When Curtains Fall: A Shape-Shifting Silk of the Late Abbasid Period

Abstract

A silk intended for administrative use under the Buyids—the dynasty which ruled on behalf of the Abbasid caliphs from roughly 934 to 1062—was deconstructed under their successors, the Seljuks of Iran (1038–1194), so as to efface its associations with the defunct dynasty. When twentieth-century scholars re-established the piece's connection to the Buyids, linking the piece directly to the emir Bahāʼ al-Dawlah, they ironically overlooked the Seljuk alterations and their implications. Following the silk through its several iterations, this article argues that, for late Abbasid-era elites navigating a changing political terrain, re-use became a means of maintaining their standing in society, as well as an act of preservation for the silk itself.