Islamic Glass in the Making

Nadine Schibille is a senior researcher in art history and archaeometry in the Institut de recherche sur les archéomatériaux (IRAMAT-CEB) at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

• Chapter 1Islamic glassmaking in Egypt contingent on local administration • Primary glass workshops in Egypt – the archaeological evidence • Roman and late antique glass groups of Egyptian originRoman antimony-decoloured glassHigh iron, manganese and titanium (HIMT) glassHIMT2 & Foy 3.2 (série 3.2)Glass group Foy 2.1 (série 2.1)Magby – a high Mg Byzantine glass typeCompositions and working properties over time • The beginnings of Islamic glass productionNatron type Egypt 1A-C & Egypt 2Natron type Egypt 1Ax – glass mosaics from the Great Mosque in Damascus• The earliest plant ash glasses from EgyptPlant ash glasses E1 – E4Recycling and chronological evolutionTin-oxide opacified glass weights• Trace element discriminants of Egyptian glass • Egyptian glass and its marketChapter 2Islamic glassmaking in Greater Syria (Bilâd al-Shâm): distribution patterns • Glassmaking and glass-working in the Bilâd al-Shâm –the archaeological evidence • Roman and late antique glass groups of Levantine originRoman manganese-decoloured and naturally coloured glassThe glass from fourth-century JalameLate antique Apollonia glass – Levantine I• The beginnings of Islamic glass productionEarly Islamic natron glass from Bet Eli‘ezer – Levantine IIThe early Islamic mosaic tradition in Greater SyriaAn interlude – the gold in gold leaf tesseraeColours and opacifiers of the mosaic tesserae• The last hurrah of natron-type glass in the Levant • The earliest plant ash glasses from the Bilâd al-ShâmRaqqa group 1 & Raqqa group 4Glass from the primary production site of TyreGlass from the Serçe Limani shipwreck and the secondary workshop at Banias• Ruptures and shifts in the production of glass in the Levant • Distribution patterns and the glass market Chapter 3Glass production in Mesopotamia: preservation of plant ash recipes • Sasanian glassmaking tradition - Veh Ardašīr et al. • The transition to Islamic glassmaking in MesopotamiaMesopotamian group Raqqa 4Two early Islamic glass groups from Mesopotamia: Samarra 1 and Samarra 2Colourless glass from NishapurMillefiori tiles from Samarra and the ‘missing link’Message in a bottleThe port city of Siraf – a trading hub• Glass from Iran and Central Asia – multiple origins of the glassat Nishapur and Merv • Mesopotamian versus Central Asian glass productions Chapter 4“From Polis to Madina” and the flux of glass in Spain • Late Roman and Visigothic glass from HispaniaThe glass from Recópolis – exception to the rule or genuine trend?• The first local production of glass in Islamic al-AndalusThe ‘invention’ of glassmaking – the case of ŠaqundaThe glass workshop in Pechina (Almería)The glass from Madīnat al-Zahrā’ – the Brilliant CityDomestic assemblages in Córdoba and the advent of Iberian plant ash glass• Mosaics from Madīnat al-Zahrā’ and the Great Mosque of Córdoba • The glass supply in eighth- to tenth-century al-Andalus • Glass and the processes of Islamisation • Western expansion: Sicily and the MaghrebByzantine, Islamic and Swabian SicilyIslamic glass in the MaghrebEmancipation of western Islamic glassmakingChapter 5In conclusion – geographical and chronological dimensions References

Cette recherche, par son approche à grande échelle, tant numérique que géographique et chronologique, était une gageure renforcée par la grande variabilité des matières premières (et particulièrement du fondant aux cendres de plantes) et la petite échelle de production des centres islamiques, par rapport aux centres antiques. Un des apports importants de l'ouvrage est de synthétiser, ou de proposer, les seuils de discrimination entre groupes de composition et les meilleurs diagrammes binaires à établir pour différencier les six zones de productions primaires de verres aux cendres de plantes (K2O/P2O5 - MgO/CaO ; B/Na2O - Li/Na2O ; Th/Zr - La/TiO2 ; et AL2O - Cr/La (5)) (voir fig. 78) qui illustrent les différences dans le fondant, dans la source de silice et dans la manière de travailler. L'autre apport, dont il faut savoir grand gré à N. Schibille, est d'avoir effectué le délicat exercice de synthèse qui a conduit à ce volume, plutôt que de se contenter de produire des articles dans des revues d'archéométrie, rendant, ainsi, lisibles, pour un plus vaste public, les résultats de sa recherche novatrice qui touchent tant à l'archéologie qu'à l'histoire. - Marie-Dominique Nenna, Bulletin critique des Annales islamologiques, 38 | 2024, DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/bcai.7012