Salt Bag

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nomads used small narrow-necked bags to carry salt, which they would add to their food and feed to their grazing animals. Designed in an overall pattern of repeating lozenges, this example stands apart due to its unusual technique: it is made of a plain-weave ground decorated with a pattern in supplementary brocaded weft.

Islamic Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Islamic art ranges in date from the seventh to the twenty-first century. Its more than 15,000 objects reflect the great diversity and range of the cultural traditions of Islam, with works from as far westward as Spain and Morocco and as far eastward as Central Asia and Indonesia. Comprising both sacred and secular objects, the collection reveals the mutual influence of artistic practices such as calligraphy, and the exchange of motifs such as vegetal ornament (the arabesque) and geometric patterning in both realms.

Metropolitan Museum of Art