Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian) · other
Garment
Description
[Africa, North Africa, Egypt, Aswan, unidentified makers] Covered with symbolic decorations, this multitone silk garment beautified and protected its wearer. The <em>khamsah</em> (خمسة)—an open five-fingered hand—figures prominently as a cream-colored appliqué. The khamsah deflected or absorbed <em>al-'ayn</em> (العين)—the evil eye—as did the appliquéd mirrors, shielding the wearer from many varieties of harm. New research connects this garment to an entry in museum founder J. H. Wade’s 1881–1900 travel purchase notebook: “Kalifa’s gown emb[roidered] on purple silk.” A caliph (or khalifah) is a leader of a Caliphate (Islamic state) or an Islamic religious group. Whether this was indeed a caliph’s gown is a point of future research.
Cross-references (2)
- Wikidata Q79477967 tier-1
- CMA-id 95782 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
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- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.