Textile with inscribed chevrons

The decoration of this textile is reversible. It comprises a series of chevron bands, with toothed edges, alternating in beige and dark blue. At the apex of the band, a flower stands out, either blue on a beige chevron or beige on a blue chevron. The beige chevrons are edged inside with an inscription in naskhi, repeated in mirror image setting out the formula ‘tugh-yariq’, meaning in Turkish, ‘standard of light’. Turkish was the language of the Mamluks, a military class of Central Asian and Circassian origin which governed Egypt and Syria between 1250 and 1517.

Seven other fragments exist; one is held in Paris in the Cluny Museum[1]. The cloth is known as the ‘Shroud of Guy de Lusignan’. This powerful lord, named king of Cyprus by Richard the Lionheart, was buried in Nicosia in 1294 in a Templar church. In 1900, a mosque was built over the supposed site of the church. It was perhaps at this time that the cloth was discovered. Stylistically, it is reminiscent of the silks woven in Mamluk Syria or Egypt in the fourteenth century. It would seem unlikely therefore that it could be attributed to Guy de Lusignan, unless it denoted one of his descendents who were constables of Cyprus between 1278 and 1303.

It reflects several influences. Calligraphic chevron compositions were almost entirely reserved for tomb coverings by the Ottoman Turks, since in their tradition, the veil which shrouded the tomb of the Prophet at Medina bore this design. Furthermore, chevrons extended not with a lily but a loop or a small lozenge were found in the Mamluk period in the inlaid marble backs of several mihrabs, such as, the mihrab of the Qalawun mausoleum, realised in Cairo circa 1284. Sacred Mamluk buildings, such as the funerary complex of Sultan Faraj ibn Barquq (1410), were frequently surmounted by zigzagged domes. Ilkhanid Persian mausolea also employed this decorative scheme in the ceramic revetment of their superstructures, for example, the tomb of Abdal-Samad, in Natanz, constructed circa 1299. This textile decoration therefore has close associations with funerary architecture; and it is troubling to note that it figures on a fabric associated with a shroud. Rectangular carpets woven in eastern Anatolia which were probably used as coverings on cenotaph also displayed this ornamentation at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The inscription in mirror image has no direct connection with Islam. It may be the Turkish pseudonym of a Mamluk officer. The tugh, the long standard with a yak or horse tail at the end, was a sign to rally the troops among the Turkish-Mongol armies. It had a strong shamanistic connotation.

The fleurs-de-lis contrast with these elements. Their design reflects the fleurs-de-lis of Christianity. The lily appears as a symbol for the first time in Islamic iconography under the Syrian sultan Nur al-Din Zangui (1146-1174) and until the middle of the fourteenth century, it was drawn with three clearly separate petals.

This fabric, which displays a strong Mamluk influence, may have served as a shroud for a Muslim officer of Turkish origin, or a descendant of the Lusignans, or indeed a nobleman in their entourage. The fleurs-de-lis set in the chevrons contribute to the association of this fragment of fabric with the history of the Crusades.