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CARPETS iii. Knotted-Pile Carpets. Techniques and Structures 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. One of the major problems in carpet studies is the lack of a standard terminology to describe…

CARPETS iv. Knotted-Pile Carpets, Designs, Motifs, and Patterns 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…

CARPETS ix. Safavid Period The high point in Persian carpet design and manufacture was attained under the Safavid dynasty (907-1152/1501-1739). It was the result of a unique conjunction of historical factors—royal patronage, the influence of court designers at all levels of artistic production, the wide availability of locally produced and…

CARPETS v. Flat-Woven Carpets. Techniques and Structures 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 (Emery, pp. 62,…

CARPETS vi. Pre-Islamic Carpets Since 1966, when Hans Wulff wrote “There is no field in the industrial arts in Persia that is as important as carpet weaving, and yet little is known about its early development” (Crafts, p. 212), little new information has become available. Indeed, the evidence for textiles…

CARPETS vii. Islamic Persia to the Mongols 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…

CARPETS viii. The Il-khanid and Timurid Periods Persian carpets that can be indisputably identified a having been produced in the 8-9th/14-15th centuries are virtually nonexistent. One fragment of a pile carpet in the Benaki Museum in Athens has recently been attributed to “Iran or Central Asia” in the 9th/15th century…

CARPETS x. Afsharid and Zand Periods The rug production of Persia in the Afsharid (1148-61/1736-48) and Zand periods (1163-1209/1750-79) has been difficult both to identify and to document, owing to the lack of extant examples and the absence or misuse of historical and archival evidence. The generally held view has…

CARPETS xi. Qajar Period During the Qajar period there were dramatic alterations in the traditional organization and orientation of the Persian carpet industry and, consequently, in Persian carpets themselves. Particularly significant was the substantial increase both in the number of looms and in the volume of carpet exports from the…

CARPETS xii. Pahlavi Period 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. Although it had been to a large extent organized by foreign capital in the…

CARPETS xiii. Post-Pahlavi Period In the period immediately following the shah’s flight from the country in 1358 Š./1979 the prices for Persian carpets reached record highs on Western markets. These prices were determined by the convergence of three main factors: the underlying trend toward higher prices as demand outstripped supply,…

CARPETS xiv. Tribal Carpets The term “tribal carpets” includes both floor coverings and other objects woven by nomads and semi-nomads for their own needs (see ʿašāyer; confederations, tribal). Although the terms “Persian carpet” and “Oriental carpet” theoretically cover all carpets produced in the Iranian world, as a rule they are…

CARPETS xv. Caucasian Carpets The oldest surviving rugs produced in the Caucasus may be a group with representations of dragons and phoenixes in combat, a motif that was possibly borrowed from the art of Il-khanid Persia (Ettinghausen, p. 108 and fig. 1; cf. Dimand and Mailey, pp. 265-66 and figs….

CARPETS xvi. Central Asian Carpets Central Asian carpets, broadly defined, include those woven by various peoples in what were formerly the Turkmen, Uzbek, Tajik, Karakalpak Autonomous, Kirgiz, and Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republics (Tzareva, pp. 5-6); in extreme northern and northeastern Persia; in Afghanistan; and in the Turkic (Uighur) areas of…

CARRHAE (Ḥarrān), town in Mesopotamia, where in May 53 b.c. a decisive battle was fought between the Parthians commanded by a member of the Sūrēn (Lat. Surena) family and the Romans under the triumvir M. Licinius Crassus, “without doubt the most celebrated episode of Parthian history” (Bivar, p. 49). Our…