Dealing with the Islamic Glazed Tiles from Ghazni Again: New Remarks on a Still Fascinating Topic

This article is the result of a research work started several years ago on the ceramic material dated to the Islamic period from the site of Ghazni, Afghanistan. The study of this corpus was the subject of a PhD thesis written under the supervision of Prof. Maria Vittoria Fontana, who introduced me to Islamic archaeology and gave me the important chance to work on such a unique and unpublished material. The fascination for Central Asia and Afghanistan started at Ghazni, thanks to Maria Vittoria Fontana. The possibility to write after several years some notes on such an interesting topic as the glazed tiles from Ghazni also responds to the continuous stimulus she gave me for continuing the research on Ghazni and finally publish the data collected. This paper is dedicated to Maria Vittoria Fontana, for her support, her in-depth and extensive knowledge on Islamic archaeology, her fundamental contribution to the research in this field, and all her good and useful suggestions and teachings.