Turban or shawl end with tiraz and gold 1094 Egypt, Fatimid period, reign of al-Musta‘lī Plain weave with inwoven tapestry weave: linen, silk, and gold filé Overall: 62.3 x 54.6 cm (24 1/2 x 21 1/2 in.) Gift of The Textile Arts Club to commemorate its 30th Anniversary 1965.313 DESCRIPTION Woven with consummate skill, this very fine linen fabric enriched with silk and gold thread displays small birds amid interlacing bands flanked by Arabic inscriptions. It represents the final artistic and technical height of imperial textiles called tiraz, a Persian word meaning embroidery or decorative work. Here, tiraz refers to textiles with Arabic inscriptions; it can also identify court workshops and their production. The historical Arabic inscription, written in angular Kufic script with decorative letter bowls and palmette scrolls between shafts, reads: “proximate victory to the servant of God and his close friend Ma‘add Abū Tamīm, the imam Ahmad [Abū] al-Qāsim al-Musta‘lī bi-Allāh and his so[ns]” (upper line), and “Commander of the believers bin [a] l-Qāsim Shā[han] shah . . . the believers . . . the Muslims[?] and the believers[?]” (lower line). PROVENANCE (Mrs. Paul Mallon, Paris). CITATIONS 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 Wardwell, Anne E. Material Matters: Fifty Years of Gifts from the Textile Arts Club, 1934-1984 : [Exhibition] 21 November-30 December 1984, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum, 1984. p. 18 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. 108; Mentioned: p. 109, 117, 215 EXHIBITION HISTORY Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965). Material Matters: Fifty Years of Gifts from the Textile Arts Club. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 21-December 30, 1984). 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, 2015-December 19, 2016).