Study Of Seljuq Textile Patterns

Abstract

The Seljuqs lived a luxurious life reflected in their art and how they dressed. They built a great Empire from Mesopotamia to Iran from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. The Seljuqs art held a harmonical balance between ancient Persian culture, Sunni Islamic norms, and Turkish steppe tradition. Due to the scarcity of the surviving material, we have a problem in studying Seljuq textiles. However, a great wealth of visual information was left to us through the mina’i wares, since they include patterns and colors. In my research, I focused on the depiction of garment patterns in the mina’i figures, in order to reconstruct the textile patterns. The patterns were common in almost all mediums including extant textiles, architecture, metalwork, glass, and miniatures. The four main elements of Islamic art were contained in Seljuq textiles, which were illustrated in mina’i figures.