Fragment with peacocks in ogival pattern 1175-1225 Iran or Iraq Plain weave with supplementary weft: silk Overall: 24.1 x 22.9 cm (9 1/2 x 9 in.) Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1939.506 DESCRIPTION Neither the design nor the technique of this silk provides clues to whether it was woven in Iran or Syria. As Iran and Iraq fell to the Mongol armies during the second quarter of the 1200s, many artisans fled to Syria, taking with them the techniques and patterns with which they were familiar. The inscriptions are purely decorative. PROVENANCE ?-1939 (Adolph Loewi [1888-1977], Los Angeles, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1939- The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH CITATIONS Weibel, Adèle Coulin. Two Thousand Years of Textiles; The Figured Textiles of Europe and the Near East. New York: Published for the Detroit Institute of Arts [by] Pantheon Books, 1952. no. 102, p. 108 Shepherd, Dorothy G. 1974. "Medieval Persian Silks in Fact and Fancy: A Refutation of the Riggisberg Report". Bulletin Du CIETA, Centre International D'étude Des Textiles Anciens. 39-40. fig. 49 b-c, p. 13, 18 Blair, Sheila S., Jonathan M. Bloom, and Anne E. Wardwell. "Reevaluating the Date of the "Buyid" Silks by Epigraphic and Radiocarbon Analysis." Ars Orientalis 22 (1992): 1-41. Reproduced: p 29; Mentioned: p. 15 www.jstor.org Baker, Patricia L. Islamic Textiles. London: British Museum Press, 1995. p. 45 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. 152; Mentioned: p. 151 EXHIBITION HISTORY Textiles from Egypt, Syria and Spain: 7th through 15th centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 26-June 6, 1991).