Mounted with T.13-1960. Silk fabric, woven in colours on a red background. The inscription is embroidered in yellow silk. The fabric bears a close resemblance in the scheme of colour and manner of weaving to several Byzantine silk fabrics in the V&A which are considered to date from the seventh to the ninth century.

Technical analysis: Compound twill with main and binding warps in red silk and wefts of silk in three or four colours. Weft-faced 1:2 compound twill. Warp: red silk, Z-twist, one main to one binding or pattern warp. Weft: silk with no noticeable twist, three or four colours, red, green, yellow continuous; cream interrupted. One pick of each colour in turn. Three hundred main warp ends in a full unit of roundel pattern, or about 150 in half unit. Selvedge on left side: plain red stripe, W. 2 cm, and one cord consisting of about eight ends of Z-twist red silk not plied together.

The writing of Marwan without a long a after the w is a case of sciptio defectiva, in keeping with seventh- and eight-century epigraphical practices. The “Allah” before Marwan is probably part of ‘Abdullah, used here not as a name but in its literal signification of Servant of God, a style adopted by the earlier caliphs. There are two Marwans: Marwan ibn al-Hakam (684-5/65-66) and Marwan ibn Muhammad (744-50/127-133). The date of this textile must therefore be between 684/64 and 750/133.

The bigger piece with the bit of inscription fi tiraz Ifriqiya was, until 1960, in the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. A third piece from the same fabric, also with part of the inscription, is in the Brooklyn Museum in New York (41.1265), whereas another uninscribed, fragment is in the Musée Royaux des Arts Décoratifs in Brussels. The inscription of the three fragments read as follows: “[the servant of] God, Marwan, Commander of the Faithful, of what was ordered … al-r … [or al-z … ] in the tiraz of Ifriqiya”.