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Func%on of carpets
• Floor covering • Prayer rugs • Saddle blankets and saddle bags • Status symbols • Collect individual and community narra%ves • Preserve cultural iden%ty – women passed down their techniques and designs to daughters
• Carpets can be iden%fied to the region based on style and mo%f.
• Carpet industry began 1400s • Main colors: light green, red, yellow • First carpets to have centralized
design; earlier ones have repeat paVern
• Func%oned un%laWer OVomans took control of Egypt in 1517
Major centers of carpet weaving
Safavid Dynasty, Iran (1501 – 1722) • Generally considered best quality and most influen%al carpets
worldwide
Mughal Dynasty, India (1526 – 1858) OVoman Empire, Turkey (1516 – 1918)
Safavid Dynasty
• Carpets from Persia (now Iran) are s%ll named aWer the area in which they were made: Hamadan, Kerman, Tabriz, Shiraz, Bidjar
• During %me of Safavid Dynasty, carpets were oWen designed by miniature painters, so figura%ve elements were not uncommon.
hVp://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/collec%ons/isl/conserving-‐the-‐emperors-‐carpet
• Restora%on of the Emperor’s Carpet
Ardabil Carpet – considered best surviving carpet in world (one in V&A , one in LACMA museums
• One lamp mo%f larger than other – only God is perfect
Mughal Dynasty
• Akbar brought weavers to his capital in the Agra district from Persia.
• India probably had no cultural tradi%on of carpet weaving prior to this.
• Na%ve Indians and Chinese ar%sts helped shape a unique Mughal style.
• Jahangir encouraged ar%sts to create naturalis%c (realis%c) renderings.
Mughal carpet, northern India, ca. 1650 (rein of
Shah Jahan)
• Style similar to carpets of Herat
• Naturalis%c plant mo%fs • Neat rows reflect taste of the %me
Mughal, Kashmir, 1700s
• Prayer rug • Vase with flowers within niche area
• Extremely fine weave (700 knots/square inch)
• Later copied by weavers in Persia.
OVoman Period • Turkish tribal rugs largely used geometric repeat paVerns and animal figures.
• During the OVoman period, carpets were exported to Europe; some paVerns were so frequently depicted in a painter’s work that the paVern now carries their name, i.e., “LoVo” or “Holbein”.
• In court workshops, Egyp%an, Chinese and Persian influences could be seen in carpets produced there as the OVomans conquered new territories.
Prayer carpet, OVoman,
Istanbul, late 1500s
• Mihrab niche in center, with lamp suspended and flowers on the ground.
Tribal rugs
• Other side of the spectrum from the finely wrought court workshop produc%on of the Safavid, Mughals or OVomans.
• For centuries, nomadic and semi-‐nomadic peoples of Central Asia have woven rugs for personal use and for sale along the trade routes, like the Silk Road, that crisscross the region.
• The geometric paVerns func%on much like heraldry in the medieval Western world, and as tribal history – deno%ng tribes and their affilia%ons, marriages, and the poli%cal forces which ruled during that %me period.
Mo%fs
• Many paVerns emerged in ancient, pre-‐Islamic %mes.
• Some have shamanis%c, magical themes. • Others borrow mo%fs from trading partners or conquerors, like the Chinese or Mongols (such as cloud bands, dragons, lotus).
• Elements from daily living also make their way into the rugs: jewelry, flowers, animals, s%ck people, coffee pots, pomegranates (fer%lity) and trees (life and regenera%on).
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