Oriental Rugs, Antique and Modern

by W. A. Hawley

Plate 15. Persian Animal Carpet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

During the Caliphate (632 to 1258 a. d.) the Moslem rulers, devoted to luxury, preserved the art treasures of their conquered subjects and encouraged them to renewed efforts. This is particularly true of the Caliphs and sultans of Syria and Egypt. A carpet that adorned the banquet hall of the Caliph Hisham of Egypt, who died 743 A. D., was of silk interwoven with strands of gold, and had a length of three hundred feet and a breadth of one hundred and fifty feet. All of the rooms of the Egyptian palaces, occupied by the sultans, contained carpets of silk and satin; and the mosques of Syria were similarly furnished. In the year 1067 a. d. one of the Caliphs was forced to sell his accumulated treasures, which consisted, besides jewels and works of art, of about four thousand bales of carpets. Dr. Martin states that a single one of these bales contained several hundred perfect carpets, which were woven in silk and gold, and that some of them contained portraits of entire royal families. One of them, valued at about $300,000, was made for the Caliph el Mirz li alla in the year 964 a. d. It was of blue silk, on which were represented the heavens and the earth, seas and rivers, as well as the holy cities Mecca and Medina. Such was the character of some of the carpets woven during the days of the Caliphs.

As the imperfect records which have been left us indicate that the finest carpet collections of this period were in the mosques and palaces of Syria and Egypt, it has been assumed that they were woven by the native artisans. To some extent this is doubtless true, as rug weaving was one of the oldest industries of these countries. But it is more probable that most of them were made elsewhere and were acquired as presents or by purchase. Some were made in Armenia, Assyria, and Turkestan; but the largest number, as well as the most costly and elaborate, doubtless came from the same hills and towns of Persia where many of the finest pieces are woven to-day. In several of these towns as many as three or four hundred looms were constantly at work; and since the carpets consisted of warp and weft only, it is probable that they were produced far more rapidly than modern rugs in which knots are tied to the warp. But if they lacked the richness of deep, heavy pile, they were elaborately woven with threads of gold and silver, and were often embellished with precious stones.

ANTIQUE PERSIAN CARPETS

To the tendency of overestimating the age of art objects to which antiquity adds value, there is no exception in the case of Oriental rugs, yet there is good reason to believe that a few pieces still exist that were woven in Persia as early as the XIII or XIV Century. Indeed, we cannot positively affirm that there may not be religiously preserved some relic of the Seljukian dynasty, which ruled in Persia till about 1150 a. d., for we have little knowledge of what some of the old mosques which no Christian has ever entered may contain; but it is more probable that the oldest remaining pieces belong to the Mongolian period, which began with the invasion of the armies of Genghis Khan in the first half of the XIII Century. This conclusion is based partly on the facts that their archaic patterns indicate a very remote period, and that they suggest early Mongolian influences. Moreover, as the age of rugs of a somewhat later period can be determined by the evidence of similarity of their designs with those of early tiles, metal work, pottery, and miniatures, of established age, it is possible to infer the relative age of these older pieces by comparison of patterns showing a progressive development.

One of the oldest Persian pieces now existing, the property of C. F. Williams, Esq., of Norristown, Pa., is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York (Plate [11], opp. Page 64). It is also one of the most interesting. In it are found Persian, Armenian, Caucasian, and Mongolian characteristics, which serve to determine the district where it was woven and to suggest its age. Its Sehna knot, cotton warp and weft, as well as much of the drawing, are typical of Persia. The tri-cleft leaf and stem seen in the two lower corners, in the main stripe, and in parts of the field are found in almost all Armenian rugs. The reciprocal sawtooth of the outer border stripe and the geometric inner stripe are Caucasian features. Certain colour tones, the octagonal discs at each end of the large central palmettes, and more particularly the tendrils or scrolls of the main stripe of the border which resemble the foliate forms as they appear in Chinese rugs and porcelains of the late Ming and Kang-hi periods, are Mongolian. The combination of these characteristics indicates that it was made in the most northwesterly part of Persia where in 1258 Hulaku Khan established his capital, and his successors ruled for over a century. Here undoubtedly the craft of weaving flourished for a long period, and exercised an important influence on the surrounding countries. To judge by the colours; the formal character of the border; the rigid lines of the large palmette motives of the field, which are not seen in carpets of a much later period; and the stiff, archaic character of the bushes with foliage and blossoms arranged mechanically on the thick trunks, it is not unreasonable to place this piece as early as the middle of the XIV Century, during the interval between the overthrow of the Seljukian dynasty by the followers of Genghis Khan and the later invasion of the Timurids. In fact, it may be even older, since those graceful lines that belong to the highest art of a subsequent period are entirely lacking. But in the drawing is strength, and in the colours, a few of which have faded, are beauty and harmony.