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Isabelle Dolezalek Arabic Script on Christian Kings Das Mittelalter Perspektiven Mediävistischer Forschung

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Isabelle Dolezalek Arabic Script on Christian Kings Das Mittelalter Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung Beihefte Herausgegeben von Ingrid Baumgärtner, Stephan Conermann und Thomas Honegger Band 5 Isabelle Dolezalek Arabic Script on Christian Kings Textile Inscriptions on Royal Garments from Norman Sicily Gedruckt mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) ISBN 978-3-11-053202-9 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-053387-3 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-053212-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: Satzstudio Borngräber, Dessau-Roßlau Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Gedruckt auf säurefreiem Papier Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Contents Preface — IX Introduction — XI Chapter I Shaping Perceptions: Reading and Interpreting the Norman Arabic Textile Inscriptions — 1 1 Arabic-Inscribed Textiles from Norman and Hohenstaufen Sicily — 2 2 Inscribed Textiles and Arabic Inscriptions in European Medieval Arts — 43 3 Historical Receptions of the Ceremonial Garments from Norman Sicily — 51 4 Approaches to Arabic Inscriptions in European Medieval Arts: Methodological Considerations — 64 Chapter II An Imported Ornament? Comparing the Functions of Textile Inscriptions in Sicily and Fatimid Egypt — 73 1 Courtly Self-Representation and Public Inscriptions in Fatimid Egypt and Norman Sicily — 75 2 Textile Production in Norman Sicily and Fatimid Egypt — 80 3 The Textile Evidence: Styles and Contents of Textile Inscriptions in Norman Sicily and Fatimid Egypt — 92 4 Functions of Textile Inscriptions in Norman Sicily and Fatimid Egypt — 105 5 Similarities and Differences in Production Modes, Style, Content and Function — 119 Chapter III Contextualising Ornament: Seeing and Reading Arabic Textile Inscriptions in Norman Public Display — 121 1 The ‘Populus Trilinguis’ and the Three Languages of the Court — 123 2 The Weight of Arabic in Norman Public Writing: A Distorted Picture? — 127 3 Staging Textile Inscriptions: The Norman Garments and Their Contemporary Audiences — 138 4 Visible or Invisible – Legible or Illegible? — 147 5 Inscriptions as Sound — 156 6 Political Scheme or Practical Reasons? Arabic Language in Norman Public Inscriptions — 160 VI Contents Chapter IV The Kufic Inscription on Roger II’s Mantle: Continuity as a Political Choice — 165 1 The Origins of the ‘Arabic Facet’ of Roger II’s Court: ‘Re-Arabisation’? — 167 2 Tracing Continuities in Silk Production and Epigraphy in Pre-Norman and Norman Sicily — 170 3 Roger II’s Mantle as Part of a Local Artistic Tradition — 184 4 Situating the Production of Roger II’s Mantle in its Political Context — 187 Chapter V A Textile Archive: The Norman Alb as a Document of Political Authority — 191 1 Arabic Public Writing Under William II — 191 2 Parallels in William II’s Legal and Artistic Self-Representation — 195 3 The Alb as Document: Visuality and Materiality in the Performance of Legal Acts — 200 4 The Political Context of the Alb’s Embroidered Inscription — 204 5 The Alb as an Archive of Political Continuity and Legitimacy — 205 Conclusion — 211 Appendix — 219 Image Credits — 225 Bibliography — 229 Index — 251 Note on Dating and Transliterations Dates are consistently given in the Gregorian calendar. Unless indicated otherwise, Hijri dates have been converted for the sake of comparability. Transliterations from the Arabic follow the guidelines of the International Journal of Middle East Studies and do not indicate grammatical case endings (i‘rāb). This excludes transcriptions cited from other authors, which have been adopted without modifications. Place names and names of dynasties are rendered using their English equivalents. Preface Inscribed textiles may never have crossed my mind had it not been for an inspiring conversation with Almut Höfert in Basel. My ensuing enthusiasm for precious textiles in the medieval Mediterranean led to a doctoral dissertation, the origin of this book, which I completed at the Freie Universität Berlin in May 2013 and which was awarded the Mediävistenverband (Medievalists’ Society) prize in 2015. Being granted the pos- sibility of publishing this book in the interdisciplinary series of the Medievalists’ Society is a privilege for which I particularly thank the editors Ingrid Baumgärtner, Stephan Conermann and Thomas Honegger. I was most fortunate to be able to study Sicilian textile inscriptions under the auspices of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), within the immensely stimulating frame of the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group ‘Kosmos/Ornatus: Ornament in Persia and France c. 1400 in Comparison.’ My work has hugely benefited from regular discussions with my colleagues in the research group, Vera Beyer, Simon Rettig and the members of the monthly colloquium, and from their critical scrutiny of my ideas. I owe endless gratitude in particular to Vera Beyer, the director of the research group and my doctoral supervisor, for her interest in my work, her unfailing encouragement and support even long after the end of the ornament project. I would also like to thank Regula Forster, my second supervisor, for her kind and patient advice on Arabic issues. Being invited for two extended stays at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence was a particular pleasure for me and for this I would like to express my gratitude to Gerhard Wolf. Regula Schorta allowed me to stay and carry out research at the Abegg Foundation in Riggisberg. Both made me feel very welcome and I was grateful for the chance to discover these inspiring institutions. I would like to thank Hannah Baader from the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, Birgitt Borkopp-Restle and her colleagues from the University of Bern, as well as Avinoam Shalem (Columbia University) for discussing important aspects of my work. Svenja Kauer, Joana Mylek and Cornelia Weber have been of invaluable practical help in the completion of the book. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Anna Bücheler, Gero Dolezalek and Edward Street, who have invested so much of their time and patience in reading and commenting on my drafts. I would still be working on the manuscript had it not been for my family’s backing and Beatrice Dolezalek-Lauw’s fabulous grandchild-sitting. Last, but by no means least, I want to thank Cornelius Richter for his loving support and unfailing humour in the final stages of both the dissertation and the book. Since the completion of my research, many new publications have appeared in the fields of textile and ornament studies, epigraphy, the history of Norman Sicily, and transcultural and Mediterranean art history. I have aimed to integrate some of these studies in this slightly revised version of my dissertation, but hope that I will be forgiven for having had to omit many others. Introduction There is an expression of wonder in the faces of most visitors to the imperial treas- ury in Vienna who see the large Norman mantle kept there (Fig. 1). Spread out in its dimly lit case, the vivid crimson and fine gold embroidery of this piece, almost nine hundred years old and known for centuries as the coronation mantle of the Holy Roman Empire, unfailingly attract the gaze and invite closer scrutiny. Colours turn into shapes as you draw closer: fierce lions are subduing camels. Camels? And then, at the bottom, a peculiar undulating line provokes bewilderment... Is that Arabic? An Arabic inscription on a Christian king’s mantle? Fig. 1: Mantle of Roger II on display in the Imperial Treasury, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Inscriptions, probably more than any other form of ornament, lend themselves to associations with specific cultural spheres which are easily defined – or so it seems – by language boundaries and, in the particular case of Arabic writing, commonly related to the geographical spread of Islam. So, far from being a simple reaction, a visitor’s spontaneous feeling of surprise can be seen as the expression of a tension between conventionally established concepts of cultural boundaries and the uncon- ventional, boundary-transgressing aesthetics of this twelfth-century object from Sicily. The astonishment results from various preconceptions based on established notions of cultural and religious identity and the rigid separation, at least in theory, between Christian and Islamic visual cultures. This book focuses on Arabic textile inscriptions in circulation in the medieval Mediterranean and beyond, as an example of an ornament that is ‘transcultural’ in the sense that it transgresses conventional boundaries. Through the case study of the royal garments with Arabic inscriptions from Norman Sicily, I propose to investigate DOI 10.1515/9783110533873-005 XII Introduction the functions of this type of ornament using various contextual and methodological frames. My contextualising approach, drawing on various historical disciplines and encompassing historiographical considerations, Latin and Arabic court cultures, and Sicilian local concerns, is a means of highlighting idiosyncrasies and emphasising the choices that underlay the use of Arabic textile inscriptions at the Sicilian court. It sheds light on the context-related variability of the functions and meanings of
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