History & Evolution of Oriental Rugs & Carpets

The Timurid dynasty did not far outlive the fifteenth century. In the west it had already lost power to Turkoman dynasties in Mesopotamia and Northwest Persia. But these were swept away by Shah Ismail about 1501 who, supported by nomadic Turkoman troops, established a new “Safavid” dynasty all across Iran, which lasted until the early eighteenth century. Safavid rug weaving was above all a sophisticated urban phenomenon, reflecting the cutting edge of Islamic artistic design more generally. Safavid rugs relied overwhelmingly on the sinuous patterns or arabesques developed initially in manuscript illumination and architectural décor. And although allover designs were not rare, Safavid rugs tended to use the large central medallion format developed in the last phase of Timurid rug production. One could reasonably argue that  the medallion format and arabesque detail in rug weaving attained new heights of perfection under the Safavids. This went hand in hand with the development of increasingly fine techniques of weaving that facilitated the rendering of intricate curvinlinear detail.

Scholars have tended to attribute the centers of Safavid weaving to the major cities or centers of power. Tabriz, Ismail's initial capital, was certainly one such center. The later capital of Isfahan has also been accorded status as a center of production, with many outstanding seveteenth-century Safvaid carpets attributed to it, although there is no hard documentation for this. Safavid carpets were woven in Kashan. Kerman was a also major center of production for the well-known “vase-carpets” of the seventeenth century. While carpets must have been made in many areas of Safavid Iran, it is still surprisingly difficult to make specific geographic attributions for Persian rugs of this period.