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"THE WISE," "THE LEARNED," "THE KNOWLEDGEABLE": A MAMLUK (?) TIRAZ FROM THE GRAVE OF A GOLDEN HORDE STEPPE WARRIOR (KALMYKIA, RUSSIA)
© 2018 г. Irina Shingiray
From the early period of its emergence, the Golden Horde forged diplomatic relations and political alliances with the Mamluk Sultanate. These relations were strengthened by the official exchange of opulent gifts containing luxury items during the 13th-14th century. Several primary sources state that the Mamluk gifts included large amounts of silk garments and tiraz bands decorated with epigraphic embroideries. This paper poses a question whether these items can be attested to archaeologically. Although numerous elite burials from the Golden Horde steppe and urban centers contain remains of silk garments, their Mamluk attribution is largely problematic. This paper addresses a nomadic elite burial from the steppe of the modern-day Kalmykia near Bolshoi Tsaryn (excavated in 1977), which contained a silk tiraz with an embroidered inscription that included a royal title and was executed in a style that likely suggests its Mamluk manufacture. If this interpretation of the silk is correct, it may potentially represent not only a piece of archaeological evidence for the abovementioned diplomatic exchange in luxuries, but also shed light on the context of how these precious silks were used and redistributed among the nomadic elite of the Golden Horde.
Keywords: Golden Horde, Mamluk Sultanate, nomadic elite, silk tiraz, burial archaeology, diplomatic exchange, Kalmykia.
In 1977, in the remote steppe region of northern Kalmykia, in the interfluve of the Volga and the former Sarpa rivers, an archaeological rescue expedition headed by E. V. Tsutskin excavated a group of burial mounds named Bolshoi Tsaryn I (Tsutskin 1978). In a small kurgan (number 2), there was a single burial of a mature male, who was placed in a niche grave (подбой) together with an assortment of grave goods (Figure 1.) The deceased was laid out in a supine position with arms and legs stretched along the body as if it was constrained by a shroud or bundled up in a textile or some other organic material (traces of which were noted in the description of the grave). His head was oriented toward NNE; the skull was elevated, turned to the right, and wrapped with an epigraphic silk band embroidered with Arabic letters (Figure 2). The grave goods included a birch-bark quiver and a number of tanged arrow heads; a horse tack with bridles, stirrups, and a saddle with bone plaques and nails; a conical cup made of a rolled-up sheet of bronze; a leather purse with ("oxidized" and thus illegible) silver coins near the left hand of the male, as well as another coin found under the right side of his skull (evidence of a so-called Charon's obol); and a sheep femur placed vertically to the left of the head of the deceased (Tsutskin, 1978:38-42).
As a typical nomadic military-elite burial interred during the Golden Horde period (13th-14th century), this grave has a number of ritual traits that are commonly construed as belonging to Mongol or Inner Asian funerary
practices, such as the grave construction and its orientation, the placement of the sheep femur, the weaponry and other luxury grave goods. Yet, simultaneously, this burial demonstrates the impact of the Islamization process which was unfolding among the nomadic military communities of the steppe population of the Golden Horde (see more in Shingiray 2018). Or, as the author of the excavation put it, it represents "a classic example of dualism in the initial stage of conversion to [Islamic] monotheism" (Tsutskin 1978:42). The most ostensible evidence that supports the traits of Islamization in this case is the deliberate placement of the silk textile with embroidered Arabic letters on the face of the deceased nomadic warrior during the process of the steppe funerary ritual. But where did this remarkable inscribed silk come from before it ended up in this steppe nomadic burial?
The silk epigraphic band from Bolshoi Tsaryn I has no analogies in the published literature familiar to me so far. The author of the excavations did not publish this burial. According to him the textile was sent to Moscow, where the text embroidered on the band was translated as "Lord of the Worlds" (Tsutskin, 1978:42). Currently, the whereabouts of this silk are not known to me. But, as can be judged from the old photograph preserved in the archaeological report, it seems that the proposed translation of this Arabic text was done incorrectly. Instead, this inscription executed in naskhi contains a repeated formula consisting of a single (illegible) letter followed by the Arabic word al-'alim—
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"the wise," "the learned," "the knowledgeable"— which was a "royal attribute" often used in conjunction with the name of a sultan or an amir during the 14th century (Doris Behrens-Abouseif and Sheila Blair, personal communication 2016). The illegible letter in this inscription probably signifies a suppressed word (perhaps a royal name or an attribute?) which preceded the title al-'alim—a practice that is commonly performed in Islamic embroideries in order to achieve symmetry in epigraphic designs which was much desired during this time period (Lamm, 1937:68). The corrected translation, therefore, allows us to treat this silk band as a later development of tiraz when it became fashionable to substitute long historical inscriptions (which defined tiraz proper as a textile with caliphal names, titles, dedications, etc.) with a short formula or a single word of honorific or generic titles as the manufacture of these silks was gradually transferred from the ruler's authority to the textile industry and the market (Mackie, 1984:130 and 2015:245; Bierman, 1980:46, 93).
Obviously without closer investigation of this silk it would be difficult to argue with absolute certainty for the country of its manufacture, especially since "multicultural patterns" of luxury goods were widely shared and emulated during the Mongol period (Mackie, 2015:237; Allsen, 1997). Yet, it is possible to make a preliminary proposition on the basis of stylistic analogies that this silk tiraz has a probable connection with the domain of Mamluk material and political culture. The repeated usage of a short and symmetrized formula containing the royal attribute al-'alim "compartmentalized" or framed in a cartouche in this tiraz is frequently found on textiles, glass, and metalwork from the Bahri period of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1382), and invokes the Mamluk aesthetic of "formality" represented in their arts executed on different media (Behrens-Abouseif, 1995:46 and 2014; Bierman, 1980:159; Mackie, 1984; Lamm, 1930 and 1937). Moreover, as suggested by Sheila Blair, if circles with a floriated-cross motif that alternate with the epigraphic cartouches on this silk can be confirmed as a type of blazon—a common feature of Mamluk art—then its Mamluk attribution can be assured (personal communication 2016). In fact, this pattern also has multiple analogies on Mamluk embroidered textiles, ceramics, and glass (see Lamm, 1937 and 1930) and is included in the list of Mamluk heraldry (Mayer, 1933:811, Pl. XII).
If the Mamluk attribution of this silk tiraz is correct, what can be surmised about the context of
its appearance among the Golden Horde nomadic military elite? It is well known that from the early period of the emergence of the Golden Horde, diplomatic relations and political alliances were forged between the Mongol khans of the Ulus Jochi and the Muslim rulers of the Mamluk Sultanate who resided in Cairo. For instance, the Golden Horde Khan Berke (r. 1257-67)—a practicing Muslim who widely encouraged Islam among the nomadic military communities of the Ulus Jochi—fostered a political alliance with the Mamluk Sultan al-Zahir Baybars (r. 1260-1277) against their mutual enemy in the face of the Ilkhanids of Iran, who by that time had not yet converted to Islam. As a result of this alliance, the khan of the Golden Horde with his allegedly newly-converted Muslim army was able to carry out jihad against his Ilkhanid rivals; and the Mamluk ruler Baybars, who reestablished the caliphate and patronized major Islamic shrines in the Arabia and Near East, received a steady supply of military slaves from the territory of the Golden Horde via the Black Sea ports (Vasary 2016; Favereau 2017).
This political dialogue was reinforced by a lavish exchange of diplomatic gifts initiated by Baybars, who famously sent an "opulent gift package" with precious objects, textiles, and animals to Berke in 1263 in order to celebrate the Islamization of the Golden Horde, as reported by Nuwayri and other Mamluk writers (see Behrens-Abouseif, 2014:24, 62-4). The Mamluk gifts regularly included large quantities of Alexandrian textiles, tiraz, and other garments. In 1282, Sultan Qalawun (1279-90) sent an embassy to Mongolia via the Golden Horde with 16 loads of luxury textiles, and in 1287, he sent a gift to the Golden Horde which among other objects included the following: "...200 embroidered white gowns from Dar al-Tiraz, half of which were embroidered with gold epigraphic bands 'in the name of the sultan', and the other half embroidered with silk epigraphic bands containing honorific titles; 150 gowns belonged to another type of Alexandrian textile embroidered with epigraphic bands of gold and silk; 150 gowns of Damietta textile were adorned with epigraphic bands of gold and silk with the 'usual titles' (bi-alqab al-'ada) and 100 other gowns had silk and gold unspecified epigraphic bands" (Ibn al-Furat in Behrens-Abouseif, 2014:64).
Mamluk historians, such as Ibn al-Dawadari and Nuwayri, report that in his diplomatic gifts to the Golden Horde, Qalawun's son and later Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (r.1293-1341 with
two interruptions) followed a similar protocol and sent textiles of the Dar al-Tiraz, as well as gold brocaded gowns and headgear. Doris Behrens-Abouseif (64-5, 155-8) remarks that this "Qalawunid passion for honorific inscriptions" with which the gowns of these diplomatic gifts were decorated clearly signifies the desire of the Mamluks to advertise their presence and their luxury textile culture at the court of the Golden Horde. In other words, the Mamluks, as the de facto patrons of the caliphate, sought to promote Islam in the Golden Horde through the material culture of luxury items, which were inscribed with Mamluk royal titles, attributes, and honorific formulas. These were most likely introduced en masse to the Golden Horde rulers probably with the intention that they would redistribute them among the newly converted elites of their polity.
Currently, it is difficult to determine whether such a redistribution of Mamluk luxury textiles occurred or not, due to the lack of sources that shed light on this matter. Burial archaeology is the most promising source for finding any traces
of evidence regarding this redistribution and/or use of Mamluk luxury textiles among the Golden Horde elites. As was noted above, a provenance attribution of a concrete textile of this time period is notoriously problematic. However, the rare epigraphic embroidery of probable Mamluk manufacture that was placed in the nomadic elite burial from Bolshoi Tsaryn I presented in this paper allows us to pose the hypothesis that at least some of those fabulous textiles that arrived to the Golden Horde as Mamluk diplomatic gifts trickled down to the nomadic elites of Ulus Jochi and finally made their way into the archaeological record.
Acknowledgements:
The author would like to express her gratitude to the ERC "Nomadic Empires" Project at the University of Oxford; to the late Evgenii Tsutskin for having shared his archaeological materials and his expertise with her in Kalmykia; and also to Doris Behrens-Abouseif and Sheila Blair for their assistance regarding the interpretation of the silk tiraz inscription.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allsen, T. T. 1997. Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Behrens-Abouseif, D. 1995. Mamluk and Post-Mamluk Metal Lamps. Supplément aux Annales islamologiques, Cahier n ° 15. Le Caire: Institut français d'archéologie orientale.
Behrens-Abouseif, D. 2014. Practising Diplomacy in the Mamluk Sultanate: Gifts and Material Culture in the Medieval Islamic World. London: I.B.Tauris.
Bierman, I. A. 1980. Art and Politics: The Impact of Fatimid Uses of Tiraz Fabrics. Ph.D. dissertation. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Favereau, M. The Golden Horde and the Mamluks // Золотоордынское обозрение. 2017. № 5(1). С. 93-115.
Lamm, C. J., 1930. Mittelalterliche Gläser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem Nahen Osten, Forschungen zur islamischen Kunst. Berlin: D. Reimer.
Lamm, C. J. 1937. "Some Mamluk Embroideries," Ars Islamica 4, pp. 64-77.
Mackie, L. W. 1984. "Toward an Understanding ofMamluk Silks:National and International Considerations," Muqarnas 2, pp. 127-146.
Mackie, L. W. 2015. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st century. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Mayer, L.A. 1933. Saracenic Heraldry: A Survey. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Shingiray, I. 2018. "'Nomadic Islam' in the Golden Horde Steppe: a Case-Study of a Burial from Bolshoi Tsaryn, Kalmykia." In Кавказ в системе культурных связей Евразии в древности и средневековье. XXX «Крупновские чтения» по археологии Северного Кавказа / Отв. ред. У. Ю. Кочкаров, Карачаевск / In U. U. Kochkarov (ed.) The Caucasus in the System of Cultural Relations of Eurasia in the Ancient Time and the Middle Ages. XXX "Krupnovsky Readings." Karachaevsk: KChGU, pp. 516-518 (in the digital publication).
Tsutskin, E. V. (Цуцкин Е. В). 1978. Oтчёт о работе Сарпинской археологической экспедиции Калмыцкого НИИаЛИ и КГУ в 1977 г. Элиста: Архив КИГИРАН №№ 8-10 / Report on the Work of the Sarpinskaia Archaeological Expedition of the Kalmyk NIIaLI and KGU in 1977. Elista: Archive KIGIRAN NN 8-10 (in Russian).
Vasary, I. 2016. "Golden Horde," In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas and E. Rowson, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Third Edition, http://dx.doi.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1163/1573-3912_ ei1163_COM_27498, Brill Online.
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About the Author:
Irina Shingiray, Ph.D., Research Fellow, History Faculty, University of Oxford. Address: Faculty of History, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL, UK; [email protected]
МУДРОСТЬ, ЗНАНИЕ, ПРОСВЕЩЕНИЕ: МАМЛЮКСКИЙ ТИРАЗ ИЗ ПОГРЕБЕНИЯ ЗОЛОТООРДЫНСКОГО СТЕПНОГО ВОИНА
(КАЛМЫКИЯ, РОССИЯ)
И. Шингирей
Начиная с раннего периода существования Золотой Орды, ее правители занимались налаживанием дипломатических отношений и формированием политических союзов с Мамлюкским Султанатом. Укреплению отношений между державами в ХШ—Х1У веках способствовал осуществляемый на официальном уровне обмен ценными подарками и предметами роскоши. Согласно ряду первоисточников, мамлюкские подарки включали в себя большое количество шелковой одежды и тиразских лент, украшенных эпиграфической вышивкой. Авторы статьи рассматривают возможность археологического подтверждения существования указанных предметов. Несмотря на то, что многочисленные степные и городские погребения золотоордынской элиты содержат остатки шелковой одежды, доказательство их принадлежности к мамлюкской культуре являетсядостаточно проблематичным. В статье рассматривается погребение кочевника высокого статуса, найденное в степи на территории современной Калмыкии недалеко от Большого Царына в ходе раскопок 1977 года, внутри которого был обнаружен шелковый тираз с вышитой надписью, содержащей королевский титул и выполненной в стиле, позволяющем говорить о его возможном мамлюкском происхождении. Если данная интерпретация находки является верной, она не только представляет собой археологическое подтверждение дипломатического обмена предметами роскоши, но также проливает свет на особенности использования и распространения дорогих шелков среди кочевой элиты Золотой Орды.
Ключевые слова: Золотая Орда, Мамлюкский Султанат, кочевая элита, шелковый тираз, археология погребений, дипломатический обмен, Калмыкия
Информация об авторе:
Ирина Шингирей, доктор наук, научный сотрудник исторического факультета Оксфордского университета, Великобритания; [email protected]
Fig. 1. Plan of the niche burial 1 in kurgan 2 from Bolshoi Tsaryn I (after Tsutskin, 1978). Рис. 1. План подобойного погребения 1 из кургана 2 могильника Большой Цврын I (по Цуцкинб 1978).
Fig. 2. Photograph of the human skull wrapped in a silk tiraz band from Bolshoi Tsaryn I kurgan 2 burial 1 (Tsutskin, 1978).
Рис. 2. Фотография черепа погребенного, покрытого шёлковой лентой (tiraz), из погребения 1 кургана 2 могильника Большой Царын I (Цуцкин, 1978).
