Located near Tehran, the capital of Iran, the city of Rayy was inhabited nearly continuously from the third millennium B.C.E. From the seventh through the sixteenth centuries, Rayy was an important political, scholarly, and artistic center of the early and medieval Islamic empires that ruled in the region. The city's strategic location also made it a nexus for trade. While the medieval city is no longer extant, Rayy's material culture illustrates the city's position as an economic, scientific, and literary cross-roads.

When Rayy was excavated between 1934 and 1936, the director of the excavation, Erich Schmidt, established a subjective classificatory system to organize his finds. Schmidt's "Islamic I" corresponds to objects he associated with the Sasanian and early Islamic empires until the 10th century; "Islamic II" to medieval Iran prior to the Mongol invasion in 1219; and "Islamic III" to post-Mongol medieval Iran until the 16th century. Dating historical objects is a complex task that requires the combined expertise of archaeologists, art historians, and conservators. The date of this object represents the perception of the excavator in the 1930s and may not be accurate.

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