The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2023

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."

Inscriptions

Inscription

"In the name of God. Blessing from God to its owner. Of what was made in the tiraz."

Inscription Remark

The Arabic script is written in an early stage of ornamental Kufic. Although the location of the tiraz (royal weaving factory) is not given, a few related tapestries are known from their inscriptions to have been woven in Bahnasá. This city, located in the Faiyum Oasis, is known from contemporary Arab sources to have been an important weaving center that specialized in curtains and furnishings.

Provenance
?-1959
(Mrs. Paul [Marguerite] Mallon [d. 1977], Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1959-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
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.
Exhibition history

The Heritage of Islam, Houston, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C.(March 10, 1982-September 5, 1983), no. 173.

Gallery 207 textile rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 20, 2002-May 6, 2004).

Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).

Textiles from Egypt, Syria and Spain: 7th through 15th centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 26-June 6, 1991).

Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 2013-December 15, 2014).

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-....

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