Artwork Page for Pillow cover with Arabic inscription

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Pillow cover with Arabic inscription

800s

Egypt, al-Bahnasa

Medium
Wool and linen: tapestry weave
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.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1959.48
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

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."
Rectangular, woven pillow case with a central, horizontal band divided into two squares, a green background with four circles each featuring a stylized bird on red on the left and the opposite color scheme on the right. Mustard yellow and white detail the circles and bird. Above and below run bands, two rows of white dots on red, stylized floral patterns on red, and a green strip with flowers, separated by mustard yellow lines.

Pillow cover with Arabic inscription

800s

Egypt, al-Bahnasa

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