The Introduction Of The Silkworm

The Introduction Of The Silkworm did not cheapen the price of silk; on the contrary, the production of the royal looms were sold at excessive prices, and far beyond those paid for the material before the silkworm rearing period in Europe.

The court of the Eastern Empire did not hold the silk-weaving monopoly long, for very soon after the secret of the rearing of the worms spread to the Peloponnesus and the isles of Greece, where, from the sixth to the middle of the twelfth centuries, Europe was supplied with nearly all the silk it required.

In the year 1130 Roger I., the Norman King of Sicily, brought a colony of silk weavers from Athens and induced them to settle in Palermo, where an extensive silk industry was already developed under the former Saracenic rulers, who were vassals of the independent Fatimy Khalifs of Egypt, during the ninth and tenth centuries.

After the introduction of the Greek weavers into the Palermo workshops we find the Siculo-Arabian designs altering from the older circular panels of Saracenic ornament, which consisted of the designs of birds and animals placed back to back, or vis-*¦-vis, of Mesopotamian origin, to bands of birds, animals, and fishes, grotesque and otherwise, mixed with foliage and scrolls containing mock Arabic inscriptions.

To trace the analysis of patterns in silk fabrics is to trace the historical development of the fabrics themselves, for pattern and manufacture, historically considered, have developed side by side.

When we consider the varieties indicated by the names of Byzantine, Saracenic, or Arabian in its various forms, Italian and French, we shall find that in the order mentioned the chronological development of material and pattern run concurrently.

Silk, in its raw state, during the first few centuries of our era arrived in the principal towns of Asia Minor, in Alexandria in Egypt, and in Byzantium (Constantinople), from China, by the way of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, and overland by caravans.

The Persians and the Byzantine Greeks, from the first to the eighth centuries, monopolised the Western silk manufacture, as they already possessed the looms on which they had made linen, woollen cloth, and carpet tapestry. It required very little adaptation to convert them into silk looms, and towards the early part of the seventh century the new material had firmly established itself in Persia, Syria, and Constantinople.

The patterns for the most part were symbolic and large in character, and nearly all of them had their origin in the "Homa," or sacred "Tree of Life" (Figs. 259, 260), with the worshippers on either side consisting of kings or other personages in the act of adoration, such as we find as a common theme engraved on the Assyrian cylinders, wall decorations, and bronze platters, which had its origin in the older Egyptian forms. Where the Sacred Tree, with animals instead of human forms, was made a feature of in the silk fabrics, the stuff had a Persian development derived from Babylonian sources, but the Greeks or Byzantines used this pattern for the sake of expediency, and not in a symbolic sense.

There is a piece of very old Byzantine silk in the Kensington Collection, and also a piece of the same material in the Silk Museum at Lyons, which consists of a design of winged personages wrestling with lions; the pattern is woven in strips, and the colour is a red ground with white, gold-coloured, blue and green figuring. The style of the design and peculiarity of the weaving prove it to be of a date anterior to the eighth century. This particular Byzantine tissue has the red weft of the ground executed in five different shades of the red colour thrown crosswise (lanc*š crois*š), each shade alternating in three threads by three; the warp is thick, and the shuttle passes right across the width, all the material being pure silk - these are the marks by which Byzantine fabrics are known. It is only in genuine examples of Byzantine Greek fabrics where we find the human figure is used in the design, or animals of a free and natural type, as the Byzantine silk designs were invariably taken from Greek mythological sources and scriptural subjects. Genuine examples of Byzantine fabrics are very scarce, and the one described is a genuine example of great value.

Fig. 259. Assyrian Homa or Sacred Tree.

Fig. 260. Tree of Life, Assyrian.

When the Arabs under Mohammed had conquered the countries of Persia, Syria, and the countries south of the Persian Sea, they found already in these places the manufacture of silk in a flourishing state. From this time - the ninth century - until the fourteenth, we find that from the borders of China and India in the east to Africa and Spain in the south and west - which embraces the countries conquered by the Saracens - the silk industry was carefully fostered under the Mohammedan rule. Next to precious stones in importance and value the chiefest treasures of the Khalifs of Bagdad, Cairo, Fez, and Cordova were silken goods. The bazaars of the chief towns were filled with the precious material, and silk fairs or markets were held periodically, chiefly at Antioch, Rey, Erzeroum, Ispahan, Jerusalem, and Mecca. The Mussulman laws forbade the faithful to negotiate with the (Christian) infidels, but there was a saving clause that helped them out of this difficulty, which allowed them to bargain with the Jews, and these middlemen did not scruple to do business with either the Christian infidel or Mussulman.

The Jews were then, as they are now, the bankers, merchants, and dealers in silk and precious stones, and even before this date they were the purveyors of all kinds of articles of luxury to the wealthy Romans of the south, the Gallo-Romans of the west, and the Goths of Northern Europe.

Notwithstanding the laws of excommunication then in force, Italian Christian merchants, as well as Jews, traded with the Mohammedan world, and both Jews and Italians travelled over Asia Minor, North Africa, throughout Italy, Sicily, Spain, France, and England, distributing the products of Saracenic looms, and establishing silk manufactories in Christian countries, notably in Sicily and Italy. Shawls, dress goods, and hangings were then the principal articles of silk manufacture.

Persia was the original place from whence came the best patterns and materials; it was really the fountain-head of textile designs, and from thence they spread over Arabia into North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, the patterns being modified according to the popular taste of the different countries and by the introduction of various symbolic features.