A large Mamluk pottery jar, Egypt or Syria, 14th century

of broad baluster form with everted rim, decorated with underglaze cobalt blue and black with vertical bands of cursive inscriptions alternating with overlapping blue bordered palmettes with dot patterning and split-palmette scrolls reserved on a black scroll ground, the neck with quatrefoil roundels 

Large ovoid jars of this type were a specialised product of Syria in the Mamluk period and are believed to have been used for storing and transporting grain, fruits or oils, some for medicinal and pharmaceutical purposes (see Gibbs 1998-99, p.27).