Fragment of a Furnishing with Wreathed Roundel

An elaborately decorated roundel at the center of the fragment is made out of three concentric sections and floats on red ground. Each section stands alone and does not touch the other sections. A single palmette occupying the center of the lace-like roundel has seven large leaves, each with a foliated tip. The surface of each leaf is decorated, and the right leaves are matching in decoration to the left leaves, giving the motif a symmetrical appearance. The inner band of the roundel encircling the central motif is a solid ring composed of full and half-lozenges. The full lozenges running along the center of the band alternate in color between blue and beige. The wider, outer ring is the most complex of the three sections. It comprises small, outward- and inward-looking palmettes connected by thin, curvilinear tendrils.

This fragment is one of a rare group of early Islamic textiles dated to the Umayyad period.This group includes several examples in the Textile Museum’s collections in Washington, DC. The most prominently published one is The Textile Museum, 73.524: http://www.gwu.edu/~textile/AheadofHisTime/howcollected.html and E. Kühnel and L. Bellinger, Catalogue of Dated Tiraz Fabrics: Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid (Washington, DC, 1952), 5–6; 73.550 and 73.724: catalogue entries by C. Bier, in P. O. Harper, ed., The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire (New York, 1978), 138, no. 62, and 137, no. 61; 73.609: S. B. Krody, “In Our Collections: Discover the Collections,” Museum Magazine (The GWU Museum and The Textile Museum, Washington, DC, 2015): 4; 73.551, 73.396, 73.577, and 73.578 (all  unpublished). A stylistic off-shoot of this group is represented by The Textile Museum 73.537, 73.685, and 1965.72.2, and are unpublished; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 50.83, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/50.83; 2001.420, http://metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/454035; Art Institute of Chicago, 46.72 (unpublished); Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 47.1040, https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/fragment-of-tapestry-49400; Cairo, Museum of Islamic Art, 15480: Kühnel and Bellinger, Catalogue of Dated Tiraz Fabrics, 5–6; Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951.90, http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1951.90; Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, 35/62, http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=1527716&viewType=detailView; 37/62, http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=1527719&viewType=detailView; 54/63, http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=1527717&viewType=detailView; and 40/62, http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=1527720&viewType=detailView; and the following unpublished fragments in the same museum which were examined by the author on September 29, 2017, in Berlin: 34/62, 39/62, 36/62, 51/63, 50/63, 23/65, and 38/62. They can be placed more specifically to the first half of the eighth century based on stylistic comparison with Umayyad period art as well as two inscribed textiles in the collections of the Textile Museum in Washington, DC, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, both of which are closely related to the Dumbarton Oaks fragment.Washington, DC, The Textile Museum, 73.524; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.420, http://metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/454035. Both of these pieces have been dated to the period of Umayyad caliph Marwān II (744–749 CE). Although it is difficult to securely attribute this group of textiles to a particular site of production, their decorative vocabulary, which borrows heavily from Sassanian iconography, and their structural and material characteristics allow us to posit that they might have originated in Syria or, more likely, Iraq.

Like others of the group, the Dumbarton Oaks fragment is composed of wool yarns woven in tapestry weave and is made of Z-spun yarns plied in the S direction.Some of the examples associated with the stylistic off-shoot group (see n1 above), however, have linen yarns used as light-colored weft yarns, such as The Textile Museum, 73.685 and 73.537. To create the sturdy warp, wool fibers were spun in Z direction and two of these Z-spun yarns were plied in the S direction. For the weft, plying was not used: single Z-spun yarn was used instead, allowing for the thinner diameters of the pattern’s small details.L. Bellinger, “Craft Habits, Part II: Spinning and Fibers in Warps,” The Textile Museum: Workshop Notes, no. 20 (1959). See also Mackie Symbols of Power, 53–57. The quality of workmanship and material varies in the group, with a few examples that must be considered as either very late or woven in a completely different locale imitating this style.See examples of this stylistic off-shoot group in n1 above. Compared with other examples in the group, the Dumbarton Oaks fragment is one of the finest in terms of the quality of the workmanship and the fineness of the material used.

Although the fragmentary nature of this piece makes it difficult to speculate on the original textile’s overall pattern, other examples in the group offer some clues. Those large enough to give an indication of repeat patterns have motifs organized in horizontal decorative bands.Washington, DC, The Textile Museum, 73.609, 73.551, 73.524, 73.578; for the stylistic off-shoot group, the best examples are The Textile Museum, 73.685, and New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 500.83 and 2001.420. It is not very clear from the fragments whether the band surrounded four sides of a field or if the composition was divided only in horizontal bands.Washington, DC, The Textile Museum, 73.551, appears to have bands surrounding four sides of a field; The Textile Museum, 73.609, and New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 50.83 and 2001.420, are divided in horizontal bands. Another alternative is that both of these patterning schemes might have been used in the organization of the motifs. We may posit that fields with highly decorative roundels alternated with bands of simpler rosettes, and scrolling tendrils with simple palmettes. In some cases, the decorative fields contain large ornate roundels that alternate with smaller rosettes.Washington, DC, The Textile Museum, 73.609, 73.396, 73.524 are the best examples. The ornate Dumbarton Oaks fragment was probably a dominant roundel that alternated with a simpler rosette.

There is very little doubt as to the artistic connection between the motifs seen in this group of textiles and Sassanian art as its immediate predecessor. The rock reliefs of the Sassanian monument Taq-i Bustan near Kermanshah, dating from the late sixth or early seventh century, as well as the many silver vessels decorated with similar vegetal forms and birds, clearly indicate the continuation of this decorative vocabulary into the early Islamic period.For Taq-i Bustan, see R. Ettinghausen, From Byzantium to Sasanian Iran and The Islamic Word: Three Modes of Artistic Influence (Leiden, 1972); R. Ettinghausen, O. Grabar, and M. Jenkins-Madina, Islamic Art and Architecture, 650–1250, 2nd ed. (New Haven, 2001), 64 and 126; S. Weber, U. Al-Khamis, and S. Kamel, eds., Early Capitals of Islamic Culture: The Artistic Legacy of Umayyad Damascus and Abbasid Baghdad (650–950) (Munich, 2014); and the Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Smithsonian Institution, http://sirismm.si.edu/sackler/herzfeldthb/d-0316thb.jpg.

—Sumru Belger Krody, May 2019

Washington, DC, The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, Woven Interiors: Furnishing Early Medieval Egypt, August 31, 2019—January 5, 2020.