Among the tiles technological novelties that arrived with the invasion of Spain by the Arabs, what most stood out because of their subsequent consequences, were various ceramic processes that served to provide the product with a glassy tiles among the layer that made it impermeable and moreover constituted the base and coating of its eventual chromatism or decoration. These processes include transparent or light green lead-glazing, decoration on white engobe and under a transparent glaze and metallic highlights, which was already originally done in the 11th Century in Mesopotamia, Persia or Egypt.
This technique soon reached the Iberian Peninsula and an important production factory was established in Malaga. The architectonic application of golden highlights as facing during the Islamic era was known, and the tiles as the one-base semi-spherical segment that completed the turret of the greater mosque of Seville (12th Century) and other building in the city. This process was very much admired by travellers as witnessed by El Idrisi during his pass through Calatayud in 1154.
The pressure of the Christianson the tiles in the 15th Century forced the metallic highlights production factory to be transferred from Malaga to Manises, which marked the beginning of a fruitful relation that would last for centuries between the Andalusian hub and the Mediterranean strip of the Iberian Peninsula, where the greater part of Spanish tiles are currently produced.
