MATERIALS

Materials

Textiles, Carpets, and Leather

Textiles, Carpets, and Leather

Woven textiles have always played an important role in Islamic society and in many cases were among the most prestigious and costly luxury goods.

Technically, textiles ranged from fairly simple tabby and tapestry weaves, through ikat, lampas, and samitum fabrics, to highly complex metal-brocaded velvets. In addition, there were embroidered, printed, and other types of fabrics.

Different materials were also used: plant fibers such as linen and cotton, wool from sheep and goats, silk, and finally various kinds of “metal thread.”

Pile carpets of wool, cotton, or silk – commonly called Oriental carpets – are justifiably associated almost exclusively with the Middle East, from which they were exported to the entire world.

Tanned animal skins were used to make parchment and leather of different types.

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ISLAMIC ART: TEXTILES, CARPETS, AND LEATHER

Islamic Art: Textiles, carpets, and leather

Item no. 4 of 37
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Ikat textile, cotton tabby, with embroidery

Yemen; 10th century
32 × 51 cm

The weavers of Yemen were among the first in the Islamic world to use the ikat technique, in which the heavy warps were reserved dyed. This involved tying skeins of yarn in different places with thread so that dye only colored the yarn where it was uncovered. The warps in shades of blue, brown, and white were arranged in vertical stripes, giving the textile a distinctive flamed structure after the monochrome wefts were woven in.
Yemenite ikat textiles were almost always embellished with Arabic inscriptions (tiraz) with varying degrees of legibility. They might be painted on in gold or, as here, embroidered in white or dyed cotton. The letters were typically executed with distinctive flag-like stems and the inscriptions were furnished with purely decorative elements, for example arches.

Inv. no. 47/1992