Name of Object:

Silk fragment

Location:

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Holding Museum:

National Museums of Scotland (NMS)

 About National Museums of Scotland (NMS), Edinburgh

Date of Object:

Hegira the 540s to 70s / AD second quarter of the 12th century

Museum Inventory Number:

A.1898.491

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Linen and woven silk.

Dimensions:

Height 20.32 cm, width 26.67 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Fatimid

Provenance:

From a tomb at al-Drounka, Egypt.

Description:

A fragment of linen and silk textile that is tapestry-woven. It has four horizontal silk panels that alternate between areas of woven linen and vertical blue silk stripes. The uppermost band shows a broad, gathered band that is interlaced in gold and outlined in red. The spaces within the interlacing are filled with gold-coloured motifs above and below, and abstract floral motifs rendered in gold and green in the centre; the entirety is flanked above and below by gold-coloured split-palmette scroll borders set against a red background. Below this is a band of cursive Arabic script, rendered in blue and set against a plain background, again flanked by gold-coloured split-palmette scroll borders. The stripe beneath this, which features borders identical to those above, shows an elegant gold-coloured kufic inscription, with red detailing, set against a deep-blue background. The final band consists of two superposed strips of gold-coloured split-palmette scrolls with red outlines.

View Short Description

Textile fragments with this type of decoration and epigraphic detail are typical of Fatimid Egypt, famous for the production of luxury textiles. Many were found in burials in Upper Egypt. This textile was collected by Henry Wallis (1830–1916), a famous painter and expert on Middle Eastern ceramics.

How date and origin were established:

The style of the inscription encountered on this fragment is closely related to a linen fragment with tapestry-woven silk elements in the Bouvier Collection in Geneva, which has been attributed to Fatimid Egypt during the 540s to 570s / second quarter of the 12th century.

How Object was obtained:

This textile together with several other Fatimid textile fragments were acquired by NMS in 1898 from Henry Wallis, a famous Pre-Raphaelite painter, who travelled and painted extensively in Egypt and elsewhere. Subsequently he became a highly respected expert on Egyptian and Persian ceramics.

How provenance was established:

It is assumed that textile fragments with this type of decoration and epigraphic detail were produced in Fatimid Egypt. This is due to so many having been found in burials and excavations throughout Upper Egypt in particular.

Selected bibliography:

Tissus d’Egypte: Témoins du Monde Arabe VIIIe – Xve siècles, Collection Bouvier,Geneva / Paris 1993, pp. 250–1, cat. no. 151 (for a similar textile).

Citation of this web page:

Ulrike Al-Khamis "Silk fragment" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus03;8;en

Prepared by: Ulrike Al-Khamis
Copyedited by: Mandi Gomez


MWNF Working Number: UK3 08