Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

The repeating motifs embroidered on this fragment have been arranged in offset rows which was a common way of creating all-over patterns on Mamluk textiles; these were sometimes worked in two colours, generally blue and red alternating. Beneath one, Professor Newberry pencilled in the word “health”. Evidently he thought the motif derived from the word al- 'âfiya (Arabic for good health, well-being) based on kufic letters repeated in mirror-image fashion. The motif appears in slightly different forms on several of the Newberry embroideries from the Mamluk period prompting the thought that the device was viewed as a protective or ‘good luck' symbol. However, it has also been suggested that it may have been derived from the word "Allah" and over time lost its significance.

This motif is particularly interesting because it provides more evidence that designs in early European pattern books were influenced by Mamluk textiles. A similar image was published in Schönsperger's pattern book, Modelbuch, of 1524 [illustrated in publication].

Three diamond-shaped medallions, each containing the same design of a pseudo-Kufic word possibly from al-mulk 'the kingdom'.