Tiraz. Nasar al-Dawlah Abu Nasr Ahmad, Marwanid of Dyarbakr (south-eastern Anatolia, r.1010-61/401-53), ca. 1025. Kufic lettering and a diaper pattern in yellow.

The textile has a decoration consisting of a small lozenge-diaper pattern in indigo blue and a Kufic inscription in a double horizontal band, the lower repeating the upper, but inverted, in yellow silk.

Guest and Kendrick misread the inscription. Van Berchem corrected the mistake, but we have to wait for Monneret de Villard for a full careful translation and discussion, the inscription reveals the Mesopotamian origin and the approximate date. (It wishes long life to the Emir Naser al-Dawlah Abu Nasr, according to the style used prior to the capture of Diyarbakr in 1024-5/415.) The fragment comes, via the collection of Franz Bock, from the tomb of St. Ambrogio (d. 397). It is part of a tunic probably woven in Baghdad.

Although the inscription in the V&A fragment contains the important section with the name, it is incomplete, as the first four words are missing. The whole inscription reads: ‘izz wa baqa lil-amir al-sayyid al-ayall nasr al-dawlah abi nasr atal allah baqa’ah (Might and long life to the noble prince Nasr al-Dawlah Abu Nasr, may God give him life long).

Technical analysis: “incised” silk compound twill with Kufic inscription in mirror image. 1:2 weft-faced compound twill; one main to one pair of binding or pattern warps. Warp: silk, Z-twist, seventeen pairs pattern warps per cm and seventeen main warps. Weft: silk, Z-twist, 30 per cm. The blue weft threads are indigo-dyed.