Silken tomb cover. Taqueté
Iran, Kashan; (1)153 H = 1740-1741
H: 118; W: 91 cm
This textile, woven with the taqueté technique, was intended to cover a cenotaph in a mausoleum. Its main panel is embellished primarily with passages from the Koran and Shiite prayers, written in elegant Thuluth calligraphy.
A very unusual feature is the specific information found in narrow bands, written in Nastaliq. We are told that the cloth was donated by Hajjiyyah Khwanzadeh, daughter of Qasim Ibanaki, in the year 153, that Muhammad Mumin was the calligrapher who made the model for the inscriptions, and that Muhammad Husayn ibn Hajji Muhammad al-Kashani wove the cloth.
It was a costly affair to weave a textile with so much specific information that could not be reused for any other purpose.
Inv. no. 30/1971
Published in:
André Leth: Davids Samling. Islamisk kunst = The David Collection. Islamic Art, København 1975, p. 115;
The arts of Islam: Hayward gallery, 8 April - 4 July 1976, London 1976, cat. 80;
Anthony Welch: Calligraphy in the arts of the Muslim world, Austin 1979, cat. 62, p. 5 and pp. 150-151;
Art from the World of Islam. 8th-18th century, Louisiana, Humlebæk 1987, cat. 238;
Kjeld von Folsach: Islamic art. The David Collection, Copenhagen 1990, cat. 411;
Kjeld von Folsach and Anne-Marie Keblow Bernsted: Woven Treasures: Textiles from the World of Islam, The David Collection, Copenhagen 1993, cat.no. 41; Kjeld von Folsach: “Textiles and society” in Carpet and textile art, 1994, 1. Hali annual, p. 9, fig. 2;
Kjeld von Folsach, Torben Lundbæk and Peder Mortensen (eds.): Sultan, Shah and Great Mughal: the history and culture of the Islamic world, The National Museum, Copenhagen 1996, cat. 381;
Kjeld von Folsach: Art from the World of Islam in The David Collection, Copenhagen 2001, cat. 651;
Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom (eds.): Cosmophilia. Islamic Art from the David Collection, Copenhagen, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Boston 2006, cat. 24;
Joachim Meyer, Rasmus Bech Olsen and Peter Wandel: Beyond words: calligraphy from the World of Islam, The David Collection, Copenhagen 2024, cat. 112, pp. 282-283;
