Persian Rug
The Persian rug is an essential part of Persian art and culture. Carpet-weaving is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished manifestations of Persian culture and art, and dates back to the Bronze Age.
The earliest surviving corpus of Persian carpets come from the Safavid dynasty (1501-1736) in the 16th century. However, painted depictions prove a longer history of production. There is much variety among classical Persian carpets of the 16th and 17th century. Common motifs include scrolling vine networks, arabesques, palmettes, cloud bands, medallions, and overlapping geometric compartments rather than animals and humans. Persian Art being based in Shia Islam does not take the hard line against human representation that we see in Sunni influenced Turkish rug weaving. Figural designs are particularly popular in the Iranian market and are not nearly as common in rugs exported to the west.
Materials
Wool is the most common material for rugs but cotton is frequently used for the foundation of city and workshop rugs. Silk carpets date back to at least the sixteenth century in Sabzavar and the Seventeenth century in Kashan and Yezd. Silk is not as common since silk is more expensive and less durable than wool or wool on cotton.
History
With the passage of time, the materials used in carpets, including wool and cotton, decay. Therefore archaeologists are rarely able to make any particularly useful discoveries during archaeological excavations.
What has remained from early times as evidence of carpet-weaving is nothing more than a few pieces of worn-out rugs. Such fragments do not help very much in recognizing the carpet-weaving characteristics of pre-Seljuk period (13th and 14th centuries AD) in Persia.
Among the oldest pieces discovered are those found in Eastern Turkestan, dating back to the third to fifth centuries AD, and also some of the hand-weavings of the Seljuks of Asia Minor on exhibit in Ala’edin Mosque in Konya and Ashrafoghlu Mosque in Beyshehir, Turkey. These pieces attracted the attention of researchers earlier this century, and now they are kept in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Istanbul and the Mowlana Museum in Konya.
In a unique archaeological excavation in 1949 however, the exceptional Pazyryk carpet was discovered among the ices of Pazyryk Valley, in Altai Mountains in Siberia. It was discovered in the grave of a Scythian prince by a group of Russian archaeologists under the supervision of Sergei Ivanovich Rudenko. Radiocarbon testing initially indicated that the Pazyryk carpet was woven in the 5th century BC but correction of a calibration error later gave a date 200 years later circa 300 AD. This carpet is 1.83×2 meters and has 36 symmetrical knots per cm². The advanced weaving technique used in the Pazyryk carpet indicates a long history of evolution and experience in this art. Most experts believe that the Pazyryk carpet is a late achievement of at least one thousand years of technique evolution and history.
According to this theory the art of carpet-weaving is at least 3500 years old.
The Persian rug today
Although carpet production has mostly become mechanized today, the traditional hand woven rugs are still widely found all around the world, and usually have higher prices than their machine woven counterparts.
Many fine pieces of the Persian carpet are to be found in The Carpet Museum of Iran in Tehran.
The earliest surviving corpus of Persian carpets come from the Safavid dynasty (1501-1736) in the 16th century. However, painted depictions prove a longer history of production. There is much variety among classical Persian carpets of the 16th and 17th century. Common motifs include scrolling vine networks, arabesques, palmettes, cloud bands, medallions, and overlapping geometric compartments rather than animals and humans. Persian Art being based in Shia Islam does not take the hard line against human representation that we see in Sunni influenced Turkish rug weaving. Figural designs are particularly popular in the Iranian market and are not nearly as common in rugs exported to the west.
Materials
Wool is the most common material for rugs but cotton is frequently used for the foundation of city and workshop rugs. Silk carpets date back to at least the sixteenth century in Sabzavar and the Seventeenth century in Kashan and Yezd. Silk is not as common since silk is more expensive and less durable than wool or wool on cotton.
History
With the passage of time, the materials used in carpets, including wool and cotton, decay. Therefore archaeologists are rarely able to make any particularly useful discoveries during archaeological excavations.
What has remained from early times as evidence of carpet-weaving is nothing more than a few pieces of worn-out rugs. Such fragments do not help very much in recognizing the carpet-weaving characteristics of pre-Seljuk period (13th and 14th centuries AD) in Persia.
Among the oldest pieces discovered are those found in Eastern Turkestan, dating back to the third to fifth centuries AD, and also some of the hand-weavings of the Seljuks of Asia Minor on exhibit in Ala’edin Mosque in Konya and Ashrafoghlu Mosque in Beyshehir, Turkey. These pieces attracted the attention of researchers earlier this century, and now they are kept in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Istanbul and the Mowlana Museum in Konya.
In a unique archaeological excavation in 1949 however, the exceptional Pazyryk carpet was discovered among the ices of Pazyryk Valley, in Altai Mountains in Siberia. It was discovered in the grave of a Scythian prince by a group of Russian archaeologists under the supervision of Sergei Ivanovich Rudenko. Radiocarbon testing initially indicated that the Pazyryk carpet was woven in the 5th century BC but correction of a calibration error later gave a date 200 years later circa 300 AD. This carpet is 1.83×2 meters and has 36 symmetrical knots per cm². The advanced weaving technique used in the Pazyryk carpet indicates a long history of evolution and experience in this art. Most experts believe that the Pazyryk carpet is a late achievement of at least one thousand years of technique evolution and history.
According to this theory the art of carpet-weaving is at least 3500 years old.
The Persian rug today
Although carpet production has mostly become mechanized today, the traditional hand woven rugs are still widely found all around the world, and usually have higher prices than their machine woven counterparts.
Many fine pieces of the Persian carpet are to be found in The Carpet Museum of Iran in Tehran.
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