امیرنیما الهی

The Fatimid era (909–1171 AD) was the flourishing period of the granting robe of honors tradition from 10th to 12th Century AD. The Egyptian textile industry allowed the Fatimids to grant the robes of honor for consolidating their political power by showing their glorious court. This study is a Sociological analysis of the relationship between social classes and the robes of honor. The study is based on a descriptive-analytical approach in the framework for theorizing and analyzing the data. The Fatimids had an ideology on the robes of honor that helped them strengthen their relationship with the various social classes. The Fatimid granted them on various occasions: the appointment of officials, ceremonies, and awards, which had different characteristics depending on the social class. A robe of honor was a sign of social status; hence, it could reflect the social situation in the Fatimid era.

The spread of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula to the east and west had a great impact on the region's communications; Thus, the intercultural and multicultural feature is one of the main features of Islamic art, especially in the Mediterranean area, where the three continents of Asia including Europe and Africa are connected by Mediterranean Sea. The Shiite Fatimid Caliphate (297-567 A.H) that ruled parts of southern Italy, northern Africa, the Levant and parts of Saudi Arabia for more than two and a half centuries is one of the best examples of intercultural and multicultural interaction in the history of Islamic art. Although the geographical feature of the Fatimids provided the basis for the growth of the multicultural character of their murals, such a profound transformation required other causes and reasons as well. Descriptive-analytical method for writing and library study has been used to collect data in this theoretical research. Contextualism also provides a good framework for analyzing works of art in their historical context. The outcome of this research clarifies those schools and techniques of different cultures, sects and races that were present simultaneously in the Fatimid lands. Instead of indigenous opportunities of Mediterranean region, the flourishing multicultural art of the Fatimid murals was derived from political transition, freedom of religion, backing Shia Muslims and economic growth of the era which provided fertile ground for foreign painters from Iraq, the Byzantium Empire and the Armenians.

The fourth to sixth centuries AH marked the concurrent ruling of the Fatimid Shiite caliphate and the Sunni Abbasid caliphate in a vast stretch of the Islamic territory. The two caliphates extensively used textiles as a means of political confrontation. This study aims to conduct a contextual analysis of the impact of the Fatimid political rivalry with the Abbasids on Fatimid textiles. Accordingly, the main question is how these political rivalries influenced the Fatimid textiles. The contextualism framework, informed by the theory that a work of art is a social product shaped in the historical context of society, lays the ground for exploring the role of textiles in this rivalry within the historical-political context of that period. In this research, a document analysis method has been adopted for data collection along with a descriptive-analytical method that draws on the theoretical research. According to the findings, the role of textiles in the Fatimid political rivalry with the Abbasids covers three periods: the first one is the Fatimid Caliphate, in which textiles played a symbolic role in overthrowing the Abbasid agents in North Africa and establishing the Fatimid Caliphate. The second is the golden age of the Fatimid period and the domination of the Egyptian textile industry, when textiles were exploited for political lobby in the Abbasid land. The third one is the last years of Fatimid caliphate, in which, due to internal and external crises, textiles served as means of establishing political relations with the Abbasids.