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: 537 x 260cm
Accession Number: TXT 510
Script:
The design of this curtain is very different from other contemporary examples. The choice of Qur’anic verses is the same, but their disposition into various-shaped cartouches is not. The arch above the word Allah at the top of the curtain, the arched panel below it and the two open books either side of the door opening are innovations that seem not to have continued in use. As Abdulmajid became sultan in AH 1255 – that is no more than a year before the date of this curtain, it is possible that a new Ka‘bah curtain design was introduced to mark his accession to the Ottoman throne. However, another curtain in the Collection, also commissioned by him in the same year, follows the traditional 19th-century style. See TXT 511.
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