Arabic Calligraphy Batik Shroud from Jambi (Cikal bakal batik besurek Bengkulu?)

It has been a good week for acquisitions. Our "tigers" in the field in Sumatra have had some success recently, perhaps because the rainy season is coming to an end and the roads are more passable now. We were delighted to acquire this beautiful batik cloth from Jambi, with stylised Arabic calligraphy, including prominent tugra motifs. This motif is derived from the official signature of the rulers of the Ottoman empire, and was also widely used as a talisman to ward off trouble. We learned this last November when the Ottoman influence on Islamic batik in Indonesia was eloquently elucidated by Thomas Murray in a paper he delivered at a conference on traditional textiles at the Indonesian National Museum in Jakarta.

Reference :
Textile Arts of the Indonesian Archipelago (Macan Tidur Tekstil)