id:			127913
accession number:	1950.549
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1950.549
updated:		2020-01-24 09:00:18.051000

Tiraz with gold, probably from a wide sleeve, 1013-1020. Egypt, Fatimid period, reign of Caliph al-Hakim, 1013–20. Plain weave with inwoven tapestry weave: linen, silk, and gold filé; overall: 23.5 x 62.3 cm (9 1/4 x 24 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1950.549

title:				Tiraz with gold, probably from a wide sleeve
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1013-1020
creation date earliest:		1013
creation date latest:		1020
current location:		
creditline:			John L. Severance Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	Egypt, Fatimid period, reign of Caliph al-Hakim, 1013–20
technique:	plain weave with inwoven tapestry weave: linen, silk, and gold filé
department:	Textiles
collection:	T - Islamic
type:		Textile
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

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measurements: Overall: 23.5 x 62.3 cm (9 1/4 x 24 1/2 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* <em>Gallery 116 Rotation</em>, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 16, 2013-December 15, 2014)

* <em>2000 Years of Tapestry Weaving. </em>Wadsworth Atheneum<em>, </em>Hartford, CT (1951).

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PROVENANCE

	(Dr. Emil Delmar, Budapest and New York).
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact: 


digital description: 


wall description: 
This textile with expensive gold foil is among the rarest surviving examples among thousands of medieval textiles with historic or generic inscriptions in Arabic, known as <em>tiraz</em>. Tiraz were "emblems of dignity," the prerogative of sovereigns and those they wished to honor. This inscription is masterful. The tall letters are woven with silk thread on only two warps in slit-tapestry weave while the ground was woven with pure gold foil wrapped around a silk core that was not beaten in—to show off its brilliance. The text begins with a prayer and provides the name of Imam al-Hakim, but lacks the place and date of manufacture. The decorative bands feature brilliant gold birds facing simplified trees alternating with popular palmette-decorated hearts. This tiraz fragment may have been part of a wide sleeve that functioned as a receptacle because clothing didn’t have pockets.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Mackie, Louise W. <em>Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century</em>. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press,  2015.
	page number: 	Reproduced: p. 99; Mentioned: p. 99, 215
	url:		

	O'Kane, Bernard. "The Egyptian Art of the Tiraz in Fatimid Times." In <em>The World of the Fatimids</em>. Melikian-Chirvani, Assadullah Souren, ed. Toronto: Aga Khan Museum in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies and Hirmer, 2018.
	page number: 	Mentioned: pp. 182-183; Reproduced: p. 183
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.549/1950.549_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.549/1950.549_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.549/1950.549_full.tif