TEHRAN — Mina’i pottery, one of the most sophisticated ceramic traditions of Seljuk-era Iran, transformed everyday vessels into vivid storytelling surfaces depicting literary narratives, hunting scenes, musical gatherings and human figures. 
Today, examples preserved in major museums around the world offer insight into the technical skill and artistic imagination of Iranian ceramicists during the medieval period.
One notable example is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The bowl, made in Iran in the late 12th or early 13th century, depicts the legendary Persian king Bahram Gur hunting alongside Azadeh, a harp-playing musician. Their story appears in Persian literary tradition, including Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (Book of Kings).
Made from stonepaste, the bowl is decorated with polychrome painting over glaze and gilding. Its imagery illustrates how Mina’i artists used ceramic surfaces not merely for ornamentation but also to convey familiar stories from Persian literature.
The Metropolitan Museum notes that many Mina’i vessels feature subjects drawn from Persian poetry and epic traditions, making them valuable sources for understanding the visual culture of Seljuk Iran.
The term Mina’i derives from the Persian word mina, meaning enamel. Also known as haft-rang, or seven-color, this technique involved applying multiple colors to glazed ceramics and firing the vessels again at lower temperatures to fix the decoration.
The bodies were commonly made from stonepaste, a fine material composed primarily of crushed quartz, glass frit and a small amount of clay. After the vessel was formed, it received a light-colored glaze, followed by painted decoration and, in some cases, gold embellishment.
The process required considerable expertise. Repeated firings had to be carefully controlled to preserve earlier layers of glaze and decoration, making Mina’i ceramics labor-intensive luxury objects.
Kashan is widely associated with the production of fine Iranian ceramics during the 12th and 13th centuries, and many Mina’i pieces have been attributed to the city. However, scholars caution that archaeological evidence