EGYPT, 11TH CENTURY

细节

A FATIMID TIRAZ FRAGMENT
EGYPT, 11TH CENTURY
Fragment of woven red, blue and gold silk together with white cotton threads, four strips sewn together, divided into horizontal bands, the major registers alternating red and white both with gold chain-motif and with small medallions containing a variety of different animals, altenating with bands of white foliated kufic over red ground with swirling gold arabesque, reading a repeat of nasr min allah (Strength from God), mounted on to cotton , framed and glazed
18 x 12in. (46 x 30.5cm.)

注意事项

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拍品专文

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.