Detail View: The AMICA Library: Fragment with Printed Lions

AMICA ID: 
MMA_.31.106.64
AMICA Library Year: 
2000
Object Type: 
Textiles
Creator Nationality: 
Asian; Middle Eastern; Iranian
Creator Name-CRT: 
Persian/Iranian
Title: 
Fragment, Textile
Title Type: 
Object name
Title: 
Fragment with Printed Lions
View: 
Full View
Creation Date: 
10-11th century
Creation Start Date: 
900
Creation End Date: 
1099
Materials and Techniques: 
Cotton, other fibers
Classification Term: 
Textiles-Painted and Printed
Dimensions: 
17 3/4 x 39 in. (45.1 x 99.1 cm)
AMICA Contributor: 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Owner Location: 
New York, New York, USA
ID Number: 
31.106.64
Credit Line: 
Gift of George D. Pratt, 1931
Rights: 
Context: 

This repeat-patterned cloth is made from a mixture of silk and cotton known as 'mulham.' Arab geographers localize the production of mulham to Iran and Central Asia. Some mulham fabrics were dyed yellow for women's dresses, but most were undyed and remained white. To appear publicly in such elegant material was considered appropriate only for the wealthy and sons of the caliphs. Mulham cloth may have decorations, mainly inscriptions, which were added by embroidering at the time of manufacture. A small number of examples, such as this one, bear patterns printed with different stamps on the glazed surface of the cloth. Here lions in brown squares with pearl borders alternate with lions in squares of undyed fabric. The animals with floral elements and the squares with pearl borders are similar in style to those on glazed ceramic tiles from Ghazni, in eastern Afghanistan, the capital city of a dynasty of Turkish slave commanders who ruled from the tenth to the twelfth centuries. Another fragment of this textile belongs to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Related Image Identifier Link: 
MMA_.rt31.106.64.R.tif