Table of Contents

Preface Acknowledgements 1. General Information Introduction The Embroiderers Foreign Influences and Sources Materials and Equipment Hand and Machine Embroidery Techniques Designs and Colours 2. Embroideries from Archaeological and Historical Sources Embroideries from the Tomb of Tutankhamun Late Classical and Early Medieval Embroideries from Archaeological Sites in Egypt and Nubia Early Archaeological Embroideries from the Eastern Mediterranean and Iraq Coptic, Byzantine and Arab Sicilian Embroidery Late Medieval Embroideries from Egyptian Archaeological Sites Embroideries from Qasr Ibrim, Egyptian Nubia - Nettie K. Adams, USA Medieval Embroideries from the Qadisha Valley, Lebanon Medieval Styles of Embroidery from Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean Embroidered Tiraz Snapshot: The Kiswa Egyptian Applique and the Street of the Tent Makers Ottoman Turkish Embroidery - Sumru Krody, Textile Museum, USA 3. Regional Embroidery from North Africa and the Middle East Snapshot: The Maghreb and Embroidery Embroidery from Morocco - with Caroline Stone, University of Cambridge, UK Snapshot: The Jewish Kiswa al-Kabira and Related Garments Embroidery from Algeria Embroidery from Tunisia Embroidery from Libya Snapshot: Tuareg Embroidery Embroidery from Egypt - with Shahira Mehrez, Egypt Embroidery from Sudan Snapshot: The Aba and Bisht Samaritan and Jewish Ritual Embroidery Ecclesiastical Vestments and Embroidery from Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean - Karel Innemee, Leiden University, The Netherlands Embroidery and Dres from Lebanon - with Nour Majdalany, Lebanese Heritage Foundation, Lebanon A General Introduction to Palestinian Embroidery - with Widad Kawar, Jordan Palestinian Embroidery and Clothing - with Widad Kawar, Jordan Negev and Sinai Bedouin Embroidery - with Shahira Mehrez, Egypt Embroidery from Jordan - with Widad Kawar, Jordan Embroidery from Syria - with Widad Kawar, Jordan and Layla Pio, Jordan Embroidery from Iraq - with Layla Pio, Jordan Embroidery from Saudi Arabia - with Laila Al Bassam and Tahani Al-Ajaji, College of Design and Arts, Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University (PNU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Snapshot: Three Saudi Arabian Fashion Designers Using Embroidery Embroidery from Yemen - with Marjorie Ramson, USA Snapshot: Neksha Harazi: The Hand Embroidery Company of Al Hajjarah, Yemen - Ghaleb Alburaai, Yemen, and Alison Elliott, UK Embroidery from Oman and Zanzibar Snapshot: Zarri Metal Thread Embroidery from India Embroidery from the Gulf States Snapshot: Colonel and Mrs Dickson's Embroidered Garments 4. Appendices and Index Hand Embroidered Stitches Stitch List Based on 'Family' Groups Stitch List A-Z Glossary of National and Regional Dress Terms Glossary of Textile Terms Museum Collections Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

This authoritative reference work explores the rich heritage of embroidery across the Arab world from antiquity to the present day.

About the Author

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood is Director of the Textile Research Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Reviews

With the Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World, Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood has produced the kind of volume that could only come from someone with many years of experience both in textile scholarship and with teaching hands-on textile crafts. Her expertise in the history and contemporary manifestations of these diverse traditions has resulted in an essential reference for scholars and textile artists alike.
*Journal of Folklore Research*

An outstanding and comprehensive reference work ... The book is well-presented, well-designed and a well-planned study of embroidery from the Arab world. Its ease of use is a pleasure.
*Reference Reviews*

This outstanding volume is the first to cover its colorful subject across the Arab world in both space and time.
*Aramco World magazine*

What a wonderfully detailed, wide-ranging and informative volume ... This is a wonderful book. And I'm not the first reader to think so. It won this year's Dartmouth Medal ... A well-deserved accolade.
*Context*

This encyclopedia is a scientifically sophisticated, visually impressive and extremely carefully crafted work that researches and documents one of the most beautiful and traditional cultural techniques of the Arab world. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood has produced a great success. Anthropologists, historians, archaeologists and designers will be amongst the interested readers of this defining work on such a fascinating topic.
*Jemen-Report (Bloomsbury translation)*

This profusely illustrated volume on the embroidery of the Arab world is a tour de force of scholarship and technical detail. Bringing specialists from across the region and beyond to bear on this in-depth study, Dr. Vogelsang-Eastwood has produced a book that will both fascinate and inform readers. Historians of all disciplines, cultural anthropologists, practitioners of embroidery, designers, artists, and those simply beguiled by the beauty of textiles, will all benefit greatly from reading the Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World.
*Dale Gluckman, Senior consultant, Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, Bangkok, Thailand*

Textiles are a treasure trove for historians and curators, practising embroiderers and designers. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, as both editor and main contributor, has marshalled a series of chapters from a range of specialists into a fully illustrated book on the outstanding heritage of embroidery from North Africa and the Middle East. The book, which can be consulted for information about regions, themes, collections, practical notes on stitches and much more, is set to become a classic work of reference - the aim of all encyclopedias.
*Jennifer Scarce, Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art and Design, University of Dundee, UK*

This valuable publication contains information of interest to the professional archaeologist, textile historian, textile conservator, and textile artist. To have combined all of this information within one volume is a remarkable achievement.
*Glennda Marsh-Letts, Archaeological Conservator and Textile Consultant, Australia*

This beautifully executed reference volume… achieves encyclopedic breadth and comprehensive coverage without fragmenting its subject… The book features very high-quality color illustrations… photographs of embroiderers working, showing tools and methods; pattern diagrams; drawings of stitches; schematic drawings of garments; maps, and more. This volume is well-made, can be held easily, and when laid flat will stay open to a selected page without text vanishing into the gutter. It is a pleasure to use… There is no comparable reference work covering the full breadth of the subject, making Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World essential for research and academic libraries with textile collections.
*Art Libraries Society of North America Reviews*

[This is] an encyclopedia of embroidery in the Arab world that is like no other book … It is an exhaustive reference and information work, which tries to answer well-founded texts and rich pictorial material on questions, and to provide assistance for the often difficult attribution and classification of embroidery by age and origin. (Bloomsbury translation)
*Preetorius Foundation*

This is not just a book. It is a legacy.
*The Fabric Thread*