opaque monochrome glaze with polychrome inglaze and overglaze decoration (mina’i ware)

Aga Khan Museum

A ceramic bowl with a pedestal base is decorated with intricate patterns and Arabic script. The interior rim features a red and blue zigzag pattern, while the exterior displays floral motifs and calligraphy in blue, red, and green. Further Reading Bahram Gur was a historic figure—King Bahram V of the Sasanian dynasty (r. 420–38)—who was popular as a monarch and much mythologized in literature. Various works of fiction ascribe legends to him, including the Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) of Firdausi in the early 11th century, the Haft Paykar (The Seven Beauties) of Nizami in the late 12th century, and the Hasht Behisht (The Eight Heavens) of Amir Khusrau in the early 14th century. Firdausi presents him as a wise and just ruler, but Nizami and Amir Khusrau choose to emphasize his amorous exploits, in stories in which he seduces a series of princesses.[2] The story