Domestic Culture in the Middle East

Reveals the importance of woven textiles, discusses their influence on design and craftsmanship, and reviews the character and special qualities of different kinds of interior space (especially how the roles of public and private space are reflected in arrangement, furnishing and ornament).

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In a traditional Middle Eastern city deceptively modest street entrances opened into the spacious and comfortably equipped households of the wealthy official and merchant classes. Here textiles were dominant as flexible units of furnishing, household linen, dress and accessory. Their qualities of brilliant colour, imaginative treatments of surface and texture also influenced the form and ornament of the ceramic and metalwork utensils and the decoration of manuscripts and paintings which catered to the everyday and leisure activities of such households. Jennifer Scarce reveals the importance of woven textiles and discusses their influence on Middle Eastern design and craftsmanship.