Publication Date
13th century - 14th century AH / 18th century - 19th century AD
Publication Place
-
Udaya Museum; Rabat
Subject
Silk brocade woven with Marmah d-Zardkhan (loom).
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
الارتفاع: 135 سم؛ العرض: 32 سم
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
D 239
Record ID
object;ISL;ma;Mus01_B;48;ar
Library Location
Udaya Museum; Rabat
Date
13th century - 14th century AH / 18th century - 19th century AD
Notes
This type of long belt made of brocaded silk or "lampas" (Chinese silk fabric), woven with "marma", appeared in the workshops of Fez at the beginning of the AH 12th century / AD 18th century. Women of the aristocracy and bourgeois class wore it over their kaftan, wrapped several times around the waist, folded twice, narrow and elastic like ancient models, and could be worn on both sides. Its red floor is decorated with a cross-shaped decoration composed of five decorative elements consisting of different colors, inspired by the Moroccan-Andalusian decorative repertoire. It has been enriched with several decorative elements drawn from Persian and Ottoman art, such as geometric lattices decorations, with spaces studded with flowers, florets, and palm leaves, and oval decorative elements resembling the fruit of a lemon tree (the tangerine), and friezes of arches. Furnished with flowers, similar to the designs of wall curtains. These decorative elements were depicted alone or intertwined in the form of repetitive and alternating transverse bands. The two ends of the belt were decorated with several hands with a simplified design, and with stars of eight sections or with the seals of Solomon (Suleiman’s Seal), which are considered in the traditional Moroccan esoteric belief as protective symbols. Between the large decorative elements that constitute the main decoration of the fabric and between the two ends of the belt, there is a narrow strip decorated with small tulips placed opposite each other. This - the narrow strip - represents the distinctive sign of the workshop. The long small braids that end with the belt are knotted in the front to keep it around the waist.
Sample Text
Naima El Khatib-Boujibar “Belt” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;ma;Mus01_B;48;ar
