Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Department of Archaeology, University of Lorestan
Abstract
Inscribed Nishapur pottery of the 9th and 10th centuries constitutes one of the most significant bodies of material culture from the early Islamic world and Iran, functioning not only as utilitarian objects but also as carriers of ethical and spiritual meanings. The aim of this study is to reconstruct part of the perceptual horizon of Nishapur’s urban society through analyzing the correspondence between the themes of these inscriptions and the dominant intellectual discourses of the period, including futuwwa, Malāmatiyya, and Sufism. The principal research question asks which intellectual and ethical concepts are reflected in the Kufic inscriptions on Nishapur pottery and to what extent these themes overlap with the intellectual and social discourses of the time. The research method is based on a qualitative-discursive content analysis of 60 Kufic inscriptions, conducted through conceptual comparison with textual sources and within the theoretical framework of material culture studies and cognitive archaeology. Within this framework, the inscriptions are interpreted not merely as decorative texts but as semantic media capable of revealing the mental and ethical structures of urban society. The findings demonstrate that futuwwa and the Malāmatiyya constitute the most dominant discourses represented in the inscriptions, while Sufism, the ahl al-ḥadīth, bureaucratic-adab culture, Karrāmiyya, and Muʿtazilism are also present to varying degrees. This distribution suggests that the intellectual culture of Nishapur in this period possessed a multilayered and overlapping character, in which sectarian boundaries within material culture were represented through interconnected networks of ethical and spiritual concepts. Ultimately, the pottery inscriptions can be interpreted as instruments for the reproduction and reinforcement of systems of meaning within the urban sphere.
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