Fragment of a Tiraz

Description This fragment of a garment was woven in an official factory and decorated with an Arabic inscription. Such honorific inscriptions on textiles are called "tiraz" in Arabic, and "taraziden" in Persian. They combine pious invocations to God, verses from the Qur'an, and sometimes names of caliphs. On this example appears the phrase ". . . of Allah, and favor and glory to the servant of Allah. . .," a formula used to introduce the name of a caliph, a ruler of the Abbasid dynasty.

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 and Paris [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1928, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Translation] of Allah, and favor and glory to the servant of Allah

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1928