Dish with Two Birds, Syria, 12th century. Glazed earthenware with enamel (Laqabi ware), 5.4 × 28.3 × 17.5 cm. Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1941.24 © Toledo Museum of Art 

Influenced by the trade of Chinese porcelain, this dish is made of stonepaste, also known as fritware, a material introduced into Syria by Egyptian craftsmen in the late 11th century. The white body consists primarily of sand (quartz) with small amounts of frit (crushed glass) and clay. Islam, especially the text called the Hadith (Sayings of the Prophet), prohibits figural imagery in religious spaces and art, although secular and courtly arts of the Islamic world, like this dish, are not similarly restricted.