The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

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

Wool and linen: tapestry weave
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.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1959.48
Location: Not on view

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."
  • Until 1856, when British chemist William Henry Perkin discovered the first synthetic dye (mauvine), dyestuffs were sourced from nature—plant or animal materials. It was expected that the dyes used in this fragment dating from the 800s would be natural dyes. In conjunction with a 2021 exhibition at the Harvard Art Museums to which Cleveland lent this textile, the conservation scientist at Harvard undertook dye analysis using a technique known as high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectroscopy (HPLC-MS), and determined the red fiber was dyed with a combination of lac—a resinous secretion of the lac insect—and madder—a plant. This shows the way dyers used two reds to obtain a desired shade.
  • ?-1959
    (Mrs. Paul [Marguerite] Mallon [d. 1977], Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1959-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Shepherd, Dorothy G. "An Early Tiraz from Egypt." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 47, no. 1 (1960): 7-14. p. 7-14 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 213 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 213 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 269 archive.org
    Edwards, Holly. Patterns and Precision, the Arts and Sciences of Islam. Washington, DC: National Committee to Honor the Fourteenth Centennial of Islam, 1982. p. 54, no.173
    Cornu, Georgette, Odile Valansot, and Hélène Meyer. Tissus islamiques de la collection Pfister. Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1992.
    Baker, Patricia L. Islamic Textiles. London: British Museum Press, 1995. p. 55
    Paetz, Annette gen. Schieck. “Late Roman cushions and the principles of their decoration.” In Moor, A. de, and Cäcilia Fluck. Clothing the House: Furnishing Textiles of the 1st Millennium AD from Egypt and Neighbouring Countries : Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Research Group "Textiles from the Nile Valley" Antwerp, 6-7 October 2007. Tielt, Belgium: Lannoo Publishers, 2009. Mentioned: pp. 115-131; Reproduced: p. 130
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 225
    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. Reproduced: P. 58-59, fig. 2.20; Mentioned: P. 57, 76,189
    McWilliams, Mary, and Jochen A. Sokoly. Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Art Museums, 2021. Mentioned: p. 133; Reproduced: Cover, p. 132, 146,fig. 7.
  • Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Egyptian Tombs, 9th - 12th Century. Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (January 22-May 8, 2022) https://harvardartmuseums.org/exhibitions/5836/social-fabrics-inscribed-textiles-from-medieval-egyptian-tombs.
    Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 2013-December 15, 2014).
    Gallery 207 textile rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 20, 2002-May 6, 2004).
    Textiles from Egypt, Syria and Spain: 7th through 15th centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 26-June 6, 1991).
    The Heritage of Islam, Houston, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C.(March 10, 1982-September 5, 1983), no. 173.
    Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).
  • {{cite web|title=Pillow cover with Arabic inscription|url=false|author=|year=800s|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1959.48