The origin of the technique is not known for certain. Many scholars believe that the
cuerda seca technique originated primarily in
al-Andalus (
Islamic Spain and Portugal) in the second half of the 10th century, during the
Umayyad period (citing
Umayyad-era examples from
Suza). Scholar Juan Zozaya argues that the advent of this style in al-Andalus could have been spurred by
Chinese ceramics which were imported to the region from an early period. The technique was further advanced during the
Taifas period in the 11th century. In
Central Asia,
Haft-rang ("seven colors") enamelled tiles were manufactured using the
cuerda seca technique from the second half of the 14th century. Hans Van Lemmen postulates that these tiles, from the
Timurid period (late 14th to 15th centuries), were the "earliest development of
cuerda seca". The introduction of different coloured glazes is recorded in the mausoleums of the
Shah-i-Zinda necropolis in
Samarkand. In the 1360s the colours were restricted to white, turquoise and cobalt blue but by 1386 the palette had been expanded to include yellow, light-green and unglazed red. Large quantities of
cuerda seca tiles were produced during the
Timurid (1370–1507) and
Safavid (1501–1736) periods. In the 15th century Persian potters from
Tabriz introduced the technique into Turkey and were responsible for decorating the
Yeşil Mosque in
Bursa (1419-1424). Within the
Ottoman Empire cuerda seca tilework fell out of fashion in the 1550s and new imperial buildings were decorated with
underglaze-painted tiles from
İznik. The last building in
Istanbul to include
cuerda seca tilework was the
Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque which was designed in 1555 but only completed in 1572. ==Gallery==