Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Notes on Transliteration
Introduction
Material Culture and Mysticism in the Persianate World
PART I
Chapter One
Silks, Signatures and Self-fashioning
Khamsa Narrative Silks in Scholarship
The Famous Naqshband: Unrivalled in the Art of Textile Design
Craftsmen and Consumers
Self-Fashioning in the Early Modern Persianate World
Chapter Two
Dressed as King, Lover and Beloved: Khusrau and Shirin
Lovers from Nizami’s >Khamsa
The Romantic Tragedy of Nizami’s ‘Khusrau and Shirin’
Khusrau and Shirin in Paintings and Safavid Silks
The Gaze and the Body: States of Dress and Undress
Chapter Three
Weaving Stories, Weaving Self: Layla and Majnun as Sufi Icons
The Mystical Love Story of Nizami’s ‘Layla and Majnun’
Layla and Majnun in Paintings and Safavid silks
The >Khamsa of Amir Khusrau
Text and Textile in Sufi Poetry
PART II
Chapter Four
The Divine Cloak of Majesty: Material Culture in Sufi Practice
Garments as Gifts of Blessing, Piety and Power
Chivalry, Spirituality, and Materiality in Sufism
Khirqa: The Cloak of Spiritual Poverty
Khamsa Silk as >Khirqa? Figural Silks in Islamic Literary Sources
Enrobed: Khil’atChapter Five
Mughal Dress and Spirituality: The Age of Sufi Kings
Silk, Sufism and Self-Image at the Mughal Court
Figural Silks from Mughal Manufactories
Jahangir as King and Lover Ghiyath’s Legacy at the Mughal Court
Chapter Six
Safavid Figural Silks in Diplomacy: Rare Textiles of Novel Design
Silk as Commodity in Safavid Iran
Safavid Ambassadors and Figural Silk
Figural Silk as Safavid Identity: Sherley and his rivals
Safavid and Mughal Gift-giving in Historical Accounts
Figural Silks at the Mughal Court
Conclusion
Appendix A: List of Khamsa silks
Appendix B: Summary, Amir Khusrau’s ‘Shirin and Khusrau’
Appendix C: Summary, Amir Khusrau’s ‘Majnun and Layla’
Glossary
Works Cited
Index