Amanda Phillips
Related Terms:
- Ikat (dyeing technique that employs binding and resists dyeing)
- Khilʿa (robe of honor)
- Loom (apparatus for making fabric by weaving)
- Silk (natural fiber made from silkworm cocoons)
- Suzani (embroidered textiles from Central Asia)
- Tiraz (medieval embroidered textiles, also refers to the factories in which they were made)
Worksheet:
A worksheet for this video is available here.
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Related Khamseen Videos:
Sam Bowker, “The Egyptian Tentmakers and the Art of Khayamiya,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 28 August 2020.
Sumru Belger Krody, “Prayer Carpets,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 11 May 2021.
Richard McGregor, “Hajj Materials and Rites from Egypt,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 9 February 2021.
Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, “Craft and Aesthetics in Byzantine and Early Islamic Textiles,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 19 October 2020.
References:
Atasoy, Nurhan, Walter Denny, Louise Mackie and Hülya Tezcan. İPEK, the Crescent & the Rose: Imperial Ottoman Silks and Velvets. Istanbul and London: Azimuth and TEB İletişim, 2001. ![]()
Bier, Carol. The Persian Velvets at Rosenborg. Copenhagen: De Danske Kongers Kronologiske Samling, 1995. ![]()
Mackie, Louise. Symbols of Power: Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th–21st centuries. New Haven and London: HALI and Yale University Press, 2015. ![]()
Jain, Rahul. Woven Textiles-Technical Studies Monographs no. 2: Mughal Velvets. Ahmedabad: Calico Museum and Sarabhai Museum, 2011. ![]()
Peter, Michael. “A Head Start Through Technology: Early Oriental Velvets and the West.” In Oriental Silks in Medieval Europe. Edited by J. von Fircks and R. Schorta, 300–315. Riggisberg: Abegg-Stiftung, 2016. ![]()
Phillips, Amanda. “A Material Culture: Ottoman Velvets and their Owners, 1500–1650.” Muqarnas 31 (2014): 151–72. ![]()
Citation:
Amanda Phillips, “Velvet,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 17 May 2023.

Amanda Phillips received her DPhil at Oxford and teaches Islamic art at the University of Virginia. She has focused mostly on craft traditions and material culture in the Ottoman Empire. Art, objects, and commodities are the main topic of her first book Everyday Luxuries (2016), and her second book, Sea Change (2021), argues that textiles of all kinds twined their way through every facet of life in the Ottoman Empire. Her current project is about florimania during the early modern period, and is supported by a fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks.

