Cleveland Museum of Art

Embroidered border and field of animals in large roundels

Date

1000s–1100s

Medium

plain weave: silk warp and cotton weft (mulham): plain weave; silk and gold thread: embroidery, couched, split, running, and outline stitches:

Culture

Iraq, probably Baghdad, Seljuk period

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This fragment preserves part of the main field and border of a large textile. At the top is a small segment of a roundel frame with fragments of a pair of confronted animals; at the lower right is part of a smaller roundel in which only the hind part of a lion or griffin remains. Below the roundels is a section of a wide border with a large bird wearing Sasanian flying ribbons about its neck. It is framed in a roundel formed by the tendrils of a scrolling vine. A narrow band at the bottom has a badly garbled Kufic inscription, which is upside down in relation to the rest of the pattern. Only the word "Allah" repeated twice can be deciphered. Another fragment of this textile, lavishly embroidered with gilt-metal and silk thread on mulham , is now in the collection of the MFA Boston, 37.103 .

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