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Decorative "Ev-Dzhiyar" Towel, with Pious Arabic-Script Inscriptions

Decorative "Ev-Dzhiyar" Towel, with Pious Arabic-Script Inscriptions

Inv. #
ТК-181
Dimensions
116 × 50 cm

Description

Made of bleached homespun linen with a transverse linear ornament in the tone of the fabric. The ends of the towel are decorated with ornamental embroidery in colored silk in pastel tones, with the addition of silver-toned metal thread elements. The ornament is geometric, in the form of a chain of rhombuses, into which are set eight (four at each end) shaped cartouches. Inside the cartouches are Arabic-script signs, worked in metallic ribbon and fine colored silk; among them the word "Allah" (الله) can be recognized. The inscriptions do not form connected text: some of the signs, particularly those enclosed within the cartouches in the field of the rhombuses, are imitative (pseudo-Arabic) in character.

Along the lower edges is a narrow band of "little worm" ornament in red and blue thread; along the edge is a small closed-type fringe.

The object belonged to the collection of the pre-war Sloboda Ukraine Museum named after H. S. Skovoroda. It remained in the museum during the occupation of Kharkiv during the Second World War (1941–1943).

Note: the towel was used in the wedding rites of the Crimean Tatar people.