Earthenware bowl, covered with a white slip and painted in black, yellow, and green under a transparent glaze

This colorful bowl belongs to a special group of ceramics that was produced at the same time as slip-painted types that were far simpler with regard to both color and motif. A horseman in chain mail lifting a sphere high in his right hand is riding off with something that could be viewed as a gigantic hunting falcon. He is surrounded by a dense forest of naturalistic, abstract, and non-figurative elements.

A great deal of energy has been expended on debating whether these bowls hark back to pre-Islamic traditions or were made for a specific social or ethnic group in Nishapur – but we still know nothing.