CHINA OR CENTRAL ASIA, LATE 13TH OR FIRST HALF 14TH CENTURY

In the 13th century the Persian historian Rashid al-Din described two remarkable tents of “cloth made of gold on gold”, which were presented as gifts to Hulegu Khan, the Mongol ruler, in 1255 and 1256 (James C.Y. Watt and Anne E. Wardell, When Silk was Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles, 1997, p. 134). Aside from the obvious aesthetic appeal, the popularity of ‘Cloth of Gold’ (nasij) amongst the Mongols stems from the realities of nomadic society and the need for portable possessions. Therefore, it had long been the custom for nomads to wear their wealth or have it readily transportable. Jon Thompson writes that from the Scythian times in the 3rd century BC, steppe nomads wore gold ornaments sewn on to their outer garments and that later it was discovered that weaving golden thread into the cloth itself achieved a similar effect (Jon Thompson, Silk. 13^th to 18^th centuries. Treasures from the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar, Doha, 2004, pp. 72-73).

The incredible effect of nasij as written about by Rashid al-Din is best demonstrated by a group of panels which are a magnificent example of the interior of the Mongol tent, now in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (TE.40.00). With stylised columns decorated with vegetation, roundels containing confronted birds, and smaller roundels containing phoenixes and dragons, the design of these textiles is a seamless fusion of Islamic and Chinese motifs and imagery. The pearl border at the top and birds in roundels derive from Sasanian Iran (Louise Mackie, Symbols of Power, New Haven and London, 2015, pp. 222-223), knotted kufic-esque motifs are present in the gold medallion borders and the three-clawed dragons are very typical of drawing found in Song dynasty ceramics (Thompson, Silk, p.12). Another panel of the same group is in the David Collection, Copenhagen (40⁄1997). The design and dimensions of the present lot mean that it almost certainly belongs to the same original structure and it is likely that they all originally formed the same tent lining or canopy. Alongside the Doha and Copenhagen panels the present lot is a very rare and important historical document which betters our understanding of the Mongol period.

At the very top of the present fragment it is possible to make out the bottom of what appears to be an inscription in Arabic letters, probably written in kufic. This suggests that the entire tent lining or canopy described above would have had a band of inscription at the top similar to that found on the mid 13th century nasij panels from further west in the Mongol domains as found on a fragment in the David Collection, Copenhagen (inv. no. 4⁄1993; for a further discussion of the attributing different types of nasij see the note to lot 40). The Mongols were active patrons of Tibetan Buddhism and many works of art of the period were gifted to monasteries including a great number of textiles. It seems likely that the same is true of the present lot – and its companion pieces in Doha and Copenhagen – and the inscription was most probably cropped at the time the textile was gifted.

The so-called ‘Cloth of Gold’ (nasij) was one of the most luxurious innovations in early textile production. Before the Mongol invasions of the late 12th century it was possibly to distinguish different weaving centres in Iran, Central Asia and China by the decorative or technical characteristics of their products. But as skilled weavers were forcibly relocated after being conquered by the Mongols or moved freely from East to West during the Pax Mongolica ideas, techniques and motifs were exchanged. The resulting fusion ushered in a new chapter in the history of textile production (Thompson, op. cit., p. 12).