Inscribed Horizontal Bands on Two Cloth-of-Gold Panels and Their Function as Part of an Īlkhānid Dress

Around 1300, horizontal bands began to appear on cloths-­of-­gold produced in Central Asia and the Mediterranean. Embellishments to the silk panels, they are woven in from selvage to selvage, where they either interrupt or superimpose the pattern repeat. As cloths-­of-­gold were highly valuable, treasured trade objects, most found their way to Europe, where they functioned as liturgical vestments, grave furnishings, or in reliquaries. Following this object transfer, knowledge of the intended function of these bands was lost. Using the two horizontal bands on silks Ia and Ib, part of the dalmatic and tunicella of the so-­called vestments of Henry II (d. 1024), this article seeks to determine where and during which interval these horizontal bands appeared on a cloth-­of-­gold, and to identify—­by comparing silks Ia and Ib to other silks with horizontal bands and to depictions of horizontal bands in other media, as well as by discussing the Arabic inscriptions—­these bands’ intended function in an Īlkhānid dress.