The early art of Persia was similar to that of Assyria and Babylon, having the same forms, materials, and traditions. With the accession of the Sassanides (A.D. 223) came the introduction of the elliptical dome, so typical of eastern architecture. This dome rested on pendentives which occupied the angles of the square base. These pendentives and the elliptical dome are distinctive features in Mahometan architecture.

The industrial arts of Persia were largely influenced by the traditional arts of Assyria and Chaldea; this tradition was carried on with rare skill and selective power by the Persians, culminating in the splendid period of Shah Abbas A.D. 1586 to 1625. The vitality, beauty, and interest of detail, combined with perfect decorative adaptation to material, are characteristic of the textiles, pottery, metal work, and illuminated manuscripts of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

The Mahometan conquest of Persia, A.D. 632 to 637, by Abu Bekr, the successor of Mohammed, largely influenced the development of the arts of the Persians, who adopted the customs and habits of contemporary races, yet preserved all the characteristics of their art; and there is no doubt that the art of the Arabs was founded upon the traditional arts of Persia.

Persian decoration is characterised by a fine feeling for form and colour, and for the singularly frank renderings of natural plants, such as the pink, hyacinth, tulip, rose, iris, and the pine and date. These are used with perfect sincerity and frankness, and are essentially decorative in treatment, combining harmony of composition of mass, beauty of form, and purity of colour. It was doubtless owing to these qualities, together with the perfect adaptation of ornament to material, that the Persian style so largely influenced contemporary work, and especially the European textile fabrics of the 16th and 17th centuries. The illustrations given are of some familiar types of Persian adaptations of natural flowers, doubtless chosen for their significance, beauty of growth and form, and appropriateness of decorative treatment. Purely Arabian forms, as given in plate 21, are frequently associated with the Persian floral treatment, showing the influence of the Artists of Damascus. Many fine examples of lustred wall tiles, dating from the 10th and 11th centuries, are in the South Kensington Museum, of which the blue, brown, and turquoise colouring is of a splendid quality. They often have Arabic inscriptions interspersed with the floral enrichments. Examples of wall tiles of the 8th century have been found in the ruins of Rhages.

These lustred tiles are a remarkable instance of tradition or hereditary proclivity. This art, beginning with the enamelled bricks of Babylon, and the later frieze of Susa, page 16, with its brilliant enamel and fine colour, was continued by the Persians, and, passing to the Arabs, the tradition was carried to Cairo, Spain and Majorca; thence into Italy, where enamelled lustred ware was made, differing from the original Persian by its frequent absence of utility, which was fundamental to the art of the Persians.

Mahometan ornament has four broad divisions, viz.: Arabian, Moresque, Indian, and Persian; and they are characterised by strongly-marked compartments or fields which are filled with finer and more delicate enrichments. These compartments are most pronounced in the Moresque with its complex geometric interlacing and entire absence of natural forms (figs. 4, 6, 7, and 8, page 62). The Arabian style is somewhat similar, but less formal. The Indian has a conventional rendering of plants, and the introduction of the lion, tiger, and the elephant (fig. 2, plate 23); while in the Persian work there is a still less formal constructive arrangement, with floral forms clearly defined in line and mass, and the introduction of the human figure with the horse, the lion, the tiger and birds. Note the illustration in Textiles which is taken from a fine carpet in the South Kensington Museum. In this carpet, animal forms, chosen with rare selective power and judgment, are combined with the typical floral enrichment of Persia, with the wealth of colour, admirable spacing of detail and mass, beauty of incident and vigour, and appropriateness of treatment. These are features that distinguish the industrial designs of Persia, and it is doubtless due to the interest and vitality of their ornament that we owe the remarkable influence of Persian art upon the contemporary and latter craftsmanship of Europe.