World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies

Barcelona, July 19th - 24th 2010

· Institution: University of Oxford

· Organizer: Miriam Ali de Unzaga

· Language: English

· Description: This poster focuses on several prestigious textiles ‘embroidered and woven, made of silk and gold’ produced in al-Andalus between the 10th and the 12th centuries, which were subsequently reused as Christian royal and church attire, reliquaries, and funerary shrouds. They are now housed in monasteries, churches and cathedrals in Spain. Very few of them appear in Islamic art publications; despite their richness and the intricacy of their iconography, they remain understudied. There are several factors that may explain this: one of them has to do with the complexity of accessing them and getting permission to study, photograph, and publish them. Another factor is that it seems to be more interest in finding out when these textiles were acquired and how were they received and perceived in the Christian context than in exploring the Andalusi culture which produced them. This poster intends to bridge this gap by illustrating together the two contexts. In addition, some of the pieces that will be displayed have never been published. Firstly, it will show and contextualise the textiles’ visual repertory (animals, human figures and calligraphy); secondly, it will explore the fascination of the time with the iconography of fantastic animals, and thirdly it will show the ways in which the prestige and the captivation of these textiles transcended the differences in culture and religion of Muslim, Jews and Christian, as both constituencies used and reused the same textiles.