Suzani

Categorized as Terms

Suzani

Carol Bier

Related Terms:

  • Batik (wax-resist dyed cloth)
  • Ikat (resist-dyed cloth)
  • Silk (natural fiber made from silkworm cocoons)
  • Tiraz (calligraphic band on textile)
  • Velvet (luxury compound weave)

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.

Selected References:

Bier, Carol. “Symmetry and Symmetry-Breaking: An Approach to Understanding Beauty.” In Renaissance Banff – Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science, edited by Reza Sarhangi and Robert V. Moody, 219–226. Banff, Alberta: Bridges Conference, 2005. 

Bier, Carol. “Catching the Light, Catching the Waves: The Suzani Collection of Doris Duke at Shangri La in Honolulu, Hawai’i.” Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings, 2008.  

Bier, Carol. “The Suzani Collection of Doris Duke at Shangri La in Honolulu, Hawai’i.” In Embroideries and Carpets of Uzbekistan in Foreign Collections, edited by Elmira Gyul, 287–313. Tashkent: Uzbek Academy of Sciences, 2017.

Bier, Carol, Ann S. Perlman and Sahra Indio. Shangri La Suzani Research Project, Report – Phase 1; Phase 2 (typescript, illustrated). Honolulu: Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, 2005.

Black, David and Clive Loveless. Embroidered Flowers from Thrace to Tartary. London: David Black Oriental Carpets, 1981.

Hasson, Rachel. Flowering Gardens along the Silk Road: Embroidered Textiles from Uzbekistan. Jerusalem: L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, 2001. 

Meller, Susan. Silk and Cotton: Textiles from the Central Asia That Was. New York City: Abrams, 2013.

Yanai, Yigal. Suzani: Central Asian Embroideries. Tel Aviv: Haaretz Museum, 1986.

Citation:

Carol Bier, “Suzani,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 21 January 2025.

Carol Bier  is a historian of Islamic art, who has published widely on cultural aspects of geometry in Islamic art that inform beauty of form, pattern and structure. A Research Scholar with the Center for Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, since 2010, she is concurrently Research Associate at The Textile Museum in Washington, DC (2001–present), where she served as Curator for Eastern Hemisphere Collections (1984–2001). She was President of the Textile Society of America (2006–08).