Abdu Jamil

Abdu Jamil, also known as Usto Quri, was one of the potters of Rishton in the Fergana Valley. He was born around 1805 in Rishton, then part of the Kokand Khanate, into a family of hereditary potters (some sources place his birth in the late 18th century). He died in the same town in the late 19th century; the exact dates have not been preserved.

Rishton had long been known for its glazed ware. According to the sources, Abdu Jamil and his elder brother Abdu Jalol (Usto Jalil) learned in Kashgar and Iran how to make chinni faience and set up its production in Rishton, where the craft had been lost. The brothers taught many local masters, and they passed the procedure for making chinni ware on to Abdulla Kulol (Kali Abdullo).

The most visible monument to the work of the Rishton masters is Khudayar Khan’s palace (the Urda) in Kokand. It was built in 1863–1870, and the tiling of its facade was finished by 1873. The chief masters named are Abdu Jamil, his brother Abdu Jalol and Abdulla Kulol with their pupils. The facade is decorated with a mosaic of glazed tiles of various shapes, white Kufic inscriptions on a blue ground and majolica tiles with floral patterns.

According to tradition, Khudayar Khan was pleased with the masters’ work and rewarded them, and had words likening their art to that of Behzad laid in Kufic script on the south wing of the palace. Works by Abdu Jamil are held in the collection of the State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan.

The potters of the Fergana Valley remember him and his brother as ustos, teachers of the craft. Their pupils carried on the work, and the ceramics of Rishton are still made today.