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Lot Essay
The repeat inscription nasr min allah was the motto of the Fatimids, quoted from the Qur'an LXI sura al-saff, v.13.
Animals derived from heraldic imagery, but, reduced in size to the status of a space-filler, are a typical motif on Fatimid tiraz textiles. Another example populated by tiny animals within a chain-like ribbon are published in Anna Contadini, Fatimid Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1998, pl.30 and in Trésors du fatimides du Caire, Exh. cat. 26, p.105). For rather more fragmentary examples, which contain not only animals within chain motifs but also inscriptions, see Karel Otavsky and Muhammad Abbas Muhammad Salim, Mittelalterliche Textilien I: Ägyptian, Persien und Mesopotamien, Spanien und Nordafrika, Riggisberg, 1995, no.37, p.75; no.38, p.76; no.44, p.82; no. 46, p.84; no.47, p.85; no.51, p.90.
Animals derived from heraldic imagery, but, reduced in size to the status of a space-filler, are a typical motif on Fatimid tiraz textiles. Another example populated by tiny animals within a chain-like ribbon are published in Anna Contadini, Fatimid Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1998, pl.30 and in Trésors du fatimides du Caire, Exh. cat. 26, p.105). For rather more fragmentary examples, which contain not only animals within chain motifs but also inscriptions, see Karel Otavsky and Muhammad Abbas Muhammad Salim, Mittelalterliche Textilien I: Ägyptian, Persien und Mesopotamien, Spanien und Nordafrika, Riggisberg, 1995, no.37, p.75; no.38, p.76; no.44, p.82; no. 46, p.84; no.47, p.85; no.51, p.90.