dish

This dish was made by sagging a disk of molten glass over a decorated mold and, after annealing, by cutting it on the wheel. The style of the cutting is unusual. The figures stand in relief of uniform thickness, without raised borders. The decoration shows a mule and rider surrounded by four animals: two ibexes, a lion with a prominent mane, and a snake. This scene is similar to those found on Sasanian-period metal dishes decorated with riders. The riders on the metal dishes are usually kings (identifiable by their distinctive crowns), armed and mounted on horses with rich trappings. They are shown hunting lions, boars, or other animals. Here, by contrast, the rider has no weapons, rides a mule, and pays no attention to the four animals surrounding him. This indicates that the dish is not Sasanian, and scholars conclude that it was made in the early Islamic period.