Textiles tell stories, and this one from 16th- or 17th-century Iran illustrates an episode from the tale of legendary Persian lovers Layla and Majnun. When Majnun was forbidden to marry his beloved Layla, he wandered into the wilderness. In this scene of tender longing, Layla approaches her lover atop a camel.
Though figural silks like this example were reserved for the wealthy, the stories they told were widely known and culturally resonant. The story of Layla and Majnun, immortalized in Nizami Ganjavi’s 13th-century Khamsa, inspired countless illustrated manuscripts and paintings. These visual interpretations, in turn, influenced design — embedding beloved literary and artistic traditions directly into the fabric.
This exquisite silk fragment from The Textile Museum Collection was woven at the Safavid court at the turn of the 17th century. Its sophisticated weave structure and patterning required an exceptional quantity of silk, enhancing both its visual richness and material value. Technically, it is extraordinary: the silk used is exceptionally fine and the weave is complex, demanding a highly specialized loom and a skilled team, from designer to drawboy to weaver. The pattern reveals remarkable intricacy on closer inspection — each detail is rendered with the precision of pen on paper, a feat rarely achieved in woven silk.
These qualities point to the hand of a master. Remarkably, the textile bears the signature of “Ghiyath,” a court artist under Shah Abbas I. Born in the late 16th century in Yazd — a city renowned for its weaving tradition — Ghiyath al-Din Ali was a Sufi painter, poet and master weaver. His deep understanding of the loom’s mechanics, passed down through his textile-making family, allowed him to translate artistic vision into woven form with finesse. His work represents the apex of Safavid silk weaving, a period when figural silks were especially prized for their technical sophistication and aesthetic beauty.
Researched by Barbara Steele
Barbara Steele has been a docent with the museum since 2014. A clinical social worker, she also worked many years in a large high school library. Her interest and appreciation for textiles began at a young age, when her family lived in Egypt and Türkiye.