VIRGINIA Commonwealth University in Qatar’s Gallery director and assistant professor in Art History, Dr Jochen Sokoly, recently delivered a lecture on ‘Threads of History: Textiles of the Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates’.
The lecture focused on a group of inscribed textiles from Egypt and the Central Islamic lands commonly known as tiraz, which were part of the subject of Dr Sokoly’s doctoral thesis.
The term tiraz, although subject to scholarly debate, refers to an inscription that contains historical content referring to an official commission by an Islamic ruler or one of his representatives.
It usually lists the name of the ruler, and his titles, as well as administrative information relating to the object’s manufacture. It is the historical content of these textile inscriptions which makes them a valuable resource for historical research into the Caliphal administration of the early Islamic period.
Apart from the content of the inscriptions, this group of textiles is significant archaeologically, as it offers a glimpse into the burial practices of the early Islamic period in Egypt.
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Ismailimail 