Curtain for the Door of the Ka‘bah
Title:
Curtain for the Door of the Ka‘bah
Location: Cairo, Egypt
Materials: black silk, with coloured silk appliqués, relief-embroidered in silver and silver-gilt wire over cotton thread padding
Dimensions: 496 x 267cm
Accession Number: TXT 507
Script:
The design of this curtain conforms to the style prevalent in the 17th century with the exception of the decoration inside the five arches at its top, four of which enclose Qur’anic verses. The central fifth arch encloses a design made up of two crossed swords between which is an open book whose pages are embroidered with the names of Allah and Muhammad. Such crossed swords are sometimes found on curtains made for the Prophet’s mosque in Medina, but their occurrence on Ka‘bah door curtains is extremely rare.
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