Cairo, or possibly Mecca
late 19th or early 20th century
silk lampas
158 x 89cm
The pattern consists of zigzag bands alternately enclosing the shahadah (‘There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God’) and the invocation ‘O! God’, ‘May his Majesty be exhalted’, the latter in mirrored script.
S. Vernoit, Occidentalism. Islamic Art in the 19th Century, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume XXIII, London 1997, cat.8, pp.26–7.