A magnificent Ottoman silk, velvet and metal thread calligraphic band (hizam) from the Holy Ka'ba, late 19th / early 20th century

grey-black velvet and pale green satin, the main elements of the decoration embroidered in gold and silver thread over padding, the smaller motifs embroidered in fine flattened gold and silver wire

inscriptions

Qur’an, surah al-Baqara, (II), parts of 197.

In the round cartouche: Invocations to God.

The four walls of the Ka'ba are covered with a curtain (kiswa) with the shahada outlined in the weave. About two thirds of the way up runs a gold embroidered band (hizam) covered with Qur'anic verses. Each year, when the new kiswa arrives the guardians of the Ka'ba, the Banu Shayban, divide the old kiswa up and distribute the pieces to honoured pilgrims. Entire surahs were apparently reserved for important dignitaries or rulers. 

It is rare to find a hizam that survives in such good condition and so complete.  Similar examples have sold in these rooms (16 October 1997, lot 72, and 21 October 1993, lot 255) but none of such exceptional quality as the present example. The uniqueness of this piece lies in the use of a grey-black velvet ground which lends the textile a depth and richness offsetting the raised texture of the calligraphy, which is itself of the highest order.

A comparable panel from the hizam is in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, inv. no. TXT 39a (see Amsterdam 1999, no. 20, pp.84-85).