Khamsa silks are part of a larger genre of figural textiles that were coveted luxury objects throughout Eurasia. In addition to being imbued with complex iconological properties for those familiar with Sufi poetry, silk textiles in the early modern Persianate world were a representation of the talent and wealth of the realm that produced them. Safavid figural silks were highly esteemed by monarchs throughout Europe and the Islamic world, and surviving examples demonstrate the value of these sumptuous textiles, which were stored in palace treasuries or used by the church to wrap reliquaries and fashion liturgical garments, such as the Majnun velvet chasuble (fig. 5.2). In addition to the new proposed provenance and dating discussed in Chapter 5, the use of this prized velvet to create a liturgical garment demonstrates that the production of silks depicting characters from the Khamsa evoked an appreciation for the fabric itself – even outside the Persianate world, where the poetry and characters may not have been recognized by viewers.

Silk was also an important commodity controlled by the Safavid state. In addition to selling woven products, Shah ‘Abbas I sought to corner the market in the lucrative sale of silk fibre, and figural textiles may have been presented as an example of the finely detailed imagery that could be produced with Iranian silk.