Shiʿi Devotional Iconography and Patronage: Rethinking Kashan Lustre Ware

This article examines the iconography, epigraphy and patronage of an enigmatic Kashan lustre dish in the Freer Gallery of Art, proposing a new interpretative framework grounded in Shiʿi devotional culture. While the dish has previously been studied through courtly and mystical lenses, this study argues that its central imagery – a riderless, saddled and bridled horse – evokes the anticipated return of the twelfth imam, the Mahdi, a core tenet of Twelver Shiʿism. Given the discrepancies in the poetry and dates inscribed on the dish, advanced scientific analysis could provide valuable insights into potential historical or modern alterations. Identifying the dedicatee as an Ayyubid ruler, this study situates the dish within the socio-political landscape of the Ayyubid realm and proposes that the patron was probably a Shiʿi notable serving the Ayyubids, asserting Shiʿi religious identity while navigating allegiance to Sunni political authority.