Name of Object:Kaftan fragment Location:Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom Holding Museum:National Museums of Scotland (NMS) About National Museums of Scotland (NMS), Edinburgh Date of Object:Hegira, late 10th–early 11th century / AD late 16th– early 17th century Museum Inventory Number:A. 1884.65.21 Material(s) / Technique(s):Silk, cotton and silver brocade (kemha). Dimensions:Length 82.5 cm, width 77.5 cm Period / Dynasty:Ottoman Provenance:Turkey. Description:A silk brocade (kemha) fragment that originally formed the back of a child's collarless, short-sleeved kaftan, cut with a straight waist and bell-shaped skirt. The textile is woven with staggered rows of diagonally ascending zigzag bands set at regular intervals, in red, which are further enhanced by a pattern, in miniature, of ‘tiger stripes’ and three circles (known as chintamani), rendered in green. The chintamani motif is common on kemha textiles from about the first half of the AH 10th / AD 16th century. Its origin and meaning are still unclear, but it has been suggested that the triple-circle motif may have had apotropaic associations among Turkic peoples, warding off evil by reflecting it back at the perpetrator, while the tiger-stripes seem to recall the tiger-skin worn by the Iranian superhero Rustam. View Short DescriptionSilk brocades like the one used for this fragmented child kaftan were made in the Ottoman empire between the AH 10th and 11th / AD 16th and 17th centuries, first in the imperial workshops at Bursa. Later in the 10th- / 16th-century court workshops were also set up in Istanbul, the Ottoman capital. How date and origin were established:Kemha textiles were popular in the Ottoman Empire between the late 10th–early 11th / late 16th–early 17th centuries. How Object was obtained:Purchased from Mr Tiano of Constantinople in 1884. How provenance was established:Items such as this kaftan are known to have been worked in the Ottoman silk-weaving workshops at Bursa or Istanbul during the late 10th–early 11th / late 16th–early 17th centuries. Selected bibliography:Atasoy, N., Denny, W. B., Mackie, L. W., and Tezcan, H., Ipek, the Crescent and the Rose: Imperial Ottoman Silks and Velvets, London, 2000 (for a discussion of similar Ottoman textiles). Citation of this web page:Ulrike Al-Khamis "Kaftan fragment" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus03;42;en Prepared by: Ulrike Al-Khamis
|