This volume originated in a workshop held on 3 June 2016 at the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art in Athens, organized by Nikolaos Vryzidis. The workshop was divided into four panels, respectively dedicated to: medieval Islamic textiles in the eastern Mediterranean in cross-cultural perspective; cross-cultural encounters in Spain and Italy; different Ottoman textile productions; and oriental Christian textiles. The themes of these four panels are reflected in the contributions here written by art historians and archaeologists, all focusing on the medium of textiles. The stated aims of the volume are to document how networks of mobility and processes of interaction operated in different areas of the Mediterranean and the different end-products they produced in each case, employing current methodologies on cultural identity and cross-cultural exchange. On a broader perspective, the title of this volume refers to the often still unknown significance of textiles as sources of cultural, historical and archaeological information in the Islamic, Latinate and eastern Christian worlds.

The volume gathers ten articles followed by the concluding remarks written by Nikolaos Vryzidis and a glossary of textile terms used in the book given by Ana Cabrera Lafuente and Nikolaos Vryzidis. The general introduction of the book, written by Laura Rodríguez Peinado and Ana Cabrera Lafuente, presents an analysis of the methodological problems in the study of Andalusi textiles. Avinoam Shalem's discussion on textile metaphors in medieval Arabic poetry follows. Scott Redford focuses on the representation of the colour red as well as checkerboard and zigzag patterns in fresco paintings of a local elite household in Cappadocia. He then explores their relation to flags used by the Rum Seljuk sultans and their armies. This article is followed by Maria Sardi's investigation of foreign influences in Mamluk textiles and how these led to a new aesthetic. Vera-Simone Schulz presents textiles produced in late medieval Italy in a trans-Mediterranean perspective, exploring different media, techniques and sources.

Whereas these first five articles deal with the Islamic world and the Mediterranean, the subsequent papers focus on textiles produced in a Byzantine, Greek, Ottoman, Ethiopian and Armenian context. Nikolaos Vryzidis presents a case study of Christian acculturation within the Greek Church based on animal motifs. This is followed by Marielle Martiniani-Reber's juxtaposition of the production of textiles within the Byzantine and Islamic world during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Elena Papastavrou discusses the cultural osmosis reflected in embroideries of the Greek Church made in Constantinople in Ottoman times. Her article is the only one that deliberately focuses on embroidery – a useful technique for the study of identity because its freehand nature allows for changes to the pattern during the making of the textile object. Jacopo Gnisci's article shows the potential of Ethiopian manuscripts in exploring ecclesiastic dress in medieval and post-medieval Ethiopia. Dickran Kouymjian brings printed and painted cotton chintzes into the foreground, as well as the role of Armenian merchants in the exchange of goods between East and West. The diversity in the patterns of these chintzes and the use of these textiles within the Armenian churches highlight once more the nature of alternation that is inherent to the textile medium. The book ends with concluding remarks by the editor, who focuses on textiles as units of cultural transmission.

Textiles with embroidered, woven or dyed patterns are constantly crossing medial, geographical, epochal and disciplinary boundaries. This inherent flexibility makes textiles a fascinating subject for art historians, archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists alike. This volume's integrated approach of case studies on various forms of textiles – extant fabrics, representation of textiles and wearables in miniature and wall paintings, and textile terminology in inventories, travel accounts, and legal sources – offers an overview of current research on long-distance exchange and diachronic use of secular and ecclesiastical textiles produced in the medieval Mediterranean. Furthermore, the volume opens up new perspectives: I was particularly taken by the representations of ecclesiastic dress within Ethiopian manuscripts discussed by Gnisci, and their demonstrable potential for new textile research.

Small observations may be offered here: the many identities assigned to textiles are bound to the nature of alteration that is inherent to the medium. In contrast to other three-dimensional objects, such as metalwork or ceramics, pattern-woven textiles receive first their patterns and afterwards their three-dimensional form (in the form of clothing or architectural features). The identity of textiles in this volume is mainly addressed through their patterns and not through their form. Especially for a study of woven patterns – excluded are the articles of Papastavrou and Kouymjian – and the ideas they might have carried, it is important to remember that patterns and weaving technologies are interdependent. The dissemination of textile patterns must be viewed in relation to the dissemination of weaving technology. Maria Sardi's article demonstrates this essential relationship (p. 85). In most cases of medieval samit, lampas, or velvet weaves it is not the weaver who is responsible for the pattern's design but rather the pattern designer or the person who installs the pattern onto the loom. Once the pattern is installed, it is almost impossible to change it during the weaving process.

The division of labour within the making of medieval textiles and a technical understanding of the making of pattern-woven textiles deserves more attention in textile research as this volume indicates. For example, a woven Arabic inscription does not necessarily reveal the weaver's identity (Vryzidis, p. 158). The importance of manufacture reveals itself also in the discussion of the poem of Abū Ḥanash al-Numayrī (Shalem, pp. 49–50). The term “sword”, which is essential in this poem, might not only refer to the protecting features of the spider's web at the cave on Mount Thawr in which Muḥammad and Abū Bakr were hiding from the Quraish clan, but also to the weaver's sword used to open a shed and to ensure the density of the fabric. Therefore, the sword could refer to the weaver's ability to produce a fabric that is as fine and shiny as a spider's web. A white lampas weave with a pattern of spiders producing beautiful floral elements and banners with an Arabic inscription is preserved in the collection of the Abegg-Stiftung in Riggisberg (Switzerland) (inv. no. 197). It indicates that the comparison between fineness of the spider's web and the weaver's woven fabric entered not only into Arabic poetry but also into the actual patterns of textiles. Despite these small oversights, this volume is a significant contribution to textile scholarship, highlighting the importance of the textile medium within the greater humanities, and indicating possible future research directions.