Imported Textiles in Ethiopian Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Manuscript Bindings in Britain

Abstract

Summary We are pleased to publish another product of the multi-faceted scholarship of Dr Pankhurst, Senior Research Fellow of the British Institute. This article is the first substantial treatment of its subject. It is planned that it should be followed by another in Azania XVI, dealing with textiles of the eighteenth century. This study, mainly in the form of a catalogue, describes the different types of cotton and silk cloth imported into Ethiopia between the late sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries, as revealed by fragments preserved in Ethiopian manuscripts, mainly from the Gondar area, currently housed in British libraries. Slightly over half the cloth whose provenance has been identified is of Indian origin, but cannot be dated. The remainder came from Turkey and Europe (probably Italy). Most of it would seem to date from around the seventeenth century—and is hence very roughly of the same age as the manuscripts.