From the intricate embroidery on a Palestinian wedding dress to the complex iconography on an Afghan war rug, textiles reflect the beliefs, practices and experiences of people from across the Middle East and Central Asia. This book explores the significance and beauty of textiles from across this vast area, and is arranged thematically to enable cross-regional comparisons of the function and symbolic meaning of textiles. Each chapter relates to a facet or phase of a person's life in which textiles feature prominently: childhood, marriage and ceremony, status and identity, religion and belief, and house and homestead.