Table of Contents

  • CARPETS iii. Knotted-pile carpets: Techniques and structures

    Annette Ittig

    The techniques of carpet making are the processes of weaving, knotting, and finishing; structure is the complex of interrelations among the elements of the finished carpet. 

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  • CARPETS iv. Knotted-pile carpets: Designs, motifs, and patterns

    Annette Ittig

    In this discussion “design” refers to the overall composition of decorative elements on a carpet; the simplest elements in designs are single motifs, which are most frequently combined in more complex units; these units in turn may be arranged in various combinations and sequences to form patterns.

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  • CARPETS v. Flat-woven carpets: Techniques and structures

    Sarah B. Sherrill

    Most of the structures in Persian flat-woven carpets belong to the category called “interlacing” by textile specialists; the term designates the most straightforward way in which each thread of a fabric passes under or over threads that cross its path.

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  • CARPETS vi. Pre-Islamic Carpets

    Karen S. Rubinson

    Evidence for textiles of all kinds in pre-Islamic Iran is very sparse. It is necessary to supplement the few remains of actual textiles with examination of representations in art and other kinds of indirect evidence of production, for example preserved impressions and pseudomorphs from excavations.

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  • CARPETS vii. Islamic Persia to the Mongols

    Barbara Schimtz

    Because of the scarcity of surviving materials it is difficult to separate the history of carpet making in Iran from that of the rest of the Islamic world before the Mongol invasion (656/1258). Furthermore, the kind of rigid distinction between carpet and other textile designs that characterizes later production probably did not exist in the early Islamic period.

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  • CARPETS viii. The Il-khanid and Timurid Periods

    Eleanor Sims

    Carpet production in Persia in the 14th-15th centuries has  been inferred from written sources. Carpets and weavings from contemporary Anatolia and the Turkman tribal confederations, and possibly also from Egypt and even Spain, also permits the inference.

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  • CARPETS ix. Safavid Period

    Daniel Walker

    The high point in Persian carpet design and manufacture was attained under the Safavid dynasty (1501-1739). It was the result of a unique conjunction of historical factors, such as royal patronage and influence of court designers at all levels of artistic production.

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  • CARPETS x. Afsharid and Zand Periods

    Layla S. Diba

    Although it is probable that magnificent silk-and-brocade rugs in the style of the Safavid court manufactories were no longer produced in significant quantities, it seems reasonable to assume that production of less luxurious wool rugs continued in many traditional centers, even though on a smaller scale and mainly for domestic consumption.

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  • CARPETS xi. Qajar Period

    Annette Ittig

    There were dramatic alterations in the traditional organization and orientation of the Persian carpet industry and, consequently, in the carpets themselves. Particularly significant was the increase in the number of looms and volume of carpet exports from the 1870s to World War I.

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  • CARPETS xii. Pahlavi Period

    Willem Floor

    Throughout the 14th/20th century carpet manufacturing has been, from the point of view of both employment and domestic and foreign market demand, by far the most important Persian industry after oil refining.

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