Textile Arts16th and 19th century

Epigraphic Textile

17th-18th century

Description

The design of this textile panel consists entirely of religious texts and invocations, disposed in wide horizontal bands in thuluth script, alternating with narrow bands in kufic script. The two largest bands feature pious invocations (O Generous! O Merciful! God is greatest!) that are set within a traditional pattern of eight-pointed stars and crosses. The middle band contains a well-known phrase that praises `Ali ibn Abi Talib and his legendary two-bladed sword Dhu’l-Fiqar. The band at the bottom contains chapter 112 from the Qur’an (Sura al-Ikhlas). The minute kufic inscriptions have not yet been deciphered. These religious invocations and Qur’an 112 often appear in funerary contexts, suggesting that this textile may have been part of a tomb cover. Although patched and repaired along the left side, much of the panel appears to be a continuous fabric. Because it has been trimmed on all sides, it does not preserve selvedges or a full-loom width. The textile was woven on a draw loom, and its technical repeat unit measures about 23.3 cm in weft direction. All the inscriptions begin along the same vertical (warp) axis. In its faded condition, the textile appears as a tan ground with thuluth inscriptions in yellow and off-white and kufic inscriptions in dark blue and two-shades of green. A small and highly fragmentary textile at the Yale University Art Gallery (1937.4787) appears to be from the same textile; it partially preserves a text panel that is missing here. Texts الله أكبر God is greatest. يا حنان يا منان O Generous! O Merciful! لا فتى إلا علي لا سيف إلا ذو الفقار There is no hero like `Ali; there is no sword like Dhu’l-Fiqar Qur’an 112

Classification

Textile Arts

Medium

Silk, woven with complementary wefts, inner warps, and binding warps in plain weave (taqueté)

Century

16th and 19th century

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Islamic & Later Indian Art

Dimensions

36.5 x 84.1 cm (14 3/8 x 33 1/8 in.) framed: 94.3 x 46.4 x 7.6 cm (37 1/8 x 18 1/4 x 3 in.)

Provenance

[Ahuan Gallery, through Oliver Hoare, London, 26 April 1976], sold; to Edwin Binney, 3rd, California (1976-1986), bequest; to Harvard Art Museums, 2017. NOTE: Stored at the San Diego Museum of Art from some time before 1986 until 1991, then at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 1991-2011.