Khazz silk explained

Khazz silk (al-khazz الخزّ ) was a blended silk cloth made of silk and wool.[1] The Persian qazz or Arabic khazz, refers to silk or silk products. In medieval Arabic القزّ al-qazz meant "silk".[2]

History

Khazz silk is an olden variety of silken cloths. Khazz was a fabric of the 13th century, and the same cloth is mentioned in the 16th-century document  Ain-i-Akbari.[3] There are mentions in the Arabic literature about a type of striped khazz and Kutuf (the velvet cloth) used at the Umayyad Caliphate court, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (691-743).[4] Hisham used to have a fondness for robes and carpets." …. In his days there were made, striped silk (al-khazz rakm) and velvets (kutuf)".[5]

Texture

The texture of Khazz was similar to velvet or a napped cloth.[6]

Price

Khazz is noted as one of the costlier cloths, and it was priced at 16 Tankahs/silver coins (equal to the monthly salary of a soldier in the 14th century). The price is almost 16 times corresponding to a long cloth which was 1 Tankah.[7] [8] [9]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Gil. Moshe. 2002. References to Silk in Geniza Documents of the Eleventh Century A. D.. Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 61. 1. 31–38. 10.1086/468976. 546059. 162097940. 0022-2968.
  2. Web site: Collection of etymologies of English words that came from Arabic. 2021-02-09. ia801903.us.archive.org. en.
  3. Book: Mubārak, Abū al-Faz̤l ibn. The Ain i Akbari. 1873. Asiatic Society of Bengal. 92. en.
  4. Web site: Vogelsang. Willem. 2. A brief history of velvet. 2021-02-09. trc-leiden.nl. en-gb.
  5. (Serjeant 1973:14)
  6. Book: Phillips, Amanda. Sea Change: Ottoman Textiles Between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. 2021. Univ of California Press. 978-0-520-30359-1. en.
  7. Web site: Definition of TANKAH. 2021-02-09. www.merriam-webster.com. en.
  8. Book: Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 1870. Bishop's College Press. 30. en.
  9. Book: Lal, Kishori Saran. History of the K̲h̲aljis (1290-1320). 1950. Indian Press. 280. en.