Actually #Viking textile has no Arabic at all but story has gone viral @NYTimes @Guardian @BBCWorld @NatGeo @ScienceAlert have reported 2/60
Show this thread
Dear Entire World: #Viking ‘Allah’ textile actually doesn't have Allah on it. Vikings had rich contacts w/Arab world. This textile? No. 1/60pic.twitter.com/jpvbrrePQg
-
-
-
There is something very troubling here about relationship between news media & experts, who should have been consulted for verification 3/60
Show this thread -
It should go without saying that a single scholar’s un-peer-reviewed claim does not truth make.
#medievaltwitter 4/60Show this thread -
Here’s the deal with
#Viking ‘Allah’ textile, as I have been able to piece it together over past few days. 5/60Show this thread -
1: As an Islamic art historian & archaeologist, I was immediately suspicious about style of Arabic epigraphy. 6/60
Show this thread -
It’s really so simple that I spent five days thinking, it couldn’t be that Larsson would make so fundamental and obvious a mistake. 7/60
Show this thread -
It’s a style called square Kufic, and it’s common in Iran, C. Asia on architecture after 15th c., ex: Safavid Isfahan w/Allah and Ali 9/60pic.twitter.com/pbGJNFITGk
Show this thread -
Earliest examples of square Kufic on architecture date to the 11th-early 12th century: Panel of Ibrahim b. Mas‘ud, ca. 1059-1099 10/60pic.twitter.com/qGZGb4G8gP
Show this thread -
Or the Minaret of Mas‘ud III at Ghazni, ca. 1099-1118, so all at least 100 years later than Birka textile h/t
@2Kufic 11/60pic.twitter.com/TTy6G0f6ix
Show this thread -
But final character in Larsson’s drawing
#Viking Allah txtl has Arabic letter 'ha' ـه w/a hook over it that’s not common until 15th c. 12/60pic.twitter.com/4zq6YQXJ1I
Show this thread -
Perhaps there are 10th c. 2Kufic examples on central Asian textiles. If so, I am not aware of them. Especially not w/hooked ‘ha.’ 13/60
Show this thread -
Even if such examples exist, Larsson specifically cites architecture as comparanda. 14/60 http://www.uu.se/en/news-media/news/article/?id=9390 …
Show this thread -
2. But let’s assume there are 10th c. Central Asian textiles with 2Kufic. Even so, it turns out Larsson’s drawing doesn’t say ‘Allah’ 15/60
Show this thread -
Instead the drawing says للله ‘lllah’, which basically makes no sense in Arabic. 16/60https://twitter.com/phoenixnl/status/917112486008156160 …
Show this thread -
Arabic phrases like الحَمْد لله al-hamdulillah incorporate 'l-lah' but don’t stand alone, and it’s spelled لله with 2 uprights, not 3. 17/60
Show this thread -
This is similar to an argument made for another sensational find: the
#Viking ring said to say ‘to/for God’ 18/60http://phoenixblog.typepad.com/blog/2016/01/tofor-allah-or-just-a-jumble-of-lines.html …Show this thread -
And we have some evidence of this in the form of pseudo-Kufic inscriptions on weights for measuring silver 20/60 http://www.arkeologiskasamfundet.se/csa/Dokument/Volumes/csa_vol_15-16_2007-2008/csa_vol_15-16_2007-2008_s61-71_fernstal.pdf …
Show this thread -
Or even real Arabic, for example dinar of Anglo-Saxon King Offa, who keeps Arabic Shahada intact as he inserts his name in the middle. 21/60pic.twitter.com/Hm6VfNa6YX
Show this thread -
3. Spanish ‘ribbons’ bearing Arabic writing also cited by Larsson as comparanda, but this also doesn’t seem to work date-wise. 22/60
Show this thread -
Medieval Spanish textile expert Maria J. Feliciano confirmed to me that known square Kufic tablet weaves are post-13th c. 23/60
Show this thread -
Here are some examples from Monastery of Santa María La Real de Huelgas in Burgos, 13th c. 24/60pic.twitter.com/lmw2uXfGPW
Show this thread -
And a bit further north, not far from Paris, maniples w/2Kufic-like patterns from Chasuble of St Edmund, Provins, also 13th c. 25/60pic.twitter.com/g6apRvsjTY
Show this thread -
Interestingly, these later European examples of supposed 2Kufic actually also bear pseudo-Kufic, not real Arabic writing. 26/60
Show this thread -
4. But the final nail in the coffin *cough* I mean burial ship is that Larsson’s claim is based on extrapolation, not evidence. 27/60
Show this thread -
As
#Viking textile specialist Carolyn Priest-Dorman puts it, text based on “extensions of pattern, not on existing pattern” 28/60Show this thread -
The word “Allah” in Arabic looks like this: الله. It has an upright alif, two more uprights (lam), and a final ـه 'ha' 29/60
Show this thread -
The tablet-woven textile in the widely-dispersed press photograph shows only design of three uprights connected by a horizontal band. 30/60pic.twitter.com/NUOiLR6zbZ
Show this thread -
There is a small triangular shape, but no final ha ـه. Frag. was published in 1938 by Agnes Geijer, original drawing looked like this: 31/60pic.twitter.com/DxDossuWzs
Show this thread - Show replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.