Water jug from Mosul, 13th century

The brass jug, which was forged between 1251–1275, is decorated with gold and silver inlays. On the jug, there are images of thrones and horsemen as well as the planets and the corresponding signs of the zodiac. At court, jugs of this type were usually used as part of a washing utensil, for example together with a water basin, for washing hands. The inside of the lid is signed ʿAli ibn ʿAbdallah al-ʿAlawi an-Naqqasch al-Mausili, which indicates the origin of the vessel from Mosul in today's Iraq. Here, in the 13th century, there was an boom in the exchange trade, whereupon the name al-Mausili developed into a mark of quality. The precious tableware points to a high-ranking client at court.

Jug (vessel), color photography, unknown year, photographer: Johannes Kramer; source: Museum of Islamic Art of the National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Ident. No. I. 6580, https://id.smb.museum/object/1525417,  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.