Fatimid Pottery of Egypt and Syria Under the rule of the Fatimids, the ceramic art of Egypt reached an unusually high standard. It may be divided roughly into two groups, one with engraved decoration under monochrome glazer, the other with lustered decoration. The former pieces are covered with various colored glazes such as green, blue, red-brown, and purple. This is in imitation of Chinese ware of the Sung period, while the engraved decoration is characteristic of the Fatimid era and similar to that on the lustered ware. The Fatimid luster ware shows a body of varying fineness, covered with a white glaze upon which the decoration is painted in gold or brown luster of great brilliancy. The rich decoration of this ware consists of figure subjects, animals, and birds on a background of arabesque. Sometimes the decoration is a purely ornamental one of arabesques or palmette scrolls.
Lustered pottery of the Fatimid period was made also in Syria, where a number of pieces of excellent quality were found. The lustered pottery of Syria, fragments of which were also found in Fustat, differs from the typical Egyptian ware. It is of creamy yellow or grayish white earthenware instead of the buff clay characteristic of Fustat pottery. Turanoise blue was the favourite colour for the background.
