{
"data": {
"id": 171608,
"accession_number": "2014.388.2",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Royal Round Tent made for Muhammad Shah (wall panel with three design units), 1834\u201348. Iran, Rasht, Qajar period (1779-1925). Interior: wool: plain weave, inlaid work; silk: embroidery, chain stitch; tape, leather; Exterior: cotton, wool: plain weave; rope, iron ring; overall: 172.1 x 309.2 cm (67 3/4 x 121 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 2014.388.2",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Royal Round Tent made for Muhammad Shah (wall panel with three design units)",
"creation_date": "1834\u201348",
"creation_date_earliest": 1834,
"creation_date_latest": 1848,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Iran, Rasht, Qajar period (1779-1925)"
],
"technique": "Interior: wool: plain weave, inlaid work; silk: embroidery, chain stitch; tape, leather; Exterior: cotton, wool: plain weave; rope, iron ring",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Textiles",
"collection": "T - Islamic",
"type": "Textile",
"measurements": "Overall: 172.1 x 309.2 cm (67 3/4 x 121 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 1.721,
"height_inch": 67,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 3.092,
"width_inch": 121,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Inscriptions: The central design unit of this wall panel has two embroidered inscriptions. \n1.\tUpper inscription (center of the top blossom):\n\"Muhammad shah sultan-e ghazi.\"",
"inscription_translation": "Muhammad Shah, Warrior Sultan.",
"inscription_remark": "This inscription indicates that the tent was made for Muhammad Shah, who reigned from 1834-1848.",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "2.\tLower inscription (on the base of the vase):\n \"Kamtarin bandeh-ye dargah fath'ali.\"",
"inscription_translation": "The lowliest slave of the court, Fath 'Ali.",
"inscription_remark": "The \"lowliest slave\" refers to the master artisan of the tent who is identified in the traditional humble manner. It indicates that the artisan had worked in the workshop of Fath 'Ali Shah (r. 1797-1837), Muhammad Shah's father.",
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 202564,
"title": "Muhammad Shah's Royal Persian Tent",
"description": "Muhammad Shah's Royal Persian Tent. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 13, 2015-August 23, 2016).",
"opening_date": "2015-07-13T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Mehdi Mahboubian [1921-2005], Oxfordshire, UK",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "by early 1980s-1991?",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Sotheby's, London, sale 24 April 1991)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "April 24, 1991",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Private Collection, consigned to Francesca Galloway, Ltd.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "after 1991",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "(Francesca Galloway, Ltd., London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-2014",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2014-",
"sortorder": 5
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Rasht work is named after the city on the Caspian Sea in present-day Iran, which was a major silk trade center with numerous textile workshops.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Royal tents were potent symbols of authority, wealth, and power throughout the greater Middle East. Rulers owned thousands of tents. They were used for shelter, shade, and innumerable functions in tent compounds that were essential for imperial ceremonies, travel, and military campaigns. Distinguished by size with elaborately decorated interior walls and ceilings, tents could be as large as castles. Opulent tents were also presented as imperial gifts.
Tents are only known through documents before 1600. For example, in Baghdad in 809, Caliph Harun al-Rashid owned 4,000 ceremonial tents and 150,000 camping tents that were stored in the imperial Abbasid treasury. An astonishing variety and quantity of tents were housed in the royal Fatimid tent storeroom in Cairo in 1068-69, including \"military tents, fortress tents, and castle tents, manufactured of . . . gold-brocaded stuff embroidered with designs of elephants, wild beasts, horses, peacocks, birds.\"
Since 1600, Ottoman Turkish tents with elaborate floral decoration have been preserved in Istanbul in the Topkapi Palace Museum and Military Museum, and in European collections as war booty, primarily from the Ottoman Turks' attempt to conquer Vienna in 1683. These tents are not done in the Rasht technique, but rather are applique.
In contrast, royal tents from Iran are extremely rare. This spectacular ceremonial tent is embroidered with the name of its owner, Muhammad Shah, who ruled Iran from 1834 to 1848 during the Qajar dynasty. The radiant jewellike interior features exuberant flora, blossoming vines, and robust birds made with colored wool embellished with silk-thread embroidery.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80082256"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2014.388.2-royal-round-tent-mad"
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},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\"The Shahs' Tents\" with articles by Toby Falk \"Royalty in the Field,\" Jennifer Wearden \"Rasht Textiles,\" and Ian Bennet \"A Qajar Masterpiece.\" HALI; the international journal of Oriental carpets and textiles 59 (October 1991), pp.118-123.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 118-123",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sotheby's London. European and Oriental Rugs, Carpets and Textiles. 24 April 1991 sale.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Baker, Patricia L. Islamic Textiles. 1995.",
"page_number": "p.138-39",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Atasoy, Nurhan. Otag\u0306-\u0131 Hu\u0308mayun: Ottoman imperial tent complex. I\u0307stanbul: Aygaz, 2000.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pp. 392-393",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\"The Shah's Tent.\" HALI; the international journal of Oriental carpets and textiles 185 (Autumn 2015): 94-95.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: figs. 1-4, pp. 94-95",
"url": null
}
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"athena_id": 171608,
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2014-12-01T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1834,
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"date_text": "1834\u201348",
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"conservation_statement": "Textiles are light sensitive, which means the dyes used to color them can fade with overexposure to light. Light damage is both cumulative and irreversible. Often, the reverse of a textile has brighter colors than the front face because the reverse may have been hidden or protected from light exposure. If we are able to compare the front and back of a textile, sometimes we see stark evidence of dye fading. That phenomenon is certainly true of the tent wall panels and roof.",
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"alternate_titles": [
"Royal Round Tent made for Muhammad Shah (wall panel with three panels A)"
],
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:48:53.183000"
}
}