Reminds me of this example from the Corning Glass Museum in NY:

http://www.cmog.org/artwork/bead-cane-eyes

At first glance, it does look like the bead that is on the Corning website as well. A beautiful ancient bead in great condition.
There is one thing that makes me somewhat suspicious about yours. The yellow in yours seems very bright. From my understanding, most ancient yellow opaque glass is slightly darker.
Does the image show the color in your bead correctly?

However, if it is a replica, it is a very very well done one. So I would think it is genuine, but wondering about the yellow color.

Perhaps other can chime in?

Hi Kai,

This looks like an authentic bead to me; the structure, the glass, the wear all seem appropriate to an early Islamic Syrian dating. It's in very good condition and quite valuable, if it is indeed from that time period. I've seen good reproductions of these beads but so far none as convincing as this.

The point that Floor makes about the yellow glass is worth noting. However, it mainly applies to very early ancient glass beads, the so-called Phoenicians, where 80 or 90% of the yellow is that darker shade I associate with a good egg yolk. Even then there were exceptions, especially north of the Black Sea. Yankee would know much more about this than I do.

But by early Islamic times, a thousand plus years later, I think we see a much wider range in shades of yellow - as on this morfia from Egypt that I'll attach.

Best,

Will

Hi Will, thank you for your reply and the picture of the gorgeous bead. I have just purchased A Bead Timeline by James W Lankton Vol 1. Is the timeline accurate in every ones opinion as I know people thoughts and later information can vary.

Thanks Kai

Hi Kai,

Yes, you can't do better than James Lankton's Timeline. To my mind it's by far the best single volume history of ancient beads. Its only defect is that there is no index that identifies and describes all of the beads shown in the illustrations, though many of them are written about in the text. Everybody will have a few disagreements about the exact dating of the beads, but all in all it's a hugely reliable source. It's very well written too, which is an added pleasure.

I've used my copy so much that it's fallen apart and is held together with paper clips. I'll have to look for another one.

Best,

Will

Hi Kai,
I think it's an wonderful islamic bead, it's not a replica, the tracks of wear are the same that I have seen on the other islamic beads. There is 2 islamic beads with tracks and you see that they are the same.