Analysis of the effect of Fatimid political rivalry with Abbasids on Fatimid textiles

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.