Turquoise-glazed ceramic tile

It is uncertain how this thick tile was used. It may have been the decorative finial to a ceramic structure, for example a cenotaph or large wall decoration, and as such could be seen as an unconventional palmette. It could also have been part of a calligraphic decoration, in which the two central vertical elements could be viewed as the top of a combination of letters, for example lam alif. Turquoise-glazed inscriptions inlaid in unglazed brick structures are known from Persian architecture in the 12th-13th century.

No matter how we understand the tile, it makes an exceedingly distinctive impression and is a good example of how Muslim artists created new forms by stylizing plants and by combining the resulting abstractions with other motifs.