How al-Andalus wrapped itself in a silk cocoon: the ṭirāz between Umayyad economic policy and Mediterranean trade

Abstract

Sericulture and the state supervision of textile production was a longstanding tradition in the Middle East during the pre-Islamic period. However, neither were known in the Iberian Peninsula. With the rise of Islam, the luxury fabrics produced by the state institution of ṭirāz became a prominent symbol of sovereignty, encouraging the Umayyads of al-Andalus (138 h./756–422 h./1031) to create their own ṭirāz workshop, which specialized in silk fabrics, after sericulture was introduced in Iberia under their rule. Little was known about this productive process, as existing studies have tended to focus exclusively on one of the multiple types of evidence available: Arabic, Latin and Hebrew textual sources; chemical, technical and decorative analysis of preserved textiles; and others. This paper uses all the evidence available to undertake a comprehensive study of the operation of the Umayyad ṭirāz workshop in al-Andalus. Beginning with the tributary and administrative factors that surrounded the institution, the process by which demand for silk in the Mediterranean markets gave private merchants the instruments to control the Andalusi textile sector is analysed. By the fifth h./eleventh century, al-Andalus had become the main supplier of silk goods in the Mediterranean.

Keywords:

• al-Andalus
• Mediterranean
• Umayyad period
• textile production
• economic policy
• trade

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr María Antonia Martínez (University of Málaga) for her assistance with the inscriptions on the ṭirāz fabrics, as well as Dr María Judith Feliciano (independent scholar) and Dr Ana Cabrera (Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute) for their indications concerning the denomination of textiles. I also want to express my gratitude to Dr Asunción Lavesa (Autonomous University of Madrid) for detailing the fabrics that are preserved, as well as to José María Moreno Narganes (University of Alicante) for his explanations about archaeological finds related to textile activity. I am particularly appreciative of Prof. Martín Almagro (“permanent antiquarian” of the Real Academia de la Historia) for supplying me with the two photographs of the Veil of Hishām II included in this paper. Likewise, I appreciate the translation by Dr David Govantes-Edwards (Newcastle University) and Dr Guillermo-Sven Reher (University Carlos III of Madrid). I give thanks to La GIStería for elaborating the map in the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Mesa, Lenguaje indumentaria, 134–5.

2. Stillman and Sanders, “Ṭirāz,” 534–8.

3. Kerner, “Embroidering History,” 17–20.

4. Goitein, Economic Foundations, 102.

5. Manzano Moreno, Conquistadores, emires, 444–6.

6. This information can be found in the geographical section of his work. It was translated into Castilian and reproduced in the two following chronicles: Crónica Rasis, 11–118; Crónica 1344, 47–84.

7. Antonio Malpica was the first to point out that the list of goods provided by al-Rāzī suggests that these products were recorded in the Umayyad tax ledgers: Malpica, “Arqueología paisajes,” 55.

8. The calendar has an Arabic and a Latin version; the former was written by the court secretary ʿArīb b. Saʿd and the latter by bishop Rabīʿ b. Zayd: Ibn Saʿd and Ibn Zayd, Calendrier Cordoue.

9. Al-ʿUdhrī, Tarṣīʿ al-akhbār, 93.

10. Al-Bakrī, al-Masālik wa-l-mamālik, 84–85.

11. Al-Idrīsī, Nuzhat al-mushtāq, 174.

12. Ibn Saʿd and Ibn Zayd, Calendrier Cordoue, 49, 63, 91, 133.

13. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Sifr al-thānī, 395. Although Ernst Kühnel suggests that khazz was a fabric with a silk warp and a wool weft, Shelomo Goitein and Moshe Gil argue that in the Geniza records the word is used to refer to prime silk: Kühnel, “Abbasid Silks,” 370; Goitein, Economic Foundations, 454; Gil, “References Silk,” 36–38.

14. Akhbār majmūʿa, 156–7.

15. Lombard, Les textiles, 95; Lagardère, “Mûrier et culture,” 97.

16. Manzano Moreno, “Asentamiento ŷund-s,” 330–58.

17. López, Mercaderes, artesanos, 40–43.

18. García, “Plantas textiles,” 427–9.

19. Crónica Rasis, 30; Crónica 1344, 53.

20. Al-Bakrī, al-Masālik wa-l-mamālik, 84–85.

21. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles, 152–5.

22. The earliest mention of the use of safflower as a textile dye in al-Andalus alludes to the Cordoban judge Muḥammad b. Bashīr (d. 198h./813–814), who usually wore a safflower-dyed mantle (ridāʾ muʿaṣfar): Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Muqtabas anbāʾ, 203–4, 209, 219.

23. It was also grown in Niebla, because Aḥmad al-Rāzī mentions it in the mid-fourth h./tenth century; as well as Seville, cited by al-ʿUdhrī a century later: Crónica 1344, 73; al-ʿUdhrī, Tarṣīʿ al-akhbār, 96, 111.

24. Al-ʿUdhrī, Tarṣīʿ al-akhbār, 93.

25. García, “Plantas textiles,” 437.

26. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles, 196.

27. Al-Iṣṭakhrī, Masālik al-mamālik, 42–45.

28. Ibn Saʿd and Ibn Zayd, Calendrier Cordoue, 91, 133, 145; Manzano Moreno, Corte califa, 52, 74.

29. Al-Bakrī, al-Masālik wa-l-mamālik, 88, 127.

30. Gayo and Arteaga, “Análisis de colorantes,” 127–30, 134, 140–4.

31. Martínez, Epigrafía árabe, 211–2 (no. 81).

32. Partearroyo, “Franja Pirineo,” 224–5 (no. 20). Future chemical analyses will allow us to establish more firmly the chronological and geographical framework of the Pyrenees Tapestry Band. More doubts exist concerning the provenance of the so-called ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III’s ṭirāz (The Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 1977.188), the inscription on which has been argued to refer to this caliph and to mention the date 330h./941–942: Mackie, Symbols of Power, 172–9. First, the inscription is very hard to read, as only the stitches on the fabric are preserved. In addition, the epigraphist María Antonia Martínez rules out the inscription bearing a date and, based on the epigraphic features, suggests that it could be a Fatimid production: Martínez, Recientes hallazgos, 49–50., Second, Asunción Lavesa also argues that the piece is typologically and technically akin to Fatimid productions, and suggests an Egyptian origin: Lavesa, “Aproximación arqueológica,” 4–7.

33. Ibn Saʿd and Ibn Zayd, Calendrier Cordoue, 133.

34. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Sifr al-thānī, 395.

35. The event is described in the fourth h./tenth century by Ibn al-Faraḍī and in the eighth h./fourteenth century by Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-ʿibar, 138. Both passages were in turn reproduced by al-Maqqarī: al-Maqqarī, Nafḥ al-ṭīb, 356–60; Vallvé, “Industria al-Andalus,” 227.

36. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Sifr al-thānī, 290.

37. Hambly, “From Baghdad,” 215.

38. Stillman, “Khilʿa,” 6.

39. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Sifr al-thānī, 281, 290–1.

40. Ibid., 290; Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Muqtabas anbāʾ, 184–6.

41. Ibn ʿIdhārī, al-Bayān al-mughrib, 148, 191; Ocaña, “Ŷaʿfar,” 218–23; Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Muqtabis, 173.

42. Ibid., 91–92.

43. Ibn Saʿd and Ibn Zayd, Calendrier Cordoue, 73, 83, 103, 163.

44. Borrego, “Análisis técnico,” 81–83. The metal threads in the Pyrenees Tapestry Band contain 96.5% gold and 3.5% silver: Gayo and Arteaga, “Análisis de colorantes,” 130.

45. Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, 119.

46. García Gómez, “Tejidos, ropas,” 44; Mesa, Lenguaje indumentaria, 121–32. For a lengthy discussion about textiles and their role in the organization of the Umayyad caliphate, see: Manzano Moreno, Corte califa, 70–86.

47. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Juzʾ al-khāmis, 115–6.

48. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Muqtabis, 108, 118, 126.

49. Ibn Ḥawqal, Ṣūrat al-arḍ, 114.

50. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles, 136–47.

51. Ibn ʿIdhārī, al-Bayān al-mughrib, 295–7.

52. Ballestín, “Jilʿa monedas,” 398.

53. Jacoby, “Silk Economics,” 215; Sokoly, “Textile Institutions,” 115–21.

54. Manzano Moreno, Corte califa, 307–10.

55. The word mulḥam alludes to a fabric that combines a silk warp and a weft woven in another material: Stillman and Sanders, “Ṭirāz,” 536.

56. Ibn ʿAbd al-Raʾūf, Risāla ādāb, 86–87, 102–4, 114.

57. Canto and Ibrāhīm, Moneda andalusí, 44–50.

58. Ibn Ḥawqal, Ṣūrat al-arḍ, 113.

59. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Muqtabis, 197.

60. While Emilio García Gómez puts the origin of ʿubaydid textiles in the Mashriq, Xavier Ballestín suggests that they originated in al-Andalus: García Gómez, “Tejidos, ropas,” 45; Ballestín, “Jilʿa monedas,” 399–400. I agree with Eduardo Manzano Moreno that the reference at hand for an Iraqi ʿubaydid textile is sufficiently explicit to locate the production of these fabrics in Iraq: Manzano Moreno, Corte califa, 360.

61. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Juzʾ al-khāmis, 351–2.

62. Ibid., 268.

63. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Muqtabis, 25.

64. Ibid., 389.

65. Jacoby, “Silk Economics,” 215; Sokoly, “Textile Institutions,” 120.

66. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Sifr al-thānī, 290.

67. Al-ʿUdhrī, Tarṣīʿ al-akhbār, 22.

68. Al-Iṣṭakhrī, Masālik al-mamālik, 44.

69. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Sifr al-thānī, 323–4.

70. Ibid., 291–2; Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Muqtabas anbāʾ, 163–4.

71. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles, 49–51, 54–55.

72. Ibn Yūnus, Tārīkh al-ghurabāʾ, 249 (no. 662).

73. Bernis, “Tapicería hispano-musulmana,” 202.

74. This fabric has not been subject to detailed analysis: Feliciano, “Sovereign, Saint,” 125–6 and “Corpus epigráfico,” 289–318. It would be interesting to undertake this task in the future.

75. Bernis, “Tapicería hispano-musulmana,” 190–4, 198–9, 204–5.

76. Rodríguez, “Producción textil,” 277–8.

77. The oriental influence in the landscape of Iberian textile consumption must have been enormously complex. One of the most promising avenues to unravel this complexity are chemical and technical studies of surviving fabrics, as illustrated by Ana Cabrera’s recent work with pieces in the Museo de San Isidoro (León). According to this work, the textiles lining the San Isidoro casket are the earliest: the radiocarbon analysis has dated a Central Asian or Near Eastern silk piece to CE 773–960 cal.; and a linen and silk piece, probably Near Eastern in origin, to CE 878–1013 cal. Taking these dates into account, Ana Cabrera has put forward the thought-provoking proposal that these eastern fabrics arrived to Oviedo or León in the third h./ninth or fourth h./tenth centuries, and that they might have been included in the royal treasures at that time: Cabrera, “Textiles Isidoro,” 96–98, 104–11. Similarly, María Judith Feliciano has presented textual evidence that could help to contextualize the arrival of these fabrics to northern Iberia during the Umayyad period: Feliciano, “Sovereign, Saint,” 127–31. However, we must not rule out the possibility that these fabrics came to León in 455h./1063, when Saint Isidore’s body was brought from al-Andalus. The Historia Silense claimed that Seville’s ruler al-Muʿtaḍid, before handing it to the Leonese, covered the sarcophagus with a fine curtain (cortina): Historia Silense, 202. This could well be the two fabrics under analysis here. Concerning their arrival in Seville, in the fifth h./seventeenth century the city was the capital of one of the largest and most powerful taifa kingdoms in al-Andalus, and posed a substantial demand for luxury articles. In this post-Umayyad context, it is plausible for these third h./ninth- or fourth h./tenth-century fabrics to have arrived in Seville from overseas, as it was not uncommon for valuable textiles to be preserved as heirlooms for generations, or to be traded. Future analyses will help to better contextualize the circulation of these and other oriental fabrics in Iberia.

78. Ibn Ḥawqal, Ṣūrat al-arḍ, 110.

79. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Muqtabis, 80, 108, 118, 132–3; al-Juzʾ al-khāmis, 268, 351, 426–8.

80. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Muqtabis, 22.

81. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Juzʾ al-khāmis, 478, 485. The role played by Amalfitan merchants in the Mediterranean and Cordoba is analysed in: Manzano Moreno, “Circulation de biens,” 175–9; Corte califa, 70–71, 74.

82. Rodríguez, “Púrpura,” 471–6.

83. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Juzʾ al-khāmis, 308, 389–90.

84. Gayo and Arteaga, “Análisis de colorantes,” 130.

85. Ibn Daud, Sefer ha-qabbalah, 87–89.

86. Mesa, Lenguaje indumentaria, 222–32; De la Puente, “Documentos jurídicos,” 76–92.

87. Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Sifr al-thānī, 341–4.

88. López, Mercaderes, artesanos, 129–46.

89. Ibn al-Faraḍī, Tārīkh ʿulamāʾ, 302 (no. 498); ʿIyāḍ, Tartīb al-madārik, 6 vol., 155; 7 vol., 22; Ibn Bashkuwāl, al-Ṣila, 574–5 (no. 851).

90. Acién, Castillo, and Martínez, “Barrio artesanal,” 147–66. José María Moreno Narganes (personal communication) has suggested that the cited loom weights would likely be spindle whorls, based on wide dispersion of the former throughout the houses and their small weight (20 g); medieval European loom-weights generally weigh between 150 g and 250 g. Future archaeological work will doubtless help clarify these points.

91. Al-Ḥimyarī, al-Rawḍ al-miʿṭār, 79.

92. Crónica Rasis, 28. This Castilian version of al-Rāzī’s work cites Almeria and not Pechina as the textile production centre of silk and gold. It is highly likely, however, that it was in truth the latter because, at the time of writing al-Rāzī, Almeria was not yet a city; it was founded the same year the author died, in 344 h./955–956. The most probable explanation is that the workshops were at Pechina, and that al-Rāzī mentioned Almeria because of the close links between both places, given that at the time Almeria was basically the port of Pechina.

93. Ibn Ḥawqal, Ṣūrat al-arḍ, 114.

94. Al-Iṣṭakhrī, Masālik al-mamālik, 44–45.

95. Al-Rushāṭī, Iqtibās al-Anwār, 29, 59.

96. Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, 119.

97. Goitein, Jewish Traders, 50–51, 259–66.

98. Al-Idrīsī, Nuzhat al-mushtāq, 197.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Basque Government under the Sociedades, Procesos, Culturas (siglos VIII a XVIII) (IT1465-22) and Society, Power and Culture (IT896-16) research groups, as well as by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the Societies on the Edges: a Combinative Approach to Cross-Cultural Connections in Early Medieval Western Europe (PID2020-115365GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033), Mapping the Global Economy of Medieval Almería from the Archaeological Study of its Andalusi Quarter (PID2021-124325OA-I00), and La formación de la sociedad andalusí (S. VIII–X). Los datos documentales y las evidencias materiales. Estudio de caso: Jaén (HAR2017-87060-P) research projects.

Notes on contributors

Eneko Lopez-Marigorta

Eneko Lopez-Marigorta is Assistant Professor of Economic History and Institutions at the University of the Basque Country. Trained as a historian, archaeologist and Arabic philologist, his research focuses on the Umayyad period in al-Andalus (second h./eighth–fifth h./eleventh centuries): 1) Urban development and trans-Mediterranean trade; and 2) Economic production and political use of the material culture. He is the author of Mercaderes, artesanos y ulemas (2020), co-author of Medina Azahara (2018) and editor of Una nueva mirada a la formación de al-Andalus (2022).