Apothecary Jar (allbarello). Syria, Raqqa(?), Zengid and Ayyubid periods, late 12th century or early — pedrosimoes7

Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal Collection: Calouste Gulbenkian Museum ABOUT THE TIME PERIOD OF THE ACQUISITION Between 1912 and 1914 Calouste Gulbenkian brokered a series of deals with the Turkish Petroleum Company to exploit the exceptionally rich oil fields in Iraq, from which he later gained a 5% stake. The start of the First World War brought a close to late-nineteenth-century enthusiasm for ‘Islamic art’. In 1923, modern Turkey and Greece agreed to uproot 1.4 million people in a massive exchange of Christian and Muslim populations. Gulbenkian added his own lines to this map with the negotiation of the ‘Red Line Agreement’, establishing a huge oil cartel in the shape of the old Ottoman Empire.