Roundels with camels bearing howdahs

About this artwork

This unusually large fragment is part of a rare group of silks characterized by an unusal weave structure. The group is most important, however, because the Kufic inscriptions (here "mulk," or "Dominion," an abbreviation of "al-mulk lillah," meaning "Dominion belongs to God") demonstrates their Islamic origin. The Byzantine motifs found in some of them (for example, a second fragment in the museum collection), however, lead scholars to believe they may have been woven in Antioch, the scene of mu...