Travel to Uzbekistan: Khiva: Sayyid Alauudin
This tomb, very easy to overlook, contains the earliest example of underglazed painted tile.
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It's the cenotaph of Sayyid Ala al-Din, from about 1305. The tile is coated with a silicious paste, then painted, then covered with a transparent glaze and fired. The same technique would be put to extravagant use in Samarkand toward the end of the century.
Close-up.
The inscription identifies Sayyid Ala Al-Din by name and includes his death date.