Textile Fragment with Inscription

Textile Fragment

This cotton textile belongs to a group of textiles characterized by gilt inscriptions outlined in red ink and framed by guilloche borders. These textiles were produced in Iran and Iraq during the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D. The small, rectangular format of this textile's inscription suggests that it could have been part of a handkerchief, or mandil. The importance of the mandil in Islamic society is documented by visual and literary evidence. Mandils of different sizes served many purposes. Smaller ones were often used to cover food or drink.

The inscription on the Metropolitan fragment offers the peace and blessings of God to one Abu 'Abd Allah ibn Hasan. The Cairo Geniza documents (writings pertinent to many aspects of middle-class life, preserved in a storeroom of a Cairo synagogue) indicate that there was a medieval middle-class market for such personalized textiles and purchasers could order customized textiles and garments---a sort of medieval "monogramming." These garments were loosely constructed and often simply decorated with economical, efficient surface techniques, such as painting, printing, or embroidery. The personalization of textiles became a lucrative practice for artisans as well as a symbol of wealth and pride for owners.

[Walker and Froom 1992]

Inscription: Arabic inscription in kufic script: O God! Give peace and blessing, in Your mercy, You most Merciful of the Merciful, to Abu 'Abdallah ibn Nasr

[ Maurice Nahman, Cairo, 1931–1932; 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. 22.

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. 22, pp. 33–34.