Painted Fragment of a "Tiraz"

Description This painted linen fragment is a "tiraz," an official honorific inscription on textile. Such inscriptions combine verses from the Qur'an and pious invocations to God. This fragment is unusual in that the inscription is painted. There is only a small group of such painted linens, probably created by a foreign craftsman in Egypt during the early 10th century. The text here contains the "basmala," the first verse of the Qur'an and the most fundamental praise to God: ". . . to him; victory from God and glory to him; blessing from God and glory to him; victory from God and glory. . . ."

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
7/25/1974	Examination	examined for technical study

Exhibitions

• Threshold to the Sacred: The Ark Door of Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue . The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Yeshiva University Museum, New York. 2013-2014.

Provenance Maurice Nahman, Cairo [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1927 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Inscription] to him; victory from God and glory to him; blessing from God and glory to him; victory from God and glory

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1927