# Tile with a Double-Arched Prayer Niche (Mihrab)

- By: Islamic (Probably Kashan)
- Date: Ilkhanid dynasty (1256–1353), 13th century
- Medium: Lusterware, molded fritware with cobalt-blue and turquoise inglaze painting and luster-painted overglaze decoration on an opaque white glaze
- Classification: Architectural fragment
- Dimensions: 50.8 × 32.5 × 3.4 cm (20 × 12 3/4 × 1 3/8 in.)
- Culture: Iran
- Credit line: Mary Jane Gunsaulus Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/72855)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/33b89e49-c311-fc07-f539-a981f4e15059/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This luster tile is carefully decorated with dark blue calligraphy above and below the arches, as well as a cruder, luster-painted passage following the line of the arches. The inscriptions, all taken from different chapters in the Qur'an, discuss the transience of life on earth in contrast to the eternal existence of God. The religious nature of these inscriptions is appropriate for the tile's placement in a mosque, where it would have been used as a mihrab, or prayer niche, indicating the direction of Mecca for prayer.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0