² Summaries of the state of current research can be found in: Pringle, D., ‘Medieval pottery of Palestine and Transjordan (A.D. 636–1500): an introduction, gazetteer and bibliography’, Medieval Ceramics 5, 1981, 45–60Google Scholar; Tonghini, C. and Grube, E., ‘Towards a history of Syrian Islamic pottery before 1500’, Islamic Art 3, 1989, 59–93Google Scholar; Brown, R., ‘Chronological, typological, and ethnographic approaches to late Islamic ceramic analysis’, in Late Islamic ceramic production and distribution in the southern Levant: a socio-economic and political interpretation (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Binghampton University, 1992), 94–154Google Scholar; Tonghini, C., Qalՙat Jaՙbar pottery. A study of a Syrian fortified site of the late llth–14th centuries, British Academy monographs in archaeology No. 11 (London: Council of British Research in the Levant; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 27–74.Google Scholar

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²⁴ For instance, see Migeon, G., ‘Nouvelles découvertes sur la céramique de Damas’, Revue de l'Art Ancienne et Moderne 44 (1923), 383–386Google Scholar; Sauvaget, J., Poteries Syro-Mesopotamiennes du XIVe siècle (Paris, 1932)Google Scholar. 'l-Faraj al-ՙUsh, Abū, ‘Fakhkhār ghayr maṭlī I’, Les annales archéologiques arabes syriennes 10 (1960), 135–384 (Arabic section)Google Scholar. Also AAAS 11–12 (1961–62), 35–60 (Arabic section); AAAS 13 (1963), 3–52 (Arabic section).

²⁵ Jenkins, M., ‘Mamluk underglaze-painted pottery: foundations for future study’, Muqarnas 2, 1984, 110–112.Google Scholar

²⁶ Examples of this practice are given in Atasoy, N. and Raby, J., Iznik. The pottery of Ottoman Turkey (London, 1989), 63Google Scholar. See also Jenkins (1984; Pl. 15 a, b). This decorated base carries the legend, ‘ՙamal ibn Ghaybī’ and is countersigned ‘Ghaybī’.

²⁷ For instance, see Bahgat and Massoul (1930: Pl. XLIV. 1 and 2).

²⁸ Atasoy and Raby (1989: 63).

²⁹ For instance, see Bahgat and Massoul (1930: Pl. XLIV).

³⁰ al-Maqrīzī, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ՙAlī, Kitāb al-Mawāՙiẓ wa 'l-ՙitibār fī dhikr al-khiṭāṭ wa 'l-athār, ed. Wiet, G. (Cairo, 1911–1927), 1, 290–1Google Scholar: this passage refers to the use of Nile mud for the construction of vessels in the context of a Coptic festival (ՙīd mikā՚īl). A correlation between the chemical components of the ceramic fabric of fourteenth-century sgraffito wares and Nile mud is demonstrated in A. ՙAbd al-Rāziq, ‘Le sgraffito de l'Egypte dans la collection d'al-Ṣabāḥ', Annales Islamologiques 24, 1988, 13–14. Fabri also records that Nile mud was used for the manufacture of bricks. See Fabri (1975: 443, 920).

³¹ Abū Ṣālih al-Armanī (1894–95: 1, 53; II, 131).

³² Yāqut (1866–70: 1, 631). For a later account of this trade, see Çelebi, Evliya, Narrative of travels in Europe, Asia and Africa in the seventeenth century, tr. Hammer, J. Von (London: Oriental translation fund, 1834–1850), 1, pt. 2, 193 No. 323Google Scholar. The use of clay vessels is also specified in a technical manual of the Ayyubid mint (Kashf al-asrār al-ilmiyya bi dar al-darb al-miṣriyya by Manṣūr b. Baՙra al-Dhahabī al-Kāmilī). See Ehrenkreutz, E., ‘Extracts from the technical manual on the Ayyubid mint in Cairo’, BSOAS XV, 1953, 443–445.Google Scholar

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³⁹ Ibn al-Ukhuwwa (1938: 222 (Arabic text)); Ibn Bassām (1968: 158).

⁴⁰ Ibn Bassām (1968: 159). The menders of broken cups are mentioned amongst the craftsmen of Constantinople in the seventeenth century. See Evliya Çelebi (1834–50: 1/2, 212, No. 420).

⁴¹ Ibn Bassām (1968: 158).

⁴² Examples of the names of clients include Shams al-Dīn Khālid, ՙAlā' al-Dīn Altunbugha and Shihāb al-Dīn b. Sayf al-Dīn Farajī. See Mayer, L., Saracenic heraldry (Oxford, 1933), 64, 139, 206–7.Google Scholar

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⁴⁷ Maqrīzī, , Khiṭāṭ (1855: II, 274)Google Scholar; 'l-Faḍā'il, Ibn Abī, Mufaḍḍal, Moufazzal ibn Abil-Fazail: Histoire des sultans Mamlouks (Kitāb al-Nahj al-sadīd), (ed. and tr.) Blochet, E. (rept. from Patriologia Orientalis 1916–1920), 1, 500–501.Google Scholar

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⁵⁷ Alhazmeh, K. Late Mamluk patronage: Qānṣūh al-Ghūrī's waqf and his foundations in Cairo (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Ohio State University, 1993), 137, No. 40 (citing Cairo, Ministry of Waqfs, No. 882).Google Scholar

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⁷² al-Khazrajī (1906–8: iv, 440).

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⁸⁰ Baumgarten, M., Peregarinatio in Aegyptum, Arabiam, Palestinam ad Syriam (Nuremberg, 1594), 112.Google Scholar Barbosa, D., A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the beginning of the sixteenth century tr. Stanley, H. (Works issued by the Hakluyt society, No. 35: London, 1866), 185: the author mentions that ‘Martaban’ wares were also popular in the Muslim world.Google Scholar

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⁸⁷ For instance: Kahle (1956: 342–43); Raby and Yücel (1986: 42–6).

⁸⁸ Ibn al-Bayṭar (1874: 1, 119).

⁸⁹ Qalqashandī (1913–18: IV, 10).

⁹⁰ Ibn Iyäs (1960–74: IV, 409).

⁹¹ Maqrīzī, , Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ՙAlī, Kitab al-Sulūk li-maՙrifat al-duwal al-muluk, ed. Ziada, M. and Ashour, S. (Cairo, 1934– 1972), II, 441–442.Google Scholar

⁹² Ibn Iyās (1960–74: 1, 535).

⁹³ Ibn Iyās (1960–74: IV, 309).

⁹⁴ Ibn Iyās (1960–74: IV, 442).

⁹⁵ Abouseif, D. Behrens, Fatḥ Allāh and Abū Zakāriyya: physicians under the Mamluks (Supplėment aux Annales Islamologiques 10: Cairo, 1987), 35.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Muhammad b. Abū 'l-Surūr al-Ṣiddīqī, al-Rawḍ al-zāhiyya fī akhbār misr wa 'l-qāhira al-muՙizziyya (Bodleian, ms. Pococke 80), fol. 29v. See also Raby and Yücel, 21–3; Hobson, R. and Percival, W., ‘Chinese porcelain from Constantinople’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 1933/ 1934 (1934), 16–21.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Martin quoted in Hobson and Percival (1934: 21): the authors cite no documentary source although it may derive from the garbled legend reported by Evliya Çelebi. in a description of an Imperial auction in Istanbul he says that the Mamluk sultan, al-Ghawrī had learnt to make ‘Martaban’ pottery during a seven-year incarceration in Karak castle. According to the author, all 1,600 items in the sale were from the hand of the Mamluk sultan! The story of a sultan imprisoned in Karak refers to al-Nāṣir Muhammad ibn Qalāwūn and the association with al-Ghawrī may come from the use, according to Martin (see above), of the word ‘ghūrī’ in Egypt to denote celadon. See Evliya Çelebi in Bitlis: the relevant section of the Seyahatname, tr. Dankoff, R., Vol. 2 of (ed.) Kreiser, K. (Evliya Çelebi's book of travels. Land and people of the Ottoman empire in the seventeenth century: a corpus of partial editions: Leiden, 1990), 315 (279a).Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Ibn Iyās (1960–74: V, 25).

⁹⁹ Ibn Taghribirdī (1909–36: VI, 541); Maqrīzī, Khiṭāṭ (1855: II, 230); Ibn Iyās (1960–74: IV, 473).

¹⁰⁰ al-Khazrajī (1906–18: II, 207–08; V, 232–34); Clavijo (1928: 224); Ibn Baṭṭuṭa(1853–58: II, 304).

¹⁰¹ Ibn Iyās (1960 74: 1, 393).

¹⁰² Pagani (1884: 191).

¹⁰³ Ibn Iyās (1960–74: III, 241).

¹⁰⁴ Ibn Iyās (1960–74: IV, 408).

¹⁰⁵ Maqrīzī, Khitat (1855: II, 105).

¹⁰⁶ Maqrīzī, Khiṭāṭ (1855: II, 68).

¹⁰⁷ Ibn Taghrībirdī, History of Egypt from ‘Hawâdith al-duhûr fi madâ 'l-ՙayyâm wa 'l-shuhûr (845–854 A.H., A.D. 1441–1450), tr. and ed. W. Popper and W. Fischel (New Haven, 1967), 46–7, 67. The description of the pottery as ‘inscribed’ may indicate that the author is referring to local decorated pottery.

¹⁰⁸ Maqrīzī, Sulūk (1934–72: 1, 54–55).

¹⁰⁹ Ibn Abī ‘l-Faḍa'il (1916–20: 1, 453).

¹¹⁰ al-Khazrajī (1906–18: IV, 360–1; 1, 278–9).

¹¹¹ Davillier, M., Les origines de la porcelaine en Europe (Paris, 1882), 9–10 (quoting Matthieu de Couchy, ms. 434, Sorbonne).Google Scholar

¹¹² In a letter from Piero de Bibbiena to Clarice di'Medici quoted in Fabroni, Laurentii Medicis magnifici vita (Pisa, 1784), 337 apud Lane (1947: 1); Wansbrough, J., ‘A Mamluk commercial treaty concluded with the republic of Florence in 894/1489’, in Stern, S., (ed.) Documents from Islamic chanceries. First series (Oriental studies, No. 3: Oxford, 1965), 40.Google Scholar

¹¹³ Latrie, H. Mas, Histoire de l'île de Chypre sous le règne de la maison de Lusignan, (Paris 1852– 1861), III, 405–406.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ Unpublished source quoted in Heyd, W., Histoire du commerce du Levant au Moyen Age, (tr. and ed.) Reynaud, F. (Leipzig, 1923), II, 679Google Scholar; M. Sanuto, ‘Le Vite dei Doge’ in Rerum Italicorum scriptores 22 (1785), 1169 apud Lane (1947: 1); R. Morosoni, Cronica, Venice, Museo Correr, cod. Correr 1048, f. 375r apud Raby and Yücel (1986: 28); Mas Latrie (1852–61: III, 481–83); J. Wansbrough, ‘A Mamluk letter of 877/1473’, BSOAS 24 (1961), 209; Sanuto, M., I diarii Marino Sanuto, Fulin, R. (ed.) (Venice, 1879– 1902), II, 605; V, 92.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ Gregoras, Nicephoras, Corpus scriptorum historiae Byzantinae, Part 19, (ed.) Niebuhr, B. (Bonn, 1829– 1855), II, 788–89Google Scholar. I am very grateful to Ms. Evanthia Baboula for providing a translation of this passage.

¹¹⁶ For examples of the use of written sources in the study of the relative value accorded to different crafts in Classical Greece, see Vickers, M., ‘Material values past and present’, European Review 4/2 (1994), 295–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹¹⁷ For instance, see Scanlon, G., ‘The Fustat mounds: a shard count, 1968’, Archaeology 24 (1971), 225.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ Goitein, S.,A Mediterranean society: the Jewish communities of the Arab world as portrayed in the documents of the Cairo Geniza. Volume IV: daily life (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1983), 146Google Scholar: letters of merchants in Aden state: ‘I happened to get here (Fusṭāṭ or Alexandria) carnelian-red ghaḍār and everybody envied me for this’ and ‘please buy me six painted platters made in Miṣr; they should be of middle size, neither very large or very small; and twenty regular bowls and forty small ones. All should be painted, and their figures and colours should be different’.