id: 135988 accession number: 1959.48 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1959.48 updated: 2023-03-20 14:14:13.169000 Pillow cover with Arabic inscription, 800s. Egypt, al-Bahnasa. Wool and linen: tapestry weave; overall: 80 x 83.2 cm (31 1/2 x 32 3/4 in.); mounted: 93.3 x 95.9 cm (36 3/4 x 37 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1959.48 title: Pillow cover with Arabic inscription title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 800s creation date earliest: 800 creation date latest: 899 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Egypt, al-Bahnasa technique: Wool and linen: tapestry weave department: Textiles collection: T - Islamic type: Textile find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 80 x 83.2 cm (31 1/2 x 32 3/4 in.); Mounted: 93.3 x 95.9 cm (36 3/4 x 37 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: "In the name of God. Blessing from God to its owner. Of what was made in the tiraz." translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Juxtapositions opening date: 1965-09-11T04:00:00 Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965). title: Textiles from Egypt, Syria and Spain: 7th through 15th centuries opening date: 1991-11-26T05:00:00 Textiles from Egypt, Syria and Spain: 7th through 15th centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 26-June 6, 1991). title: Islamic art rotation opening date: 2013-12-16T05:00:00 Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 2013-December 15, 2014). title: Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Egyptian Tombs, 9th - 12th Century opening date: 2022-01-22T05:00:00 Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Egyptian Tombs, 9th - 12th Century. Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (January 22-May 8, 2022) https://harvardartmuseums.org/exhibitions/5836/social-fabrics-inscribed-textiles-from-medieval-egyptian-tombs. --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * The Heritage of Islam, Houston, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C.(March 10, 1982-September 5, 1983), no. 173. * Gallery 207 textile rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 20, 2002-May 6, 2004). --- PROVENANCE (Mrs. Paul [Marguerite] Mallon [d. 1977], Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?-1959 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1959- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: This rare complete Egyptian pillow cover is a masterpiece of contrasting colors. Crimson and blue-green wool alternate in the ground and bird-inhabited roundels, supported by mustard-colored wool and undyed linen woven in tapestry weave. When folded down the center, based on examples from Egyptian burials, four birds form a unit on each side and are appropriately ascending in flight.

Above, an Arabic text written in angular Kufic script reads, "In the name of God. Blessing from God to its owner. Of what was made in the tiraz." The word tiraz means factory or an Arabic-inscribed textile. This was probably made in al-Bahnasa, the city renowned for colorful wool textiles with figures, as they claimed, from a "gnat to the elephant." --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Shepherd, Dorothy G. "An Early Tiraz from Egypt." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 47, no. 1 (1960): 7-14. page number: p. 7-14 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25142373. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 213 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n237 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 213 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n237 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 269 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n289 Edwards, Holly. Patterns and Precision, the Arts and Sciences of Islam. Washington, DC: National Committee to Honor the Fourteenth Centennial of Islam, 1982. page number: p. 54, no.173 url: Cornu, Georgette, Odile Valansot, and Hélène Meyer. Tissus islamiques de la collection Pfister. Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1992. page number: url: Baker, Patricia L. Islamic Textiles. London: British Museum Press, 1995. page number: p. 55 url: Paetz, Annette gen. Schieck. “Late Roman cushions and the principles of their decoration.” In Moor, A. de, and Cäcilia Fluck. Clothing the House: Furnishing Textiles of the 1st Millennium AD from Egypt and Neighbouring Countries : Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Research Group "Textiles from the Nile Valley" Antwerp, 6-7 October 2007. Tielt, Belgium: Lannoo Publishers, 2009. page number: Mentioned: pp. 115-131; Reproduced: p. 130 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 225 url: Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. page number: Reproduced: P. 58-59, fig. 2.20; Mentioned: P. 57, 76,189 url: McWilliams, Mary, and Jochen A. Sokoly. Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Art Museums, 2021. page number: Mentioned: p. 133; Reproduced: Cover, p. 132, 146,fig. 7. url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1959.48/1959.48_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1959.48/1959.48_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1959.48/1959.48_full.tif