Tiraz with gold (1020–35): Art, History and Details

Tiraz with gold (1020–35) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The dominant gold ground of a tripartite band displays horned bovines with cloven hooves alternating with stylized palmette trees flanked by opposing lines of text on the dark blue linen ground. The historical inscription is written in kufic script with elongated bowls of the lower letters. The text and epigraphy indicate a date during the caliphate of al-Zahir (r. 1020–35).

Object facts

• Title: Tiraz with gold
• Date: 1020–35
• Culture: Egypt, Fatimid period, reign of Caliph al-Zahir, 1020–1035
• Type: Textile
• Technique: plain weave with inwoven tapestry weave: linen, silk, and gold filé
• Dimensions: Overall: 16.9 x 9.7 cm (6 5/8 x 3 13/16 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1982.109

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.