There is little pottery of merit from the period of the Umayyad caliphate (661–750). At this time the capital was at Damascus, and the chief interest of the pottery lies in its mingled Mediterranean and Middle Eastern derivation; for example, attempts were made to synthesize the formal repetitive style derived from the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations with naturalistic ornament in the Greco-Roman style. When the ‘Abbāsids overthrew the Umayyads and moved the capital to Baghdad, the European influence on ornament waned. Good use continued to be made of Western techniques, however, particularly of lead glazes that had been employed ...(100 of 42409 words)