The History of Persian carpet

Sham S. Misri

The history of the Persian carpet is very old. The primitive carpet was an article of need to cover the floor entrance so as to protect the nomadic tribesmen from the cold and damp. In due course of time, the increasing beauty of the carpets attracted the kings, the nobleman, and the rich. Carpets became signs of attraction for those who looked for signs of wealth or decoration for fine buildings.

The history of Persian Carpet- dates back to 2,500 years. The Iranians were among the first carpet weaver of the ancient civilizations. Through centuries of creativity, past experience, and skill they developed the talents and achieved a unique degree of excellence in carpet making. The skill of carpet weaving was handed down by fathers to their sons, who in turn handed them down to their offspring as a closely guarded family secret.

When Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 BC, he was struck by its splendour and it was probably he who introduced the art of carpet making into Persia. Historical records show that magnificent carpets adorned the court of Cyrus the Great, who founded the Persian Empire over 2,500 years ago. It is also said that when Cyrus was buried, his tomb was covered with precious carpets. Even before his time, it is very likely that Persian nomads knew about the use of Knotted carpets. Their herds of sheep and goats provided them with high quality and durable wool for this purpose.

The earliest known Persian carpet was discovered by a Russian Professor in 1949 during excavations of burial mounds in the Mountains in Siberia. The Carpet had been preserved purely by chance. When the carpet had been placed in the burial mound of Cyrus The Great, grave robbers raided the mound. They ignored the carpet but, through the opening they left, water poured into the mound and froze, thus protecting the carpet from decay. The carpet has a woollen pile knot. Its central field has a deep red colour and it has two wide borders, one depicting deer and the other a Persian horseman. It dates from the fifth century B.C. and is now kept in the Hermitage Museum of Leningrad. Classical tales recount how Alexander the Great found carpet of a very fine fabric in Cyrus tomb. Another rug found in the same area, dates back to the first century BC.

The first documented evidence on the existence of carpets came from Chinese texts dating back to the Sassanid Dynasty (224 - 641 CE).  By the 6th century Persian carpets had won international prestige and were being exported to distant lands. And in this time was created one great carpet which was a spectacle of overwhelming splendour. The spring or winter carpet of Khosrow was made for the huge audience hall of the palace and depicted a formal garden. It held a political significance as an indication of the power and the resource of the king and its beauty signified the divine role of the king. When the Arabs defeated the Persians, they carried off the carpet as part of their fabulous booty and it was eventually cut up into small fragments and divided among the victorious soldiers.

After the period of domination by the Arab Caliphates, a Turkish tribe, named after their founder, Seljok conquered Persia. Their domination (1038 - 1194 CE) was of great importance in the history of Persian carpets. The Seljuk women were skilful carpet makers using Turkish knots. In the Turkish knot the yarn is taken twice around two adjacent warp threads and the ends are drawn out between these two threads.

The Mongol conquest and control of Persia (1220 - 1449) was initially brutal. However, they soon came under the influence of the Persians. The palace of Tabriz, had paved floors covered with precious carpets. The Mongol ruler Shah Rokh (1409 - 1446) contributed to the reconstruction of much that was destroyed by the Mongols and encouraged all the artistic activities of the region.

The Persian carpet reached its zenith during the reign of the Safavid Dynasty in the 16th century. The first concrete proofs of this craft date back to this period. Nearly 1500 carpets are preserved in various museums and in private collections worldwide.

The carpets made for the great nobles were protected well the same way as any golden treasure. They had special custodians and, when they were brought out for state and other special occasions, they were usually covered with another light fabric to protect them from wear. Growing demand from the great royal courts of Europe for gold and silver threaded carpets led to a great export industry. A large number went to Poland after King Sigmund specially sent merchants to Persia to acquire them. King Louis XIV of France even sent his own craftsmen to Persia to learn the trade.

During the reign of Shah Abbas (1587 - 1629), commerce and crafts prospered in Persia. Shah Abbas encouraged contacts and trade with Europe and changed his new capital Esfahan, into one of the most glorious cities of Persia. He also created a court workshop for carpets where skilled designers and craftsmen set to work to create splendid specimens. Most of these carpets were made of silk, with gold and silver threads adding even more decoration. Two of the best know carpets of the Safavid period; dated 1539 come from the mosque of Ardebil. Many experts believe that these carpets represent the culmination of achievement in carpet design. The larger of the two carpets is now kept in London's Victoria and Albert Museum while the other is displayed at the Los Angeles County Museum.

As the 17th century wore on there was an increasing demand for luxury and refinement. A set of silk carpets woven to surround the coffin of Shah Abbas II achieved such a rare quality that many mistook them for velvet. But they were the last really high achievement in carpet making from that era in Persian history. Somehow, inspiration steadily began to slacken and, as the court became increasingly unplanned, the quality of the craftsmanship began to fall away.

As ill luck, Shah Abbas' capital city of Isfahan was sacked in 1722 by the Afghans. Thus, a magnificent period in the history not only of carpet weaving but of art itself came dramatically to an end. The great carpet weaving fell back into the hands of wandering nomads. These nomads had maintained their centuries-old traditions and skills.

The Persian carpet weaving ended with the Afghan invasion in 1722. The Afghans destroyed Esfahan, yet their domination lasted for only a short period and in 1736, a young Chieftain from Khorasan, Nader Khan became the Shah of Persia. Through the whole course of his reign, all the country's forces were utilised in campaigns against the Afghans, the Turks, and the Russians. During this period, and for several turbulent years after his death in 1747, no carpets of any great value were made, and solely nomads and craftsmen in small villages continued the tradition of this craft.

In the last quarter of the 19th Century and during the reign of the Qajar ruler’s trade and craftsmanship regained their importance. Carpet making flourished once more with Tabriz merchants exporting carpets to Europe through Istanbul. At the end of the 19th Century some European and American companies even set up businesses in Persia and organised craft production destined for western markets.

Today, Carpet weaving is by far the most widespread handicraft in Iran. Persian carpets are renowned for their richness of colour, variety of spectacular artistic patterns and quality of design. In palaces, famous buildings, mansions and museums the world over, a Persian carpet is amongst the most treasured possession. The Persian association with the carpet is very strong. An Iranian's home is bare and soulless without it, a reflection on the deep rooted bond between the people and their national art.

To make a carpet in those days required tremendous determination. To make a single carpet, several employees would work on the same carpet. To make a good carpet was a question of months and often years of painstaking work. The leader would dictate through a series of chants to the other workers the colour of the individual strands of wool to be knotted. When the time came for the tribe to move on, the loom had to be dismantled and the unfinished carpet folded as best they could.

Although cotton came to be used for the warp and weft of the carpet, the herds of sheep that surrounded the tribes provided the basic material, wool. The cold mountain climate provided an added advantage in that the wool was finer and had longer fibers than wool from sheep in warmer climates. A key feature in making the carpets was the bright colours used to form the intricate designs. The manufacture of dyes involved well kept secrets handed down through the generations. Insects, plants, roots, barks and other substances found outside the tents and in their wanderings were all used by the ingenious tribesmen.

Before the dyeing process could begin, the wool had to be washed and dried in the sun to bleach it. The clean wool was then spun by hand. Since the tribes were constantly on the move and had only small vessels in which to hold the dyes, the dyers were unable to achieve uniformity in shades, with yarn displaying varying tones of the same colour. The wool was loosely dipped into dyeing vats and left for a time that could be judged only by the expert craftsman. Then the wool was left to hang without being squeezed, which would have left an uneven colouring. Later the wool was dried in the sun. Because the wool and cotton and silk used in marking the carpets are perishable, very few of the earliest carpet are now in existence.

Many people in Iran have invested their whole wealth in Persian carpets. There are underground storage areas in Tehran that are full of fine specimens of carpet, kept as investments by shrewd businessmen. For many centuries, the Persian carpet received international acknowledgment for its artistic splendour. In palaces, famous building, rich homes and museums throughout the world a Persian carpet is amongst the most treasured possessions.

The Persian carpet is associated with luxury today, but, it had its humble beginning among the nomadic tribes who at one time wandered the great area of Persia in search of their livelihood. That time it was an article of necessity to protect the tribes from cold winters of the country. Thus, out of necessity was born art. Through their bright colours and magical designs, the floor and entrance coverings that protected the tribesmen from the ravages of the weather also brought gay relief to their harsh and hardy lives. In those early days the size of the carpet was often small, dependent upon the size of the tents of room in which the people lived. Besides being an article of furniture, the carpet was also a form of writing for the illiterate tribesmen.  It also came to be used as a prayer mat by thousands of Muslim believers.