The oldest specimen which I know of Spanish Arab textile fabric, is a woollen fragment of very fine quality embroidered in colours, which is at the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid. It is about 1½ yards long, by 18 inches wide. In medallions embroidered in silks are represented seated figures which appear to be a king, a lady, lions, birds, and quadrupeds. In two borders occurs the following inscription, repeated in cufic characters: "In the name of God, clement and merciful: The blessing of God and happiness for the caliph Iman Abdallah Hixem, favoured of God, prince of believers."
Hixem reigned from A.D. 979 until the first years of the 11th century. This fragment was found inside a small casket on the altar of a church in the town of San Esteban de Gormaz, province of Soria, where it was probably taken as a war trophy: it may be classified as a stuff called tiraz
Another most important object, although less ancient than the former one, is an Arabian banner which is traditionally believed to have been taken from the Almohades at the battle of Las Navas, A.D. 1212. This banner, which is preserved at the monastery of Las Huelgas of Burgos, is ten feet high by seven feet three inches wide. It is made of a crimson stuff, covered with an ornamentation woven and embroidered in gold and colours. In the centre is a large circle, placed within a square, which is enlarged in parallel bands. The four largest bands, which are also the last, are covered with inscriptions in blue African characters. The upper part of this banner is prolonged with several bands, one of which has inscriptions of a similar kind to those already mentioned; other borders contain several sentences in small African letters. The lower part is also prolonged and is terminated by eight points cut in a semicircle, inside which there are discs with illegible inscriptions. Three violet coloured lions, similar in form to those which appear on the arms of Leon, may be seen on three of the sides of the square. In the large circle in the centre of this banner, appears eight times repeated the word "The Empire,"
The specimens of Spanish moresco stuffs in the Kensington Museum, will be found numbered 51, 121, 124, 125, 152, 160, 180, 241, 244. (V. Dr. Rock's Catalogue.)
The artistic industry of silk manufactures which was initiated in Spain by the Arabs, continued to flourish during the Middle Ages and a great part of the Renaissance. Malaga and Almeria were important centres, but later on this industry was chiefly centred at Granada. The silk fabrics made at Seville, Toledo, Murcia and Valencia were much esteemed. The Moorish style of ornamentation in embroideries and stuffs must soon have fallen into disuse. Owing to the materials of similar kinds imported from Italy, France, Flanders, and other countries, these manufactures were imitated to a great extent, as may be gathered by the immense number of specimens which are still to be met with in Spanish churches. The cathedral of Toledo is quite a museum of objects of this kind, but all the textiles there are woven in the European manner.
The Moorish style in stuffs was preserved at Granada longer than in any other town in Spain. In 1502, ten years after its conquest by the Christians, we find it stated in the "Voyage of Philip le Beau," the father of the Emperor Charles V.: "Grenade est fort marchande, principallement de soyes, car les marchans y achattent la pluspart des soyes que l'on maine en Italie, pour faires les draps de soyes. Le lieu où on les vendt est nommé le Sacquatin. Auprès de ce lieu est une place appellée l'Allecasserie, où on vendt les draps de soyes ouvrés à la Moresque, qui sont moult beaus pour la multitude des couleurs et la diversité des ouvrages, et en font une grande marchandise." ["Collect. de Voyages, par M. Gachard, Bruxelles," 1870, i. 205.] Navagiero, who visited Spain twenty years after, tells us in his "Viaggio fatto in Spagna" [Vinegia 1563, p. 21]: "One enters a place called Alcaiceria which is enclosed within two doors, and full of alleys where the Moors sell silks and embroideries of every kind" [p. 29]: "All sorts of cloths of silks are made there; the silks made at Granada are much esteemed all over Spain; they are not so good as those which come from Italy. There are several looms, but they do not yet know how to work them well; they make good taffetas, sarcenet, and silk serges. The velvets are not bad, but those that are made at Valencia are better in quality."
Dr. Rock considers the following specimens in the Kensington Museum to have been made at Granada: Nos. 26, 27, 60, 65, 73, 128, 161, 166.