What does this tell us about the Crusades?
This textile fragment provides many meaningful insights into the Crusades:
This textile fragment, in connection with the broader group of medallion silks produced and circulated across regions during the Middle Ages, is a testament to consistencies in design and material preference during the Crusades, a period of shifting rule and cultural merging. It’s production in Islamic Spain it also a testament to the vast migration of textile technology, from Asia to Byzantium, and later Europe, and gives further insight into the movement of craftspeople and their knowledge that occurred throughout the Crusades. It’s lampas weave, or a complex weave created with two layers, one typically of silk and the other of metallic threading, are a testament to the rapid advancement of technology arguably intensified by the Crusades.
While the Crusades have historically been deemed a “clash of religions” this textile fragment, woven in Islamic Spain and preserved in the reliquary of St. Librada, serves as valuable evidence for how Islamic objects were adopted and integrated into even the most sacred Christian contexts. It negates the often perceived idea that Christianity and Islam are fundamentally opposed belief systems. Indeed, much of the iconography, such as the heraldically posed eagle, displayed on this fragment and many other textiles would have been contextualized across religions and even in the secular world. These characteristics also call for reflection: Christian kingdoms were invading Muslim regions during the Reconquista looking to gain additional control of Spain while simultaneously admiring the objects and treasures produced in Islamic Spain.
This textiles’ supposed story of being taken as war loot by Alfonso VII of Castile when his armies invaded Almeria, Spain in 1147, indicates how the Crusades (in this case, the Reconquista) provided another avenue for textile circulation during the Middles Ages; textiles and other treasures were relocated as Crusaders and other Christian soldiers carried them home from battle.
The textile presence in the reliquary of St. Librada –
- Pairing: Christian relics & valuable silks
- Possibly indicates how silks were used to transport relics during the Crusades
The influence of medallion silks on other medias