Oriental Rugs, Antique and Modern

by W. A. Hawley

Plate 12. Carpet from Northwestern Persia

Loaned by C. F. Williams, Esq., to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

No other form of vegetable life was so universally employed in Oriental symbolism as the lotus flower (Plate [O], Figs. 16a, b, and c), since the Egyptian, Assyrian, Indian, Chinese, and Persian alike did it reverence. It was, perhaps, first employed emblematically in the valley of the Nile, but later it was held in high esteem by the inhabitants of India where the floating blossom is regarded as an emblem of the world. It was inseparately associated with Buddha, and its religious significance must have extended with the spread of Buddhism. Professor Goodyear regards a large number of designs that apparently are not related in form as derived from it through a long series of evolutions. During the highest development of the textile art in Persia it appears most realistically drawn in a large number of the carpets, especially the so-called Ispahans, or Herats, and the so-called Polish. It is also most artistically represented in the fabrics of India, and is a favourite design for Chinese weavers. But in other modern rugs it is seldom used as a motive, and is so conventionalised as often to escape notice.

If the lotus was the first flower to be represented in early woven fabrics, as seems not improbable, several others have met with greater favour among modern weavers. Of these the rose, which is cultivated extensively in the gardens of the East, appears in a large number of the rugs of Persia and Asia Minor. Moreover, a pattern frequently seen in many old Persian rugs is an all-over pattern of small bushes with flowering roses. Almost equally popular is the lily, which is characteristic of many of the rugs of India and of a few of Western Asia Minor. The “Euphrates flower,” which grows by the river banks of the Mesopotamian valley, is also occasionally found as an all-over pattern in some of the rugs of Western Iran and Southern Caucasia. Less frequently seen and still less frequently recognised, as they are generally woven in small figures, are the daisy, anemone, crocus, narcissus, pink, and violet. All are depicted chiefly on account of their associations and beauty, and whatever emblematic meaning they are intended to convey is generally no more than that of their colours. There are, however, in a few old Persian carpets designs of sunflowers, which were accepted by the Zoroastrians and the earlier sun and fire worshippers as symbols of the sun and emblems of light.

Of the fruits of the earth none is more highly esteemed than the pomegranate, which was sculptured in temples of Mesopotamia and embroidered on the robes of Assyrian and Jewish priests. In the days of King Solomon it was cultivated in Palestine, where the Israelites, like modern Persians, made a sherbet by mixing its juice with sugar and spices. At the time of Homer it was cultivated in Phrygia. Now it grows wild over vast tracts of Syria, Persia, and Asia Minor. Yet it rarely appears conspicuously in any woven fabrics excepting the Ladik prayer rugs, in which it is invariably seen. Since the weavers of these, whether Christian or Moslem, would probably be familiar with many of the old Jewish and Assyrian rites, it is not unlikely that it refers emblematically to its religious associations rather than symbolises, as has been suggested, the idea of fruitfulness as expressed in the Turkish wedding custom where the bride throws a pomegranate at her feet that the scattered seed may fore-tell the number of her children.

In almost every rug of Persia, India, and Asia Minor there is in some part of the border a vine with pendant leaves, flowers, rosettes, or palmettes; and even in many Caucasian rugs of geometric pattern the vine with its appendages is seen in conventionalised form. In a few of the more sumptuous carpets, where the drawing is elaborate, delicate tendrils bearing flowers or the more formal designs of the Herati border take the place of the vine, from which they were evolved. In such borders the designs generally convey no symbolic meaning, but the simpler vine encircling the field without beginning or end represents symbolically the continuity of purpose and permanency.

One of the most interesting designs (Plate [O], Fig. 6, Page 291) is known as the Cone, Palm, Mango, Almond, River Loop, and Pear. By some it is believed to represent no more than the closed palm of the hand, since there is an old tradition in Persia that a weaver once asked his little son to devise for him a new design, whereupon the boy thrust his hand into a pot of dye, then placed it sidewise upon a piece of white linen, on which became impressed the “palm” design formed by the hand and incurving small finger. By some it is regarded as a cluster of old Iranian crown jewels. To others, who point to the well-known pattern of the Kashmir weaving, it denotes the bend of the river Jhelum above Srinagar in the valley of Kashmir; and to Sir George Birdwood it symbolises the flame sacred to ancient fire worshippers. In this work it will be called the Pear, the name now generally applied to it. In the course of the many centuries that have elapsed since its origin, and in its migration through India, Persia, Turkestan, Caucasia, and Asia Minor, it has adopted more strange shapes than any other device. In the rugs of Sarabend it is represented in its best-known form of simple curving lines, in the Bakus its identity is almost lost on account of its geometric appearance, and in the fabrics of India it is often very ornate. Though its origin is hidden in the mists of the past, when its antiquity is considered, and also the devotion of the early races to the glowing orb of the sun and to terrestrial fires, it is not surprising that it has been regarded as a relic of the Zoroastrian faith of old Iran, symbolising the eternal flames before which the Parsees worshipped.

Plate 13. Compartment Carpet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York