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Inscribed textile (tiraz)
Los Angeles, United States of America
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
About Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles
Hegira 371 / AD 981
M.2002.1.30
Linen and silk; tabby and tapestry weave
39.4 x 69.2cm
Fatimid
Egypt
This tiraz was made for the Fatimid caliph al-‘Aziz (Hegira 365–386 / AD 975–996). It testifies to the tractable nature of Fatimid society. Exceptionally, in addition to supplying the caliph’s titles, it gives the name of his chief minister or vizier Ibn Killis (served Hegira 366–380 / AD 977–90). Killis, who was of Jewish origin, was famous for the financial reforms that helped bring enormous prosperity to Egypt as well as to the vizier. The inscription reads,
Praise to God, Lord of the Worlds, may God bless Muhammad the Prophet. Assistance from God [to] Nizar Abu Mansur, the Imam al-‘Aziz billah, Commander of the faithful, God’s blessing upon him and upon [his pure ancestors]. From what was ordered by the respectable vizier Abu‘l-Faraj Ya‘qub ibn Yusuf [Ibn Killis], vizier of the Commander of the faithful, to be made in the year [three hundred] seventy-one.
It is dated Hegira 371 / AD 981.
Collection of Maan Z. Madina (1926-2013), New York, until 2002 (sold to); LACMA, The Madina Collection of Islamic Art, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost.
Most such tiraz were discovered in Egypt; furthermore, this example is inscribed in the name of the Fatimid caliph al-‘Aziz (Hegira 365–386 / AD 975-996).
Al-Imad, Leila S., The Fatimid Vizierate, 969-1172, Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1990: 80-96.
Daftary, Farhad and Zulfikar, Hijro, The Ismailis, An Illustrated History, London: Azimuth Editions, 2008: 89.
Komaroff, Linda, Gifts of the Sultan: The Art of Giving at the Islamic Courts, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2011: 36-37, 212, fig. 29.
Komaroff, Linda, Lo Terrenal y lo divino: Arte islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Angeles, Santiago, Chile: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015: 51-53.
Komaroff, Linda, Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Rev. ed., Los Angeles: Museum Associates, 2005: 22, fig. 16.
LACMA Staff "Inscribed textile (tiraz)" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;us;Mus21;2;en
Prepared by: LACMA Staff
MWNF Working Number: US1 02
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