Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
The "flame" pattern was dyed on the vertical warp threads before weaving began by tightly binding them to resist dye penetration, and repeated for each color. The process and fabric are called ikat, a Malaysian word which may have originated in South Arabia. Yemeni ikats with historical Arabic inscriptions from the 10th century are among the oldest known. This text, written in Kufic script with gold leaf outlined in black, identifies a ruler of the Yemen: ". . . [a]l-Da’i ila al-Haqq, Commander of the Believers, Yusuf b. Yahya b. al-Nasir li-Din Allah Ahmad, son of the apostle of God, may God bless the all." The Arabic phrase "to God" is inverted at the bottom.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
127672
label
Ikat tiraz
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
127672
contentType
object
title
Ikat tiraz
description
The "flame" pattern was dyed on the vertical warp threads before weaving began by tightly binding them to resist dye penetration, and repeated for each color. The process and fabric are called ikat, a Malaysian word which may have originated in South Arabia. Yemeni ikats with historical Arabic inscriptions from the 10th century are among the oldest known. This text, written in Kufic script with gold leaf outlined in black, identifies a ruler of the Yemen: ". . . [a]l-Da’i ila al-Haqq, Commander of the Believers, Yusuf b. Yahya b. al-Nasir li-Din Allah Ahmad, son of the apostle of God, may God bless the all." The Arabic phrase "to God" is inverted at the bottom.
date
960–80
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79907862
genreSpecific
Textile
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 60.3 x 64.5 cm (23 3/4 x 25 3/8 in.); Mounted: 67.9 x 74.3 cm (26 3/4 x 29 1/4 in.)
cul
Yemen, San'a', Zaydi Imam period
accession
1950.353
Source extras
tec
resist-dyed warp (ikat); plain weave with inscription: cotton and gold leaf
tombstone
Ikat tiraz, 960–80. Yemen, San'a', Zaydi Imam period. Resist-dyed warp (ikat); plain weave with inscription: cotton and gold leaf; overall: 60.3 x 64.5 cm (23 3/4 x 25 3/8 in.); mounted: 67.9 x 74.3 cm (26 3/4 x 29 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1950.353
collection
Textiles
inscriptions
inscription
Kufic inscription, translated as: ". . . [a]l-Dá'i ilá al-Haqq, Commander of the Believers, Yusuf b. Yahya b. al-Nasir li-Din Allah Ahmad, son of the apostle of God, may God bless them all." At the bottom, the word "to God" is inverted.
"Yusuf ibn Yahya" ruled AD 968-998)
relatedWorks
id
127888
description
Ikat tiraz, 900s. Yemen, San'a, Reign of Rassid Imams. Cotton and gold leaf: resist-dyed warp (ikat); plain weave with inscription; overall: 41.7 x 30 cm (16 7/16 x 11 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1950.524
citations
citation
Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire, Etienne Combe, Jean Sauvaget, and Gaston Wiet. Répertoire chronologique d'épigraphie arabe. Le Caire: Impr. de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale, 1931.
page_number
vol. IV, p. 174, no. 1544
citation
Wiet, Gaston. 1935. “Tissus Et Tapisseries Du Musée Arabe Du Caire.” <em>Syria</em> 16 (3): 278–90.
page_number
p. 287
citation
Lamm, C. J. Cotton in Medieval Textiles of the Near East. Paris: P. Geuthner, 1937.
page_number
p. 146
citation
Textile Museum (Washington, D.C.), and Ernst Kühnel. <em>Catalogue of Dated Tiraz Fabrics: Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid</em>. Washington: National Pub. Co, 1952.
page_number
p. 90
citation
Golombek, Lisa and Veronica Gervers. "Tiraz Fabrics in the Royal Ontario Museum." In Burnham, Harold B., and Veronika Gervers. <em>Studies in Textile History: In Memory of Harold B. Burnham</em>. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1977.
page_number
p. 92-3, fig. 3
citation
Edwards, Holly. <em>Patterns and Precision, the Arts and Sciences of Islam</em>. [Washington, D.C.]: National Committee to Honor the Fourteenth Centennial of Islam, 1982.
page_number
p. 54, no. 186
citation
Cornu, Georgette, Odile Valansot, and Hélène Meyer. <em>Tissus islamiques de la collection Pfister</em>. Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1992.
page_number
p. 65
citation
Balfour-Paul, Jenny. "Islamic Art: Fabrics, before c. 1250: Yemen." In Turner, J. S. <em>The Dictionary of Art</em>. New York: Grove, 1996.
page_number
p. 438-9
citation
Baginski, Alisa and Orit Shamir. “The Earliest Ikat.” <em>HALI; the international journal of Oriental carpets and textiles</em>. [London] Issue 95, November 1997.
page_number
p. 86-87
citation
Bier, Carol. "A Calligrapher's Art: Inscribed Cotton Ikat from Yemen" (2001)
citation
Bier, Carol. “Patterns in Time and Space: Technologies of Transfer and the Cultural Transmission of Mathematical Knowledge Across the Indian Ocean.” <em>Ars Orientalis</em> 34 (2004):
page_number
p. 172–94
citation
Bier, Carol. "Inscribed Cotton Ikat from Yemen in the Tenth Century CE." in International Shibori Symposium, Feng Zhao, Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada, and Edith Cheung. <em>Resist Dye on the Silk Road: Shibori, Clamp Resist and Ikat</em>. Hangzhou: China National Silk Museum, 2014.
page_number
p. 32-40
citation
Mackie, Louise W. <em>Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century</em>. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015.
page_number
Reproduced: P. 82, 122-123, fig. 3.41; Mentioned: P. 123, 215
citation
Weinstein, Laura, and Emine Fetvacı. <em>Ink, Silk & Gold: Islamic Art from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston</em>. 2015.
page_number
p. 36, no. 10
citation
"The Ubiquitous Ikat." <em>HALI; the international journal of Oriental carpets and textile</em>s. Issue 200. Summer 2019. London: Oguz Press, 1978- London : Hali Publications
page_number
p. 60-63
citation
McWilliams, Mary, and Jochen A. Sokoly. <em>Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs</em>. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Art Museums, 2021.
page_number
similar objects. cat. nos. 11 and 12, p. 82-85
creditline
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:34:22.580000
sourceId
127672
dept
Textiles
coll
Textiles
med
resist-dyed warp (ikat); plain weave with inscription: cotton and gold leaf
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
f340867185172ddb