Jochen Sokoly

Jochen Sokoly is Professor of Art History of the Islamic World at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar. His research focuses on the material culture of the Early Islamic caliphates, particularly the context of court, administration and manufacture. He has published on early Islamic inscribed textiles, served as co-chair of the Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium, and curated exhibitions on contemporary Middle Eastern art. Sokoly has held fellowships at AKPIA Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, and has served as a member of Council of the Royal Asiatic Society, London. He received his DPhil from the University of Oxford and holds degrees from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.

Publications:

Sokoly, Jochen. Textiles of the Early Islamic Caliphates. Dar al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah and Thames and Hudson: London and New York, 2025.

Roberts, Sean, Dalal, Radha, and Sokoly, Jochen (eds.) (2023). The Environment and Ecology in Islamic Art. The 9th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2023

Roberts, Sean, Dalal, Radha, and Sokoly, Jochen (eds.) (2021). The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art. The 8th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2021

McWilliams, Mary and Sokoly, Jochen (eds.). Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs. Cambridge, New Haven, and London: Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press, 2022

Sokoly, Jochen A., and Allison Ohta. India: East / West: the age of discovery in Late Georgian India, as seen through the collections of the Royal Asiatic Society, London. Doha [Qatar]: Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, 2011

Sokoly, Jochen. "Landscapes of Arabia: Tarek Al-Ghoussein and Camille Zakharia." Roberts, Sean, Dalal, Radha, and Sokoly, Jochen (eds.) (2023). The Environment and Ecology in Islamic Art. The 9th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2023, pp. 185-245.

Sokoly, Jochen. "Social Fabrics: Early Islamic Egypt through the Lens of Inscribed Tiraz Textiles." McWilliams, Mary and Sokoly, Jochen (eds.). Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs. Cambridge, New Haven, and London: Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press, 2022, pp. 19-29.

Sokoly, Jochen. "Textiles and Identity." The Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture. Ed. Gulru Necipoglu and Barry Flood. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017, pp. 275-299.
 

Research description - Inscribed tiraz Textiles of the Early Islamic Caliphates

A tiraz textile is defined by an inscription in Arabic, either embroidered, woven, or written, containing a protocolary text comprising religious formulas, benedictions dedicated to a caliph, and administrative information such as the names of civil servants, place of production, workshop type, and date. In terms of materials, most are made of linen and silk, but cotton and wool are also represented. The decorative techniques most frequently found among the textiles are embroidery and tapestry weaving, which can provide information on workshop practices.
Most of these textiles were found in early Islamic burials in Egypt and cover the period from the 8th to the 12th centuries. Over the course of thirty years, I have collected almost 2000 surviving examples from a multitude of museum collections in a database, allowing me to analyze the historical protocolary inscriptions as well as the material properties of textiles taxonomically. I began this work as a doctoral student at Oxford and have continued to pursue it throughout my professional career.

What makes these textiles so important and interesting as a body is the fact that we can study the historical data contained in the inscriptions, and collate this with data gained from technical analysis as well as historical literary texts. This methodology gives us the opportunity to gain unique insights into the administration that governed the making and distribution of these textiles, as well as helping us understand the mechanics and modes of mobility. Many of these textiles were produced in various locations across the early Caliphates but were ultimately deposited in Egypt where they were used as burial shrouds.

My research on this topic reframes the material and departs from earlier methodologies that failed to look at tiraz in a holistic manner. By bridging the gap between historians and textile specialists, approaching the subject with a more interdisciplinary approach that considers the interrelationship between production, administration, and consumption I have been able to show that tiraz textiles are part of the dynamic social contexts that we read about in the historical texts and which are evidenced through their mobility as real objects. Departing from traditional approaches that saw the textile industry and administration from the perspective of Arabic literary sources, or focused solely on the material evidence of fabrics and their manufacture, my research has examined textiles across museum collections and studied them through taxonomic analysis integrating historical information contained in inscriptions with material properties. This has enabled me to test emerging trends against the historical evidence of literary sources. One of my major discoveries has been that the textile evidence reflects political and administrative changes in control over the industry, particularly the relationship between the Abbasid center in Iraq and its provinces in Egypt, Khurasan, and Yemen.

My other significant contribution has been to interpret the archaeological context in which the textiles survived and were found. I was the first scholar to offer interpretations why tiraz textiles were used in medieval Egyptian burials. By creating an interface between archeological and literary evidence, I suggest that tiraz textiles were regarded as a source of blessing for the deceased due to their caliphal association recorded in their inscriptions, and thus were used as burial shrouds.

At the Khalili Research Centre, Oxford University I am working on making my database accessible digitally as a resource for scholars of Islamic Art, Archaeology and History. I am also working on a publication based on the taxonomical analysis of the data presented by the body of tiraz textiles which will present and evaluate them as documents within a larger material and historical context.