An Ottoman shirt made from the inner kiswa, with an inscribed weave in cream color over a deep green silk ground. Embellished with a prominent inscription within a broad border in thuluth script of praise of the prophet ‘Prayer and peace be upon you, O Messenger of Allah’. Below with a narrow band containing prayers for the four Rashidun Caliphs Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman and ‘Ali as well as for the companions of the Prophet.Alternating with a narrow band enclosing ‘O Allah, bless the Prophet Muhammad, the Seal of Prophets and Messengers’.100 by 85 cmCatalogue note: During the Ottoman dynasty's rule over Medina (1517–1916), luxuriously woven silk textiles adorned with Qur'anic inscriptions such as the present example were sent to the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina to be used as covers and adornments that were replaced annually. As these were considered to have been instilled with the holiness of the site, they were often redistributed to pilgrims and took on different shapes and functions. For example, a set of fragments from a similar textile, now in the Textile Museum, Washington D.C. (inv. no. TM 3.158a) were probably used as a vest; similarly the present shirt probably acquired a talismanic significance due to the past associations of the textile with which it was made.