Known as the “granary” of Rome in Pre-Islamic times, Egypt’s fertile agrarian base also enabled it to be the pre-eminent grower of flax in pre-modern times. In the Mediterranean and beyond, the country was by far the largest producer of linen, a commodity so vital that it not merely underpinned the textile industry but was also the linchpin of the whole economy.1 Most surviving Egyptian textiles are made of linen, twenty-two varieties of which are known from the Geniza docu ments.2 Linen,
unlike silk or cotton, is dye-resistant, making painting on it difficult. Most inscriptions on linen were therefore embroidered, usually in silk,3 in a simple chain stitch. The variety of embroidery stitching later expanded, allowing for more ambitious calligraphic details than were possible with the simple chain stitch.