Batik

Categorized as Terms
Book illustrating batik process.

(Wax-Resist Dyed Fabric)

Arielle Winnik

Related Terms:

  • Ikat (dyeing technique that employs binding and resists dyeing)
  • Suzani (embroidered textiles from Central Asia)
  • Tiraz (epigraphic textile)
  • Silk (natural fiber made from silkworm cocoons)
  • Loom (an instrument for weaving)

Related Khamseen Videos:

Nazanin Hedayat Munroe, “Figural Silk in Safavid Iran,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 23 January 2025.

Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, “Craft and Aesthetics in Byzantine and Early Islamic Textiles,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 19 October 2020.

Eiren Shea, “Mongol Women’s Court Dress,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 14 March 2024.

Selected References:

Barnes, Ruth, Mary Hunt Kahlenberg, and Bruce White. Five Centuries of Indonesian Textiles: The Mary Hunt Kahlenberg Collection. Munich: Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2010. Barnes, Ruth. Indian Block-Printed Textiles in Egypt: The Newberry Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. New York: Clarendon Press, 1997.

Bennett, James. Crescent Moon: Islamic Art & Civilisation in Southeast Asia = Bulan Sabit: Seni Dan Peradaban Islam Di Asia Tenggara. Adelaide: National Gallery of Australia, 2005. Floor, Willem. The Persian Textile Industry: In Historical Perspective, 1500–1925. Paris: Société d’histoire de l’Orient, 1999.

Boow, Justine. Symbol and Status in Javanese Batik. Nedlands, WA, Australia: Asian Studies Centre, University of Western Australia, 1988. Crill, Rosemary, ed. The Fabric of India. London: V&A Publishing, 2015.

Smend, Rudolf et al. Batik from the Courts of Java and Sumatra: Rudolf G. Smend Collection. Singapore: Periplus, 2004. Fee, Sarah, ed. The Cloth That Changed the World: The Art and Fashion of Indian Chintz. Toronto: The Royal Ontario Museum and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019.

Van Hout, Itie. Batik: Drawn in Wax. 200 Years of Batik Art from Indonesia in the Tropenmuseum Collection. Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute, 2001. Houghteling, Sylvia. The Art of Cloth in Mughal India. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022.

Citation:

Arielle Winnik, “Batik,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 4 December 2025.

Portrait of Arielle Winnik

Arielle Winnik (Ph.D., Bryn Mawr College, 2022) is the Donna Torrance Assistant Curator of Indo-Pacific Art at the Yale University Art Gallery. Her research focuses on textiles across and beyond the Islamic world, from Arabic-inscribed textiles used by Egypt’s Christian minority population to silks found in western China. Her current project at Yale focuses on the Art Gallery’s collection of over 1,000 textiles from the Indonesian Archipelago, which range from the thirteenth century to the present. Her recent publications include articles on tiraz textiles found in Northeast Africa (“Dress and Identity in Christian Nubia,” Convivium [2024]) and on textiles from Java’s Kerek region (“Textiles from the Rens Heringa Collection at the Yale University Art Gallery,” Textiles Asia [2024]).