Cleveland Museum of Art

Fragment with Inscription

Date

before 1962

Medium

Silk: lampas weave

Culture

Iran, in the style of the Buyid period (945–1055)

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

A design in dark brown on a background of dark tan preserves five nearly complete double-headed "eagles" and almost half of a sixth, arranged in aligned rows. Each eagle grasps griffins in its talons. Small birds decorate the shoulders of its wings, and on the wing of each small bird is inscribed with the word “mercy.” Superimposed on the eagle, as if being carried, is a small standing human figure which bears on the upper part of its arms the word “blessing.” At the top of the textile, a Kufic inscription repeats a line from the diwan , collected poetry, of al-Buhturi. The top inscription is a line by poet Al-Walīd ibn Ubaidillah Al-Buḥturī (821-897).

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