I’m asking this on behalf of a friend:
Here’s a link to a JPG of the two inscriptions.
Many thanks for any light you can shed. This is an online acquaintance who has done me several favors; if I can return one I’d be grateful.
As far as I know, for general reference, Farsi uses a slightly modified Arabic script. I would imagine this would also be true in the 13th century.
It’s extremely common for any believer’s statement on anything, any beginning endeavor or statement for posterity, to begin “In the name of Allah, the kind, the merciful…” therefore that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be sura from the Quran. But yeah, looks to be Arabic. I’m sure someone better at reading-for-meaning willl come along soon (I can usually sound out simpler scripts but don’t usually know what the words mean), but if they don’t I have a few native Arabic speakers at work this evening & I’ll run it by them.
Nice bowl!
Yeah, I wish we could see the whole thing!
Thanks for checking. We don’t have many Arabic speakers here in rural Wisconsin. 
I ran this by a couple of Arabic speakers (Sudanese, and the one fellow as it turns out doesn’t read the language so well in general) & a West African non-speaker Muslim just now… they had trouble with it. all assume Quran passages. I emailed it to one of them & he’s going to try to work it out later. Complicated caligraphy, I’m assuming classical Arabic. If I get more I’ll let you know.
and…
>BUMP<
… but you’ve got the biggest concentration in the country over in Michigan. Road trip! 
No word yet from my Sudanese friend.
People usually jump on these language Qs… is Johanna out there?
>WEEKEND BUMP<
I passed this around my office this morning. We were short of coffee (Saturday is our ‘Monday,’ remember). The general consensus was it was some quote from the Holy Koran, but it was really just decorative and impossible to read.
Or impossible to read without coffee.
Paging Johanna! Paging Johanna!
Thanks for weighing in, everybody! Never thought this would be such a stumper for the illustrious Dope.
The dialect is that of Arbil, which I will not utter here. In English it reads:
“One bowl to rule them all, one bowl to find them, one bowl to bring them all and in the darkness bind them”
This is the ONE BOWL. Saddam Must never find it.
Inigo, LOL, you really cracked me up this time!
The style of Arabic script here is called thuluth, traditionally used for deluxe ornamental inscriptions. What makes it harder to read is that the dots have been left out. You need the dots to tell b apart from t, th, n, and y. To tell f apart from q, to tell s apart from sh, etc.
The way anyone can read dotless Arabic is to puzzle through the first few words, trying different possibilities, until something clicks in memory. A memorized Qur’an verse. (You’re supposed to have them already memorized, you know.) Once your memory is jogged, you can read the rest of it right off.
The artist made it harder by filling up the background with tiny squiggles. Oh my! Much too “busy”!
That said, it would take me a good long while to make head or tail of the text. If it isn’t a quote from the Qur’an, then we’re really at sea. It’s past my bedtime now, so after I get enough rest, I’ll try it again.
Thanks so much, Johanna! I appreciate your efforts.
I keep wanting to read the beginning of the top line as li-nuhibbuka (because we love thee) or li-tuhibbuka (because she loves thee) or li-yuhibbuka (because he loves thee)… You see what I mean about needing dots to read it? I’m still not sure if that’s really what it says, but the letters certainly do support that possible reading… It could also read in the subjunctive: li-nuhbibka (so that we may love thee), li-tuhbibka, etc. Plus the final pronoun could be read as feminine -ki ‘thee’ (said to a woman) since the vowels aren’t indicated.