360 - Two pilgrim gourds

Two pilgrim gourds Kashan, Syria or Iraq, circa 9th-11th century Unglazed earthenware, with a lenticular body with two handles and a flared spout, both sides decorated with concentric circles. One (with restored spout) is decorated with turquoise glazed dots, H. 14 x 19 cm and H. 19 x 11 cm. For a similar example, see the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 32.150.82, and the Sulaimaniya Museum, Iraq. This type of gourd has been found in the ancient Tapa Raza tumulus on the Sharazor plain in the present-day governorate of Sulaimaniya, Mesopotamia. Finds such as this object testify to the continued occupation of the urban area of Ctesiphon during the early centuries of the Islamic period, during which a pilgrimage site developed at Salman Pak, an area named after the tomb of Salman al-Farsi, one of the Prophet's earliest companions and the first Iranian to convert to Islam. The site is still visited by pilgrims today. Two pottery pilgrim's flask of lentoid body with twin arched handles flanking the trumpet-shaped spout. Decorated on both sides with bands of circles. Kashan, Syria or Iraq, Ca. 9th-11th century AD