The importance and beauty of textiles from the Middle East, Turkey, and Central Asia are explored in Textiles of the Middle East and Central Asia. With so much history of migration and discovery, as well as commerce, this huge area has a rich heritage in textiles. Intricate needlework on a Palestinian bridal dress as well as the complex iconography on an Afghan war rug represent the beliefs, customs, and experiences of people from these places in their textiles. Fabrics like cotton have special value in the Middle east region due to the luxury of Egyptian cotton.
Carved textiles are a part of the culture. The transmission of Mohammed’s holy and political power was communicated via the wearing of his cloak, which marked the beginning of the Islamic era. As a result of its creation, the Muslim state has made many changes to the political landscape. To signify the change of allegiance, textiles were typically adorned with epigraphic bands.
At that time, it was customary for new allegiances to be shown by integrating pictures of a monarch on the clothing. To weave and embroider the inscriptions on these honourable partnerships’ textiles, royal artisans used priceless materials like silk and gold-wrapped thread. As a result, islamic textiles are among the most highly prized works of art in the world. The culture of Islam opens them up to a wide variety of artistic expressions and aids in their global dissemination. In this article, we would explore cotton, linen, wool and mohair in islamic countries and textile.
Cotton and Linen
Flex other varieties of bast fibers, including hemp, were produced in the Islamic world. Textiles made of cotton or linen were popular across the area. Heavy cotton canvas used for sailing ships. But even though India’s finest cotton is well famous, the Levantine nations have their own exquisite cotton weaving industry as well. The Muslim world as a whole relied on textile trade with India. Printing was known in pre-Islamic Egypt but the origins of early Islamic textile printing remain unknown. Syria had a printing industry by the sixteenth century, and Anatolia had a printing industry by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The growing European market for Indian printed textiles sent via the eastern Mediterranean ports fueled the growth of the sector.
Mohair
A pashmina shawl is woven from a combination of Mohair, Cashmere, and Silk. Mohair is made out of camel hair whereas Cashmere is the result of sheep and silk is part of goat hair. In the nineteenth century, Westerners began to appreciate Pashmina shawls because of its widespread use in Muslim North India, Persia, and Ottoman Turkey. Twill tapestry, or a variety of complicated weaves, were used to create the intricate pattern. Paisley Motif is the name given to the Boteh pattern in the West.
Wool
A wide range of clothing materials were made from wool. Woolen fabrics are both pile and flat and used to make anything from carpets to wall coverings to pillows. Fostat” carpet pieces unearthed in Cairo and thirteenth-century Seljuk Turkish carpet fragments found in Konya are the first instances of carpet weaving in Islamic history.. The aesthetic style, provenance, and level of technical perfection of carpet designs are of three groups. Thus, tribal and regional ties are reflected in the designs, which tend to be geometric in nature. Often resembling the delicate knotting seen in tile work, manuscript illumination, and silk textile design, these patterns are the most artistically and technically challenging to create.
Weaving Technique
Flat weaving methods include slit tapestry, jajim (complex discontinuous brocade), and soumak (warp wrapping). Weaving bands out of card stock is a common way of manufacturing bracelets in the Islamic world. There are a variety of ways to make floor and wall coverings and animal trappings using these and other methods. Flat-woven wool textiles often have unique tribal or regional motifs and color palettes and were made solely for local usage. Modern manufacturing, on the other hand, caters more and more to the color and design demands of western customers.
Conclusion
With the changing time, traditional islamic or middle eastern textile is also changing. As a result, modern textile and designing is replacing authentic and old age textile. Fabrics like cotton and silk are also high in demand due to changing fashion.