Inscribed Cotton Ikat from Yemen in the Tenth Century CE Carol Bier, the Textile Museum

Graduate Theological Union From the SelectedWorks of Carol Bier 2014 Inscribed Cotton Ikat from Yemen in the Tenth Century CE Carol Bier, The Textile Museum Available at: https://works.bepress.com/carol_bier/21/ 9th International Shibori Symposium 2014, Hangzhou, pp. 32-40. Compression Resist: Shibori, Clamp-resist, and Ikat 2.5 防染印花 Inscribed Cotton Ikat from Yemen in the Tenth Century CE BIER Carol Research Associate, The Textile Museum, Washington, DC, [email protected] Visiting Scholar, Center for Islamic Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley CA Keywords: Ikat, cotton, Yemen, Islamic, textile, inscription, Arabic, gold Abstract More than a thousand years ago, Baghdad was capital of the Islamic empire under the Abbasid caliphs, and Yemen was a flourishing center of agriculture and trade. Among its famous products were dyestuffs, and cotton cloth with warp stripes, patterned using techniques of compression resist. As the strength of the Abbasid caliphate declined and claims to power gained hold in the provinces, regional artistic styles began to emerge. The rulers of Yemen adopted one of the prerogatives of the Abbasid caliphs, bestowing honor by rewarding their subjects with inscribed textiles called tiraz. From burial sites in Egypt, many such textiles have survived in fragmentary condition, often with warp fringes, and occasionally with Arabic inscriptions bearing historical names and dates, Qur’anic excerpts, and pious invocations. Acquired by dealers in the middle of the 20th century, they found their way to museums in Europe and North America (The Textile Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Royal Ontario Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, David Collection, etc.). The carefully wrought Arabic inscriptions are executed in white embroidery or in black ink outlining an application of gold leaf applied to a plant resin. This paper presents the results of research and analysis of the outstanding holdings of The Textile Museum in Washington, DC, using microphotography, fiber and dye analysis, along with close visual observation, which yielded clear indication of sophistication and refinement of methods, suggesting collaboration among skilled dyers, weavers, embroiderers, and calligraphers in the manufacture of these elegant textiles, of which only fragments remain. The warp-resist patterns, the ornate Arabic calligraphy with serifs, flourishes and palmettes, and embroidered geometric ornament, all contribute to the definition of a strong regional style and emergent local identity in Yemen in the tenth century. 1. Introduction 1.1 Collections and Attributions Numerous striped cotton textiles attributed to Figure 1 (top) Scarf fragment (detail), plain-weave Yemen in the ninth and tenth centuries are held in cotton with warp-resist patterning, inscribed in Arabic with gold leaf outlined in black ink; Sana’a, museum collections today (figures 1-5). These th textiles are distinguished by their characteristic Yemen, 10 century (microphotography, C. Bier multi-colored stripes effected by a warp-resist dye and C. Brittenham). The Textile Museum 73.59, process, and Arabic inscriptions executed in acquired by George Hewitt Myers in 1931. (bottom) hammered gold leaf or embroidery. With fewer than Cross-section showing yarn, plant resin, and gold twenty fragments, The Textile Museum’s holdings leaf on top (microphotography, W. A. Lewin). comprise one of the largest collections in the world Gervers 1977), and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Kühnel and Bellinger 1952). in New York (Schimmel 1992, figure 16), with Other important collections are held by the Islamic additional examples in the Museum of Fine Arts, Museum in Cairo (Wiet 1935; O’Kane 2012, 304), Boston (Britton 1938), and the Cleveland Museum Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto (Golombek and of Art (figure 2). 9th International Shibori Symposium 2014, Hangzhou, pp. 32-40. The Textile Museum’s collection was acquired by the museum’s founder, George Hewitt Myers, between 1928 and 1952 from dealers in Egypt and Europe. Purportedly found in Egypt, these striped textiles are today attributed to Sana’a on the basis of inscriptions in which that city is referenced (Wiet 1935). Dating and attribution today is based both on inscribed historical data and calligraphic styles, which find parallels in contemporary coinage (Golombek 1988, 35 and figures 20-22) (figure 3). The date range of ninth and tenth century is absolute, based upon inscriptions on several fragments, which provide dates from AH270/883AD Figure 3 (left) Scarf fragment, plain-weave cotton – AH310/923AD (Lamm 1937, 144-47; Blair 1997, with warp-resist patterning, inscribed in Arabic with 100). Early archaeological finds of ikat-dyed cotton gold leaf outlined in black ink; Sana’a, Yemen, 10th fabrics in Israel, also attributed to manufacture in century. The Textile Museum 73.377, acquired by Yemen, are dated by C-14 analysis to the early George Hewitt Myers in 1934. (right) Contemporary ninth century (Carmi and Segal 1995). Although an silver coin with similar interlacing of final letter in internal chronology has not yet been firmly name at top, “Muhammad.” established, Blair notes the names of imams and amirs of Yemen on three late tenth-century textiles. 1.2 Ikat and ‘aqada The correlation of these groups of textiles to the Woven in plain weave – the simplest interlacing of striped cloths of Yemen referred to in historical warp and weft – these Yemeni textiles bear striped sources is presumed. patterns that are rhythmic and visually intriguing. The patterns are effected by a resist process known as ikat, in which sections of the warp yarns were selectively dyed in bundles before weaving (figures 1-5). Ikat is often considered to be a Malay-derived word commonly used to refer to warp-resist dyed textiles produced locally in Indonesia. Today the word ikat is used to denote such textiles from anywhere in the world (India, Guatemala, Uzbekistan), and even applies sometimes to printed textiles the patterns of which emulate this resist- dye process and historical technology. However, the word may come via Arabic as ‘aqada is the root for the verb, “to tie” or “to bind,” and the derived nouns, ‘uqd/’uqud, occur in classical Islamic sources referring to knot or knotting (as in carpets). It is possible that Arab traders introduced ikat-dyeing techniques to Southeast Asia as early as the eighth century (Lamm 1937, 144; Bier 2001). 1.3 Arabic Inscriptions in Gold Leaf Many of the textiles are inscribed in Arabic, executed calligraphically with applied gold leaf outlined with black ink (figures 1-3). Several of the Arabic letters are decoratively embellished and Figure 2 Scarf fragment, plain-weave cotton with elaborately plaited (figure 3), sometimes rendering warp-resist patterning, inscribed in Arabic with gold the inscriptions illegible. Blair (1989; 1997) has leaf outlined in black ink; Sana’a, Yemen, c. 960- treated issues of legibility. Apart from aesthetic 80. Cleveland Museum of Art 1950.353, J. H. Wade intent, some of the inscriptions convey historical Fund. Inscription names Yusuf ibn Yahya, who ruled data, pious expressions, good wishes, and Qur’anic 968-98. http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1950.353. excerpts (Kühnel and Bellinger 1952; Blair 1997; Blair 1989; Golombek and Gervers 1977; Britton Found in Egypt but attributed to Yemen, one might 1938; Wiet 1935). Taken as a whole, the body of think of these fragments as the products of a gilt inscriptions documented on Yemeni ikat of the distant land, if not the work of an immigrant ninth and tenth century are often dedicatory, community. But the striped patterns, derived from bringing recognition to individual rulers and warp-resist techniques (early examples of what subjects (Blair 1989; Blair 1997). With decorative have come to be called ikat), and the elaborately calligraphic flourishes, including interlacing, these decorated Arabic inscriptions (in gold leaf, or inscribed textiles stand out not only as the products carefully embroidered), are indicative of a cloth that of advanced technologies in fiber preparation and was imbued with great significance as a vehicle for dyeing in their time, but they also reflect the the transcription of Qur’anic passages, and the specialized art of the calligrapher (Bier 2001). communication of pious benedictions and historical relationships (Blair 1989; Blair 1997). 9th International Shibori Symposium 2014, Hangzhou, pp. 32-40. 1.4 Embroidered Arabic Inscriptions Other striped cotton ikat textiles from Yemen in this period have Arabic inscriptions carefully embroidered using undyed cotton yarn (figures 4-5) (Kühnel and Bellinger 1952; Lamm 1937). These inscriptions are executed in a much simpler unelaborated style of script, the writing often combined with an array of geometric patterns that are likewise embroidered (figure 5). Although simpler in style, embroidered inscriptions carry messages with the same level of pious significance; the embroidered shawl (figure 5), for example, bears both the opening chapter of the Qur’an (Fatiha), and chapter 112 (Ikhlas), a statement of faith and the oneness of God. 1.5 Historical Context and tiraz Taken together, this group of inscribed cotton ikat textiles from Yemen preserves for us a unique view into Yemen’s historical position in classical Islamic times. Although fragmentary, these textiles with their inscriptions, extravagant use of gold, and Figure 5 Fragmentary scarf; plain-weave cotton florid calligraphic styles, represent new forms of with warp-resist patterning and embroidered Arabic cultural expression in the early Islamic world. inscriptions and geometric patterns. The Textile Museum 73.494. Acquired by George Hewitt Myers Yemen at the advent of Islam was a flourishing land in 1940. of agriculture and trade. By camel caravan north to central Islamic lands and maritime trade with India Considering the relationship to the official tiraz of to the east and Africa across the straits, Yemen's Abbasid Baghdad, these textiles from Yemen and ports of call along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden contemporary tiraz produced under the patronage were emporia for textiles, dyestuffs, and spices.

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