Cuerda seca (Spanish for "dry cord") is a technique used when applying coloured glazes to ceramic surfaces.

When different coloured glazes are applied to a ceramic surface, the glazes have a tendency to run together during the firing process. In the cuerda seca technique, the water-soluble glazes are separated on the surface by thin lines of a greasy substance to prevent them running out of their delineated areas. A dark pigment such as manganese carbonate is usually mixed with the grease to produce a dark line around each coloured area.^[1]

Although some scholars have postulated a Timurid-Iranian origin,^[2] many scholars believe that the cuerda seca technique originated primarily in al-Andalus (Islamic Spain and Portugal) in the second half of the 10th century, during the Umayyad period (citing Umayyad-era examples from Suza).^[3][4][5][6] The technique was further advanced during the Taifas period in the 11th century.^[4] Preserved fragments of tiles from the late 12th-century minaret of the Kasbah Mosque in Marrakesh, Morocco, have been cited as the earliest surviving example of cuerda seca tilework being used for architectural decoration.^[6]

In central Asia tiles were manufactured using the cuerda seca technique from the second half of the 14th century.^[7] The introduction of different coloured glazes is recorded in the mausoleums of the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis in Samarkand. In the 1360s the colours were restricted to white, turquoise and cobalt blue but by 1386 the palette had been expanded to include yellow, light-green and unglazed red.^[8] Large quantities of cuerda seca tiles were produced during the Timurid (1370–1507) and Safavid (1501–1736) periods.^[9]

In the 15th century Persian potters from Tabriz introduced the technique into Turkey and were responsible for decorating the Yeşil Mosque in Bursa (1419-1424).^[10] Within the Ottoman Empire cuerda seca tilework fell out of fashion in the 1550s and new imperial buildings were decorated with underglaze-painted tiles from İznik. The last building in Istanbul to include cuerda seca tilework was the Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque which was designed in 1555 but only completed in 1572.^[11][12]

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  Pitcher in cuerda seca style from Susa in Iran, 8th-9th century
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  Cuerda seca tile from the Alcazar of Seville, 12th-13th century
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  Tiles in the Green Mosque, Bursa, c. 1420
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  Details of the Green Tomb in Bursa
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  Tile from Khargird in Iran, mid 15th century
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  Ottoman tile, Istanbul, first half 16th century
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  Dish from Seville in Spain, early 16th century

• Atasoy, Nurhan; Raby, Julian (1989). Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey. London: Alexandra Press. ISBN 978-1-85669-054-6.
• Campbell, Gordon, ed. (2006). "Cuerda seca and cuenca tiles". The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts, Volume 1. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 293. ISBN 978-0-19-518948-3.
• Necipoğlu, Gülru (2005). The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-86189-253-9.
• Porter, Venetia (1995). Islamic Tiles. London: British Museum Press. ISBN 978-0-7141-1456-9.

• Gestoso y Pérez, José (1899). Ensayo de un diccionario de los artífices que florecieron en Sevilla : desde el siglo XIII al XVIII inclusive. Volume 1 (in Spanish). Seville: En la oficina de la Andalucía moderna. p. 77. OCLC 9986104.

• The cuerda seca method, Qantara project.