While it might be difficult to reconstruct the original appearance of this fragmentary tapestry-woven textile, the decorative style places it within the corpus of surviving textiles of the late Fatimid period, which is characterized by the use of golden yellow and red to create complex braided designs as seen on the top. Also representative of this late period is the shift towards the use of stylized inscriptions rendered in a cursive script. Although truncated, the Arabic inscription in the four bands on the right begins with, "In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate, There is no God but God;" while the two bottom lines contain a repetition of the phrase, "Victory is from God."
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Artwork Details
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Title:Textile Featuring Arabic Inscriptions
Date:12th century
Geography:Attributed to Egypt
Medium:Linen, silk; plain weave, tapestry weave
Dimensions:Mount: L. 17 1/16 in. (43.3 cm) W. 19 3/4 in. (50.2 cm) D. 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm)
Classification:Textiles-Woven
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1929
Accession Number:29.136.2
Textile Featuring Arabic Inscriptions
The practice of embroidering, weaving, or painting textiles with inscriptions expanded greatly in the early Islamic period. Textiles with such inscriptions in Arabic are known as tiraz and were especially popular during the Abbasid and particularly the Fatimid periods for clothing, furnishings, and other fabrics. The Metropolitan’s pieces can be dated to the Fatimid era thanks to the bright colors and decorative motifs, most notably the braided design.[1] The fragmentary inscription includes the shahada, the foundational pronouncement of Islamic belief. The prayer starts with the bismallah ("In the name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate") and continues with a statement of the uniqueness of God ("There is no God but God"). The lower registers use a shorthand catchphrase derived from the Qur’an, "Victory is from Allah." Inherently valuable objects, textiles were admired across a wide social spectrum in the Middle Ages. Many inscribed pieces include the word "Allah" as part of their generic prayers or blessings, yet such textiles could be admired by people of different religious backgrounds, as Arabic-speaking Christians share the same word for God. The explicit statement of faith and victory on this fragment, however, reminds us that luxury goods could at times serve specific communal identities and needs. Far from blurring the boundaries between groups, textiles like this one emphatically proclaim sectarian difference.
Elizabeth Dospěl Williams in [Drake and Holcomb 2016]
Footnotes:
1. Textiles with similar color schemes and decorative motifs include two fragments at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (39.90, 86.227.102) and one at the Art Institute of Chicago (1976.60)
Textile Fragment
During the twelfth century a new type of script, called naskhi, appeared on tiraz textiles in Fatimid Egypt. Naskhi was one of the first cursive scripts to be developed, but it was not widely used until the tenth century, when it was redesigned. Characterized by balanced, curved, evenly spaced letters, naskhi script is easy to read and is the most popular script for Qur'ans today.
There are seven lines of naskhi inscription in this textile fragment. The top five lines repeat part of the Basmala and caliphal formulas without mentioning a caliph (perhaps the caliph's name is preserved on a missing fragment). The two lowest lines of inscription repeat the phrase, "Victory is from God" and form an inscriptional border for the composition. This fragment is filled with tapestry-woven decoration and forecasts the development of patterned textiles of the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. A colorful sawtooth pattern flanks the right-hand side of the composition, and remnants of a diamond interlace pattern dotted with birds and flowers indicate that there was a larger decorative panel above the inscriptions.
[Walker and Froom 1992]
Inscription: Arabic inscription in kufic script: Top four lines: In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. There is no [God but God] Fifth line: In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. There is no God but God [....]. Victory is from God and the triumph is close at hand [....] The bottom two lines contain a repetition of the phrase: Victory is from God
Said Samaan, Mellawi (until 1927; sold to Tano); [ Nicolas Tano, Cairo, 1927–1929; sold to MMA]
New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Tiraz: Inscribed Textiles from Islamic Workshops," December 15, 1992–March 14, 1993, no. 25.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven," September 26, 2016–January 8, 2017, no. 87.
Drake Boehm, Barbara, and Melanie Holcomb, ed. Jerusalem, 1000–1400: Every People under Heaven. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. no. 87, p. 170, ill.
Schimmel, Annemarie. "Islamic Calligraphy." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., vol. 50, no. 1 (Summer 1992). p. 13, ill. fig. 15b (b/w).
Walker, Daniel S., and Aimee Froom. "Exhibition Notebook." In Tiraz: Inscribed Textiles from Islamic Workshops.. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992. no. 25, pp. 36–37.
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