The oldest specimen which I know of Spanish Arab textile fabric, is a woollen fragment of very fine quality embroidered in colours, which is at the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid. It is about 1½ yards long, by 18 inches wide. In medallions embroidered in silks are represented seated figures which appear to be a king, a lady, lions, birds, and quadrupeds. In two borders occurs the following inscription, repeated in cufic characters: "In the name of God, clement and merciful: The blessing of God and happiness for the caliph Iman Abdallah Hixem, favoured of God, prince of believers." [Illustration: Arabic] Hixem reigned from A.D. 979 until the first years of the 11th century. This fragment was found inside a small casket on the altar of a church in the town of San Esteban de Gormaz, province of Soria, where it was probably taken as a war trophy: it may be classified as a stuff called _tiraz_ [Illustration: Arabic], the skirt of a robe. An oriental author tells us that among the customs which contribute to give splendour to sovereignty is that of putting the name, or some other sign belonging to kings on the stuffs of their robes; that these inscriptions are woven into the material with gold or coloured thread of a different hue to the ground, and that royal robes were always made of _tiraz._ The caliphs of Cordova had a place set apart in their palaces where this stuff was kept: this custom lasted until the 11th century when it disappeared, and was re-established in the 13th century with the kings of Granada. (Moh. Dyn. vol. i., pp. 356 and 397; Mus. Esp. de Ant. vol. vi. pp. 464 and 465.)