The Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World was originally intended to be an academic study of embroidery in the Middle East and North Africa. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director of the Textile Research Center (TRC) and an expert on Middle Eastern dress and textiles, originally intended to elaborate on the more general introduction that she had published to accompany a 2010 exhibition at the TRC Gallery in Leiden. However, Vogelsang-Eastwood and the book’s main contributors ultimately chose to frame their subject in a way that speaks to a wider audience both in and outside of the academy. This decision produced a volume that should be satisfying for both material culture scholars and textile artists in its equally deep attention to formal characteristics of embroidery styles, a wide range of embroidery techniques, and past and present contexts of embroidery in the Middle East and North Africa.
Unlike a standard encyclopedia, this volume is arranged in chapters by subject areas, and the majority of these cover specific regions or, most often, contemporary states in the Arab World. Vogelsang-Eastwood defines the Arab world as the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa, and North Africa, an area unified to an extent by the influence of Islam and of Arabic as a common language. She notes some potential problems with any definition of the “Arab world”; this is a large and diverse geographic area that is home to a large variety of ethnic groups and religions. Nevertheless, this definition can be seen as a positive step away from the term “Arab embroidery” as a limiting generic term. The regional focus instead allows her to examine any embroidery traditions found in the geographic area, including those of non-Arabic-speaking peoples.
The book is divided into four sections written by Vogelsang-Eastwood, three main contributors, and a number of other contributors who author topic-focused chapters. Section One gives background information, including definitions of main terms and a historical overview that takes into account influences and flows of people and goods, both within the region and between it and other regions. It contains comprehensive chapters on embroidery as a textile process, including information on materials, techniques, designs, and colors. Section Two is divided into topic-focused chapters that cover archaeological and historical examples of embroidery in the Arab world. These range from the tomb of Tutankhamun to Ottoman Turkish embroidery.
Section Three takes up the majority of the page count, and it largely covers contemporary states in the region chapter by chapter. There are also specific chapters on the embroidery traditions of stateless groups and ethnic and religious minorities. These include chapters on “Samaritan and Jewish Ritual Embroidery,” “Ecclesiastical Vestments and Embroidery from Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean,” “Palestinian Embroidery and Clothing,” and “Negev and Sinai Bedouin Embroidery.” Vogelsang-Eastwood also provides a chapter on zarri metal thread work, a type of Indian embroidery that has long been important in the Arab world. Alongside the main chapters appear shorter “Snapshot” chapters that cover important garments, individuals, companies, or embroidery traditions. All of the coverage is comprehensive, giving detailed local and historical context, general embroidery types and sub-types, the context in which particular garments have been constructed and worn, and identifiable influences on embroidery techniques and designs. The names and meanings of particular design motifs are sometimes given alongside embroidery charts that clearly show the design on a grid for easy identification or even reproduction.
The final section contains several appendices that provide useful, comprehensive resources for readers who wish to do deeper research into the subject. Appendix 1 is a list of embroidery stitches with diagrams that show how they are produced. Vogelsang-Eastwood explains that all of the stitches shown are ones that appear on many items over time and that thus should be considered part of the “traditional stitch repertoire” (593) in a particular location and historical period. She organizes them into families of related stitches. Appendix 1b is an alphabetical index of the stitches pictured in Appendix 1, allowing readers to easily identify stitches by name and then reference them in the context of related stitches. Appendix 2a and Appendix 2b are both glossaries, but they separate terms pertaining to national and regional dress from textile terms, of which the latter is a much smaller group that would easily be obscured by the many terms for different garment types. This organizational choice benefits different types of audiences for this encyclopedia who may use it in different ways--as a scholarly guide, as a reference to national and regional dress, or as a resource for creating embroidered textiles and garments. Appendix 3 presents a list of museums and other institutions with significant collections of North African and Middle Eastern embroideries, facilitating further exploration by interested readers. The bibliography is very large and includes both print and digital resources in abundance. It begins with a guide for new researchers into the subject in which Vogelsang-Eastwood explains the most useful works for particular research interests.
The appendices and bibliography highlight a strength evident throughout the book: it functions beautifully for multiple audiences, including dress and textile scholars, craft scholars, those interested in material culture of the region, and textile artists. The writing is technical and elevated but accessible, and the text and images are balanced between describing forms and contexts. Ample photographs of objects from museum collections are accompanied by drawings that clearly show garment construction and embroidery patterns, allowing for better identification of garments and even for reproduction of garments and designs, especially when paired with the stitch diagrams in the first appendix. This is the kind of information that textile artists seek and rarely find, and it can be an important resource for individuals engaging with heritage crafts after emigration or other disruptions in traditional craft practices.
With the Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World, Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood has produced the kind of volume that could only come from someone with many years of experience both in textile scholarship and with teaching hands-on textile crafts. Her expertise in the history and contemporary manifestations of these diverse traditions has resulted in an essential reference for scholars and textile artists alike.
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[Review length: 1018 words • Review posted on April 12, 2018]