AN OTTOMAN SILK AND METAL-THREAD CURTAIN WITH THE TUGHRA OF SULTAN AHMAD, TURKEY, 1131 AH/1719 AD

Of rectangular form, embellished on a silk beige ground with a repeating of three undulating bands in gold script running from the beginning to the end of the cloth, which assume the form of a continuous chain made up of number ‘7’. The central band with prominent inscription ‘Kalimaat al-Tawhid, There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet’ The upper band with the inscription ‘O, Allah! Commend and salute the prophet Muhammad, most esteemed of all prophets and emissaries’. The lower band with ‘May Allah be well pleased with Abu Bakr, Omar, Othoman, Ali and all other companions of the Prophet Muhammed’. Further stylised with a cream colored weave of the words ‘Allah and Muhammed’.
Applied with darker black panels embroidered with silver and silver-gilt metal-threads on a gilt silk ground, shaped as Mihraab and enclosing Quran 2 verse Al-Kursi surah Al-Baqarah. To the centre with two octagonal panels enclosing ‘Allah and Muhammed’. To the top of the central field a rectangular panel of surah Al-Kahf verse 3, and a panel enclosing ‘a rasul allah / mawlana al-sultan Ahmad / yatlub al-shifa ‘ah bi-hadha al-mihrab al-nabawi al-sharif sana 1131 ‘O Messenger of God! Our lord Sultan Ahmad seeks intercession through this Noble Prophet’s mihrab’.
A central panel lower cartouche: the tughra of Sultan Ahmad (r.1703-1730 AD).
360 by 245 cm.