In the West, Persian carpets are perhaps the best known Islamic art form, highly valued in the West since they were first introduced by Italian merchants in the 14th century, they were sometimes used to wrap relics in church treasuries. The exact origin of carpet-weaving is unknown, carpet fragments dating back to the 5th century have been found in Central Asia. Westerners nomads produced textiles that were in daily use, such as: clothing, bags and in decorating the home. However, these textiles had a fairly short life-span and very few pieces have survived from the per-modern period. The fact that they were nomadic likely helped spread the practice. Persian manuscripts from the time of the Sassanid ruler Khusrau I illustrate carpet-weaving. As the Islamic world expanded, the art became common not only in Central Asia and Iran, but also in Asia Minor, the Caucasus, northern India, and Islamic Spain.

In 1949, a Russian archaeological on an expedition to the Altai mountains in southern Siberia produced a royal burial mound that contained a preserved carpet in frozen chamber. Known as the Pazyryk carpet, it was used as a saddle cover for a horse interred in the burial mound. Beautifully designed, the rug dates from the 4th or 5th century B.C. and is the earliest-known surviving example of a hand-knotted carpet dating back to the Sassanian & early Islamic periods. Pazyryk carpet discovered together with a mummified horse, a four-wheeled cart, and other household articles. Made of very fine thread, it contains 36,000 Gordes "double knot" per 10 square centimeters, showing a mastery of craftsmanship unequalled in later times. Otherwise, any knowledge of carpets before the late 15th century is largely based on literary sources. Another splendid carpet mentioned in the source was the "Spring of Khusrau," a huge carpet, about 27 square meters (290 square feet), which covered the floor of the Sassanian palace at Ctesiphon when the Arabs conquered it in the year 637.

Isolated carpet fragments of varying size and dating before the 12th century have been found in such extremely dry locations as the rubbish heaps of Old Cairo, but the oldest surviving group of carpets dates from the first half of the 14th century. They are known as UKonya" carpets because some 20 examples were discovered in 1903 in the Ala Al-Din Mosque at Konya in central Anatolia, where they had been hidden under successive layers of carpets laid on the floor of the prayer hall. These carpets are coarse, and knotted with symmetrical knots in a limited range of strong colors, such as medium and dark red, medium and dark blue, yellow, brown, and ivory. Scholars had initially attributed them to the patronage of the Seljuk sultans, who ruled Konya in the 12th and 13th centuries, but as some of the motifs used on the carpets derive from Chinese silks dating to the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). the group is now assigned an early 14th-century date.

Carpets were principally used in the Islamic world to cover the floors of mosques and houses, also occasionally used as wall decorations. They were usually made from sheep wool, goat or camel hair, or in later times, cotton and silk. Persian and Turkish carpets made up the bulk of Islamic carpets. The first half of the 16th century is considered the "Golden Age" of Persian carpets, when large carpets with rich colors and complex designs were produced out of factories in cities such as Isfahan.

 Islamic Carpets part two >

Ctesiphon The large round city , situated on the left bank of the Tigris, across the river from the Hellenistic city of Seleucia, has been identified as the great Parthian and Sassanian capital city of Tisfun, known to the Romans as Ctesiphon , the Al-Madain (the cities), of Arabic sources. Situated about 35 km south of the later city of Baghdad, in present-day Iraq, Ctesiphon was the first Sassanian foundation in this urban zone, named Veh-Ardashir, the beautiful (good) city of Ardashir, after its founder, the Sassanian king Ardashir I (AD 224-241).

Sassanian or Sasanid, last dynasty of native rulers to reign in Persia before the Arab conquest. The period of their dominion extended from c. AD 224, when the Parthians were overthrown and the capital, Ctesiphon , was taken, until c.640, when the country fell under the power of the Arabs. The last Sassanian king died a fugitive in 651, but he had been forced to yield Ctesiphon to the Arabs in 636. Under the Sassanid, who revived Achaemenid tradition, Zoroastrianism was reestablished as the state religion. The name of the dynasty was derived from Sassan, an ancestor of the founder of the dynasty, Ardashir I , who took and ruled Ctesiphon (224-40).

ISLAMIC ART

"Polonaise" carpet. Kashan, Iran, 1601, Residenz Munchen, East Asia Collection.

THE TWO MOST TYPICAL TYPES OF KNOTS used in Oriental carpets are called Turkish (sometimes called a Ghiordes knot), and Persian (sometimes called a Senneh knot). These terms generally have nothing to do with a carpet's ethnic or geographic origin.

Turkish Knot: the supplementary weft yarn passes over the two warp yarns, and emerges to form the pile coming between them. The Turkish knot is also sometimes called a Ghiordes' knot; it has a symmetrical structure.

FIELD PATTERNS AND BORDER PATTERNS in all handmade Oriental pile carpets rely upon repeated sequences of knots.

Persian Knot: the supplementary weft yarn passes behind one warp yarn, and the two ends emerge on either side of a warp yarn. The Persian knot is sometimes called a Senneh knot; it has an asymmetrical structure.

Garden carpet, northwestern Persia, 18th century, Berlin Museum fur Islamische Kunst