Abdu Jalol

Abdu Jalol, also known as Usto Jalil, was a potter from Rishton, a town in the Fergana Valley then part of the Kokand Khanate. He was born into a family of hereditary potters, by most accounts at the very end of the 18th century (1798 is the date usually given), and died in Rishton in the late 19th century; the exact dates of his life have not survived.

Rishton had long been known for glazed ceramics. Together with his brother Abdu Jamil, called Usto Quri, Abdu Jalol is said to have mastered the making of chinni faience, techniques brought from Kashgar and Iran, and revived in Rishton this long-lost craft. The brothers trained many local masters and passed the secrets of chinni on to their pupil Abdulla Kulol (Kali Abdullo, 1797–1872), who in turn came to be regarded as a teacher of the valley’s potters.

The best-known work of the Rishton masters of this circle is the tile cladding of Khudayar Khan’s palace in Kokand (the Kokand Urda). Construction, begun under earlier rulers, resumed in 1863, and the ceramic tiles for the facade were made by craftsmen from Rishton. Named as chief masters are the brothers Abdu Jalol and Abdu Jamil and Abdulla Kulol with their pupils. A mosaic of glazed tiles of various shapes, Kufic inscriptions in white on a blue ground and majolica tiles with floral patterns became the palace’s hallmark.

According to tradition, the khan prized the masters’ work and ordered a Kufic inscription on the southern part of the facade comparing their art with that of Behzad. Works by Abdu Jalol are held in the State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan. For the potters of the Fergana Valley he remained a model of the ustad, the teacher and senior master.