Made in Arabic
crimson
القِرْمِزيّ
A fragment of Andalusian silk: in its large roundels two women play tambourines beneath a hanging lamp, and its shimmer comes from vivid reds set against gold thread. It was found with fourteen other pieces of the same textile between the pages of a manuscript in the cathedral of Vic in Spain. The costliest red was dyed with qirmiz, a dye made from a small insect, and the adjective qirmizī became Old Spanish cremesín, Old Italian cremesino, and English crimson.
- Instrument
- a fragment of red silk, al-Andalus, 13th century
The path between languagesqirmizī → cremesín, cremesino → cremesin → crimson
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ملكٌ عامّ
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