Baghdad: Weavers

Date: 980-81

In his al-Risāla al-Baghdādiyya, al-Tawhidi (d. 1023) refers to the weavers who used to weave clothes in al-ʿAtabiya quarter of Baghdad. Al-ʿAtabiya clothes were woven from cotton and silk. Also he mentions that these clothes were made from different colours in stripes (maʿallam). See also: Carpet Maker; Cushion Maker; Embroiderer.

Citation: Al-Tawhidi, ʿAli ibn Muhammad Abu Hayyan. Al-Risāla al-Baghdādiyya, ed. Abbud Shalji (Cologne: Dar al-Jamal, 1997), p. 134.

Date: 985-91

In his Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fi maʿrifat al-aqālīm, al-Muqaddasi (d. 991) notes that he saw colourful silk cloth that was made in Baghdad. See also: Tailor; Embroiderer; Pillow Maker.

Citation: Muqaddasi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad. Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fi maʿrifat al-aqālīm (Cairo: Maktabat Madbili, 1991), vol. 3, p. 128.

B

Date: 1154-61

The Andulusian author, Abu al-Hamid al-Gharnati (d. 1170), who lived in the Iraqi capital from 1154 to 1161, discusses the striped silk cloth of the ʿAttābī of Baghdad and Khurasan. See also: Dyers; Cotton Weavers; Mat Makers; Embroiderers.

Citation: R. B. Serjeant, ‘Material for a history of Islamic textiles up to the Mongol conquest,’ Ars Islamica 9 (1942), p. 81.

B

Date: Nineteenth to early twentieth centuries

N. L. Kotlov reports that in the first half of the nineteenth century there were 12,000 looms operating in Baghdad, but that by the early twentieth century this had reduced to a few hundred. See also: Dyer; Spinner; Tent Maker; Mat Maker.

Citation: N. L. Kotlov, Natsionalno-osvoboditelnoe Vosstanie (Moscow, 1958), pp. 49-56. Translated in Charles Issawi, ed., The Economy of the Middle East, 1800-1914, Studies in Middle Eastern History (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1988), pp. 454-57.

B