Melanie Gibson
Synopsis:
In the 12th and 13th centuries, the cities of Kashan in Iran and Raqqa in Syria were sophisticated manufacturing centers of luxury pottery producing a wide range of types, including―for the first time in Islamic ceramic history―three-dimensional human figures. One of the more unusual forms shows a woman with a child suckling at her naked breast. This talk discusses different aspects of ceramic breastfeeding figures, including the technique of their manufacture, their physiognomy and costumes, their function and use as vessels, their liquid contents, and their possible association with Marian devotion.
Worksheet:
A worksheet for this video is available here.
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References:
Canby, Sheila, Deniz Beyazit, Martina Rugiadi, and A. C. S. Peacock. Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs. New York City: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. 
Gibson, Melanie. “The Enigmatic Figure: Ceramic Sculpture from Iran and Syria c. 1150-1250,” Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 73 (2008‒2009): 39‒50.
Gibson, Melanie. “Healing for what is in the Breasts: Ceramic Breastfeeding Figures from the Medieval Islamic World.” In Fruit of Knowledge, Wheel of Learning. Studies in Honour of Professor Robert Hillenbrand, edited by idem, 240‒67. London: Gingko, 2022.
Giladi, Avner. Infants, Parents and Wet Nurses: Medieval Islamic Views on Breastfeeding and their Social Implications. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
Graves, Margaret, “KASHAN vii. KASHAN WARE,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, online edition, 2014.
Hamilton, Bernard. “Our Lady of Saidnaiya: An Orthodox Shrine Revered by Muslims and Knights Templar at the Time of the Crusades,” Studies in Church History 36 (2000): 207‒15.
Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn. Raqqa Revisited: Ceramics of Ayyūbid Syria. New York City: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006.
Kühnel, Ernst. “Ein Madonnenmotiv in der islamischen Keramik?” Amtliche Berichte Aus den Konigl Kunstammlungen 36 (1914): 55‒60.
Citation:
Melanie Gibson, “Ceramic Breastfeeding Figures from Iran and Syria,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 13 May 2024.
Dr. Melanie Gibson is a well-known authority on Middle Eastern ceramics, writing and lecturing on them worldwide. Having studied Arabic at Oxford University, where her interest in the history of the ceramics of the Islamic world began, she gained her doctorate at SOAS, University of London. She is a Trustee of the Friends of Leighton House and in 2026 she published The Arab Hall: Frederic Leighton, Traveller and Collector.