Iran - Andrew Burke [39]
History
The oldest surviving carpet is the ‘Pazyryk’ rug, believed to date from the 5th century BC and discovered in the frozen tomb of a Scythian prince in Siberia in 1948. While the rug’s exact origins are unknown, some scholars believe it is in the style of carpets found in the Achaemenid court. Today it’s kept in the Hermitage (www.hermitagemuseum.org) in St Petersburg.
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Arguably the most famous Persian carpets are the twin ‘Ardabil carpets’, vast rugs (10.7m x 5.34m) woven with 30 million knots in the 16th century for the Sheikh Safi-od-Din Mausoleum. They are now kept in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum (www.vam.ac.uk) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (www.lacma.org).
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Early patterns were usually symmetrical, with geometric and floral motifs designed to evoke the beauty of the classical Persian garden. Stylised animal figures were also woven into carpets, and along with human figures (often royalty), became more popular in the later pre-Islamic period. After the Arab conquest, Quranic verses were incorporated into some carpet designs, and prayer mats began to be produced on a grand scale; secular carpets also became a major industry and were highly prized in European courts. However, very few examples dating from before the 16th century remain.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, carpetmaking was patronised by the shahs and a favoured designer or weaver could expect great privileges. Sheep were bred specifically to produce the finest possible wool, and vegetable plantations were tended with scientific precision to provide permanent dyes of just the right shade. Carpet designs were inspired by book illumination, which had, by this period, reached a degree of unsurpassed sophistication and elegance. The reign of Shah Abbas I (Abbas the Great; r 1587–1629) marks the peak of Persian carpet production, when the quality of the raw materials and all aspects of the design and weaving were raised to a level never seen before or since. As demand for Persian carpets grew, standards of production began to fall and designs became less inspired, though they still led the world in quality and design.
Today, Persian carpets remain a hugely important industry in Iran. According to the National Iranian Carpet Center, more than five million Iranians work in the industry and carpets are the country’s largest non-oil export by value. The trade relies on the prestige evoked by the term ‘Persian carpet’, but maintaining the ‘brand’ is increasingly difficult with cheaper ‘Persian carpets’ being produced in India and Pakistan. Fewer young Iranians are interested in learning to weave, so expect the cost of making genuine handmade rugs – and their price in the bazaar – to rise steadily.
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The Iran Carpet map, produced by Ramezani Oriental Carpets and sometimes available at the Gita Shenasi map shop in Tehran, is 10 years old but the location of carpet-weaving centres hasn’t changed much.
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Types of Carpets & Rugs
To most people (including us in this chapter), the words ‘carpet’ and ‘rug’ are used interchangeably. But there is a difference – a carpet is bigger than a rug. Anything longer than about 2m is considered a carpet, while anything shorter is a rug. As well as carpets, which are made using thousands or even millions of knots, you will also find kilims, which are thinner, flat-woven mats without knots and thus, no pile.
Carpets come in a huge variety of designs. Some are inspired by religion, such as those on prayer rugs, usually displaying an arch representing the main arch of the Al Haram Mosque in Mecca and perhaps a lamp symbolic of the statement in the Quran that ‘Allah is the light of Heaven’. Other common motifs include amulets to avert the evil eye and other, pre-Islamic motifs, such as stylised Trees of Life, hunting scenes and pictorial depictions of epic poems. They may also be inspired by whatever surrounds the