DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Czaja-Szewczak, Barbara: Textiles from Naqlun, 1999
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41274#0140
NAQLUN
EGYPT
and geometric motifs. Running between
these patterns are rows of Arabic text. The
undcecorated parts of the fabric feature
a plain balanced tabby weave. The orna-
mental motifs found on this textile, like
the running or sitting hare, are deeply
rooted in Coptic art of earlier times.
The silk shawl from this interesting
burial had been used to wrap the head of
the deceased. (Fig. 4) Again, its fragmen-
tary condition excludes any reconstruction
of its length (the preserved pieces are
79 cm long), its width, however, is known
— 102 cm across. The ornamental band
running crosswise to the fabric was deco-
rated in the samit fagonne technique.In
the center there are two rows of alternating
palmettes and kantharoi with a row of
octagons running in between. Inside the
octagons are medallions with rosettes.
Octagons were an especially popular motif
in Fatimid times.2) Flanking the central
band are seven other bands of different
width decorated with geometric patterns,
rosettes or left plain. The rest of the shawl
of carmine color was executed in balanced
plain tabby. The textile is two-sided,
meaning that one side of the patterned fab-
ric is a negative of the other. The colors
form a limited palette: carmine, cream,
Fig. 3. Textile, detail (Nd.99409), see cover for bigger fragment
(Photo W. Godlewski)
0 Technique used for patterned fabrics where the weft and warp form a twilled weave; on the right side, the over-thread
jumps five and the under-thread one with rows running toward Z, while the left side of the fabric is different, the weft cov-
ering three successive warp threads, then going under one and over the next and again under the warp thread. The left side
of the fabric is much more clearly striped than the right side.
2> P. du Bourguet, "La fabrication des tissus coptes aurait-elle largement survecu a la conquete arabe?", BSAA 40 (1953), 29.
138
EGYPT
and geometric motifs. Running between
these patterns are rows of Arabic text. The
undcecorated parts of the fabric feature
a plain balanced tabby weave. The orna-
mental motifs found on this textile, like
the running or sitting hare, are deeply
rooted in Coptic art of earlier times.
The silk shawl from this interesting
burial had been used to wrap the head of
the deceased. (Fig. 4) Again, its fragmen-
tary condition excludes any reconstruction
of its length (the preserved pieces are
79 cm long), its width, however, is known
— 102 cm across. The ornamental band
running crosswise to the fabric was deco-
rated in the samit fagonne technique.In
the center there are two rows of alternating
palmettes and kantharoi with a row of
octagons running in between. Inside the
octagons are medallions with rosettes.
Octagons were an especially popular motif
in Fatimid times.2) Flanking the central
band are seven other bands of different
width decorated with geometric patterns,
rosettes or left plain. The rest of the shawl
of carmine color was executed in balanced
plain tabby. The textile is two-sided,
meaning that one side of the patterned fab-
ric is a negative of the other. The colors
form a limited palette: carmine, cream,
Fig. 3. Textile, detail (Nd.99409), see cover for bigger fragment
(Photo W. Godlewski)
0 Technique used for patterned fabrics where the weft and warp form a twilled weave; on the right side, the over-thread
jumps five and the under-thread one with rows running toward Z, while the left side of the fabric is different, the weft cov-
ering three successive warp threads, then going under one and over the next and again under the warp thread. The left side
of the fabric is much more clearly striped than the right side.
2> P. du Bourguet, "La fabrication des tissus coptes aurait-elle largement survecu a la conquete arabe?", BSAA 40 (1953), 29.
138