The early art of Persia was similar to that of Assyria and Babylon, having the same forms, materials, and traditions. With the accession of the Sassanides (A.D. 223) came the introduction of the elliptical dome, so typical of eastern architecture. This dome rested on pendentives which occupied the angles of the square base. These pendentives and the elliptical dome are distinctive features in Mahometan architecture. The industrial arts of Persia were largely influenced by the traditional arts of Assyria and Chaldea; this tradition was carried on with rare skill and selective power by the Persians, culminating in the splendid period of Shah Abbas A.D. 1586 to 1625. The vitality, beauty, and interest of detail, combined with perfect decorative adaptation to material, are characteristic of the textiles, pottery, metal work, and illuminated manuscripts of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. The Mahometan conquest of Persia, A.D. 632 to 637, by Abu Bekr, the successor of Mohammed, largely influenced the development of the arts of the Persians, who adopted the customs and habits of contemporary races, yet preserved all the characteristics of their art; and there is no doubt that the art of the Arabs was founded upon the traditional arts of Persia. [Illustration] Persian decoration is characterised by a fine feeling for form and colour, and for the singularly frank renderings of natural plants, such as the pink, hyacinth, tulip, rose, iris, and the pine and date. These are used with perfect sincerity and frankness, and are essentially decorative in treatment, combining harmony of composition of mass, beauty of form, and purity of colour. It was doubtless owing to these qualities, together with the perfect adaptation of ornament to material, that the Persian style so largely influenced contemporary work, and especially the European textile fabrics of the 16th and 17th centuries. The illustrations given are of some familiar types of Persian adaptations of natural flowers, doubtless chosen for their significance, beauty of growth and form, and appropriateness of decorative treatment. Purely Arabian forms, as given in plate 21, are frequently associated with the Persian floral treatment, showing the influence of the Artists of Damascus. Many fine examples of lustred wall tiles, dating from the 10th and 11th centuries, are in the South Kensington Museum, of which the blue, brown, and turquoise colouring is of a splendid quality. They often have Arabic inscriptions interspersed with the floral enrichments. Examples of wall tiles of the 8th century have been found in the ruins of Rhages.