The cross disciplinary comparison of sources enables us to ask questions about objects and practices by analysing and describing the functions, oſt en lost, of certain types of pottery. This article is dedicated to pottery used by Islamic physicians — pots and pans, diff erent types of jars. The texts, general medical manuals and dictionaries written in Iraq, Syria, Arabia and Iran between the 8th and 15th centuries are an extremely valuable source of information on medicinal substances, recipes for compound remedies and utensils. A number of illustrations in Islamic manuscript depicting physician activities refl ect contemporaneous medical practises. They could sometimes help us to understand the use of objects found in excavations. The archaeological material of my corpus comes from a range of sites in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. By comparing the data, I present various pottery used in curative medicine in the Islamic world