Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Unglazed pottery had been extensively made everywhere in the Middle East before the Islamic conquests. In early Islamic times there was a boost in production of all types of wares, from coarse unglazed storage- and cooking-wares to finely decorated tableware.

The main kind of glazed ceramics made in the Middle East immediately prior to the Islamic period were green-blue glazed domestic, storage and transport wares, which continued to be made in the following centuries. However, by the AD 800s glazed wares proliferated over the entire Islamic world showing considerable variety and invention in decoration and technology.