Bowl with Arabic Inscription, 10th century, Iran, Nishapur. Earthenware; white slip with black-slip decoration under transparent glaze. H. 7 in. (17.8 cm). Diam. 18 in. (45.7 cm). Rogers Fund, 1965. Accession Number: 65.106.2 © 2000–2016 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Inscriptions figure prominently in the decoration of objects and buildings throughout the history of Islamic art. Yet it is in Samanid bowls, such as this one, that they were used with an unequalled purity and power, both as calligraphy and to enhance the object they decorate. This bowl is an unusually large, especially fine example of its kind.

The calligraphic decoration on this bowl reads "Planning before work protects you from regret; prosperity and peace," but the shortening, bending, and elongation of the letters has transformed the words into abstract motifs of tremendous power. With its monumental presence and the artful arrangement of its letters, in which vertical flourishes punctuate the horizontal flow of the words at rhythmic intervals, this bowl stands out among the many other inscribed ceramics of the same period.