A pair of blue silk trousers, Central Asia, 11th/12th Century

the wide trousers with rectangular top, the shoulder straps and frontal design composed of assorted silk cloths with varying designs and a row of small conch shells, green and white calligraphy on the straps, the central silk garment with yellow geometric foliate designs against a purple ground, top tied at reverse

In good condition, wear and staining to reverse consistent with age, straps and frontal design, few small tears and loose threads, as viewed. Lot accompanied by a RadioCarbon Dating test carried out on threads taken inside the waist of the trousers, at the rear below the bib by RCD Lockinge confirming the date of manufacture between the 11th to 13th centuries.
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inscriptions

In negative, possibly: 
bi'l-yu[mn] / [a]-dawla wa / [al-sa] lama
'With Good-fortune ?/ wealth and / Well-being/

This ensemble is composed of multiple textiles: the trousers and top are made of a dark blue silk decorated with golden yellow designs of petals arranged in repeating circular patterns with stylised flowerheads and palmettes at their centre and cloud-band or winged motifs within each petal. The shoulder straps are decorated in cream and green with palmettes from which appear bands containing script.

The designs within the petals evoke images of lotus-blossoms, clouds and / or the long swishing tails of phoenixes. This assorted blend of motifs is characteristic of Central Asian textiles from this period, and the design can be traced to multiple influences. Silk textiles of the Northern Song period (960-1126 AD) have been found at Rayy with twelfth and thirteenth-century Chinese ceramics attesting to their presence as far west as present day Tehran (Kadoi 2009, p.18). A textile in the Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. no. 1992.112a, from the Liao Dynasty (907-1125 AD), is decorated with cranes flying amongst clouds and flowers in a fantastical composition.

The curvilinear and foliated Kufic text on these shoulder straps resemble that on two rectangular fragments in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (illustrated in: Suriano, C.M., Carboni, S., ed., La Seta Islamica: Temi et Influenze Culturali, Florence, 1999, pp.44-48, no.11). These have been attributed to China, Mongolia, or Central Asia in the second half of the thirteenth century. Furthermore, it is interesting to compare the present benedictory inscription with that on a silk cloth coat now in the Aga Khan collection which features an inscription written in mirrored-Kufic along the shoulders that has been read as “Glory and prosperity, long life to his owner”. These are attributed to either Persia between the eighth and ninth century or China, eighth century, even though a wider date range is not excluded (Illustrated in: Paris 2008, pp.46-47, no.12). One more example, from the David Collection, Copenhagen, inv. no.25/1992, is of a fragment dated between the eleventh-twelfth century, which incorporates a band of Kufic script between a geometric pattern to one side and animal motifs on the other in an amalgamation of designs similar to those on the present set (illustrated in: von Folsach 2001, p.371, no.633).

These textiles pre-figure the Mongol era to come in which textiles were to play an ever increasing role, as noted by Yuka Kadoi:  “The promotion of luxurious silk clothing and lavishly woven furnishings generated by the Mongols turned the Iranian world into a truly textile-conscious society” (Kadoi 2009, p.19).