]

_Damascus Ware_.--This time-honoured name (for "Damas Ware" was often
mentioned in medieval inventories, and appears to have included many
varieties of oriental pottery which were highly prized in Italy, France
and England in the middle ages)[12] forms rather a puzzle nowadays for
the archaeologist, for many diverse wares have been included under this
title, some of which were not made at Damascus. Yet Damascus is one of
the oldest cities in the world, and has seen unnumbered dynasties come
and go around its desert-fringed oasis. An important centre of caravan
traffic, a nexus of palpitating life from east and west, north and
south, we cannot wonder if it developed a special pottery of its own,
tinged with something of a cosmopolitan spirit. Formerly the Damascus
wares were treated as a variety of the Persian pottery we have just
described, but the best examples of the class now known under this name
exhibit a mingling of various influences such as we might expect, and
have well-marked affinities both with the Persian wares and those
brilliant productions now commonly recognized as Syrian and Turkish,
while even far-off echoes of Chinese decorative mannerisms are not
wanting. The characteristic Damascus ware of the collector is marked by
its quality; the ground is of very clear white, the colours are pure and
brilliant, and the vessels, whether dishes or vases, are soundly made.
The decoration, which is purely floral or conventional, recalls the more
formal Persian style, but the colours recall those of the Turkish
pottery with one remarkable substitution. The piled-up red-clay pigment
of the latter is absent, but where it would inevitably occur in the
design of a Turkish piece its place is taken by a purple made from
manganese, which is often thin and rather washy in quality. Fine
examples of this famous ware are to be seen in the British Museum and in
the Louvre; its characteristic style of pattern is well shown in the
16th-century Damascus piece reproduced in Plate V. Another splendid
example is the lamp from the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem, also in the
British Museum (fig. 41); and this has generally been classed with the
Damascus wares, though its colouring and its technique belong rather to
Lower Syria or to Egypt. This magnificent piece bears a dated
inscription, "In the year 956 in the month _Jemazi-l-oola_. The painter
is the poor and humble Mustafa." This is reckoned as June A.D. 1549. It
may be remarked th