Kuza-i-Fuqqa’a or Huqqa-i-Aatish, a Neglected Collection of Some Ceramic Vessels of Early Muslim Period in Pakistan

Abstract

Some twenty-four pottery vessels, mostly sphero-conical in shape and grey in colour, from some collections in Pakistani museums and discussed in this paper, have been described as “one of the most enigmatic artefacts that curators of Islamic art collection have ever known for years and years”. Despite a good number of them having been discovered in Pakistan since more than hundred years back, these are still little known and least understood by archaeologists and museum curators. This paper deals with all such vessels as are known today in any collection in this country. These have been discovered from several sites in NWF Province and the northern parts of the Punjab. Some of them have been discovered from proper excavations, old and new. Outside Pakistan, these pottery vessels are widely scattered all over the Muslim world – South and Central Asia, Middle East, Arab countries and North Africa. However, these have not been reported from any place in present day India and in other countries of South and South-East Asia. Scholars are unanimous in dating them between 10th and 14th centuries – though some examples from 7th-8th centuries are also known. As regards their function(s), these have fatigued scholars and defied all attempts at arriving at a consensus of opinion. Several fanciful explanations and hypotheses have been proposed such as those that assign them the functions of hand-grenades, beer gourds, aeolipiles, fire-blowers, mercury containers, unguent flasks, plumb-bobs and rotating globes.

It will be for the first time that these odd-looking archaeological artefacts from some known and unknown sites in Pakistan are discussed and their significance for the study of early Muslim history of Pakistanis emphasized. A proper study of the archaeological and historical contexts of these pottery vessels may prove significant for proper understanding of the cultural history of the Muslims of this region during the formative period that preceded the coming of the Mughals.