In this late-night deep dive, we explore how the blue in your classic “Chinese” vase actually started in 9th-century Iraq. We examine into how Abbasid cobalt mastery traveled east via Mongol routes and birthed Yuan/Ming blue-and-white porcelain.

We explore:

• Basra workshops and Persian cobalt mines
• Mongol Pax Mongolica trade explosion
• Reverse influence loop
• Modern cobalt ties

Sources:

• Qatar Museums cobalt collections
• Jingdezhen porcelain history
• Ilkhanid hybrid wares

In the late-night deep dive, we explore how pristine Chinese porcelain from the Tang and Song dynasties traveled the Silk Road and Indian Ocean and sparked a ceramic revolution in Iraq and Europe.

We dive into:

• The Belitung shipwreck treasure
• Samarra excavations full of Chinese shards
• How Islamic potters invented tin-glaze to copy that whiteness
• The massive scale of 9th-century trade

Subscribe for more raw history deep dives blending East and West.

Sources:

• Belitung shipwreck (Tang treasure ship)
• Samarra archaeological finds
• Ashmolean & British Museum collections

In this late-night deep dive, we explore how Abbasid potters in 9th-century Baghdad and Basra invented lusterware — pottery that gleams like real gold and silver through secret kiln alchemy.

We cover:

• The metallic magic of reduction firing and nanoparticles
• Influences from Sassanian silver and Byzantine enamels
• Why Harun al-Rashid gifted these to Charlemagne
• Connections from the House of Wisdom to modern tech coatings

Part of a series on Islamic ceramics and East-West exchange.

Sources & further reading:

• Metropolitan Museum of Art lusterware collection
• British Museum Abbasid ceramics
• “Islamic Pottery: A Brief History” – Ashmolean Museum

#IslamicCeramics #Abbasid #Baghdad #Lusterware #HistoryDeepDive