Textiles · a Light

Muslin, damask and mohair are place names or Arabic words

Textiles were the largest manufacturing industry of the medieval Muslim world, and the trade left its vocabulary in European languages. Muslin is named for Mosul and damask for Damascus. Mohair is mukhayyar, meaning choice or selected. Taffeta is the Persian taftah. Cotton is qutn, and sash is shash, a length of fine cloth wound as a turban. Some other favourites are guesswork: gauze from Gaza and satin from the Arabic name for the Chinese port of Quanzhou are marked uncertain in the dictionaries, and should be repeated with that attached. State workshops wove bands of inscription, tiraz, into robes, naming the ruler and the year, and a robe from the ruler's own wardrobe was a political act as much as a gift. The dyers left words as well. Crimson comes through Arabic qirmiz, the insect that gave the red.

Tiraz workshops and the cloth trade