CONTENTS 03 The Chairman of the Iran National Carpet FOREWORD Center (INCC) looks forward to a new age for Iranian carpets. 05 The unbroken link between the looms of Iran INTRODUCTION and interiors across the world makes carpets one of the world’s most historic luxuries. 06 16 26 HERITAGE CRAFT DESIGN Carpets and carpet From designers to More than 2000 years weaving have been part weavers through on, the designs now and parcel of Iranian to exporters, the coming out of Iran break life and culture for at character of the Persian new ground with their least two and a half population finds original compositions millennia. expression in carpets. and unique vision. 40 Contact information, online resources and a LISTINGS selection of museums in Iran. A calendar of fairs provides details of where to view Iranian carpets in person throughout the year. FOREWORD BY THE For many centuries Iran has been Recent developments have created CHAIRMAN famous for an art that is uniquely an opportunity for Iranians to look at developed and celebrated among its world markets in the hope of expanding Iran National people. This beautiful art is not just trade to higher levels than they enjoyed Carpet Center the making of carpets but also the in years gone by, and for western and intertwining of the Iranian soul, love, eastern carpet dealers and consumers to traditions and feelings in every knot have a fresh look at Iran’s potential. that is tied on their rugs. Affirming the uniqueness of Persian rugs, a carpet There will be many challenges in the master spontaneously and passionately task of reshaping and updating the said, ‘If you want to say something supply chain, but the benefits and beautiful, just throw your words possibilities are unprecedented. There is between the flowers of your rug and let a vast pool of talented designers, weavers the carpet talk...’ and specialists in Iran who are keen to cooperate where they see opportunity There was a time when many in the and commitment. On the behalf of the world could understand that talk, INCC, I can promise that we will help and hand-woven carpets still have in any way that we can to forge links much more to say in a language that between Iranian carpet designers and consumers around the world can weavers and the rest of the world. comprehend. Many in Iran and the rest of the world have great love and passion Hamid Kargar in our hearts for the maintenance Chairman, INCC and renewal of the glory and fame of Persian carpets. I urge all such people to help us with their ideas and opinions. ‘ There is a vast pool of talented designers, weavers and specialists in Iran who are keen to cooperate where they see opportunity and commitment’ 02 03 INTRODUCTION The association of the words Persian The resilience of the carpet in Iran and carpet is deep-rooted with a illustrates how deeply carpets are woven history as long as that of Persia into the fabric of Iranian society and itself. While for many the Persians culture. While many nations can claim of ancient times are a remote footnote deep affinities to artistic traditions, that of in classical history, the carpets made Iran and carpets is unique. The following then and mentioned in glowing terms pages will demonstrate aspects of carpets by Greeks such as Herodotus are in Iran that are exceptional and distinct, still very much in evidence, as is but it is important to understand that this the high esteem in which they are is not just a celebration of past history but still held. a living history as well. There are not many items that are Carpets are still made and are a vital part part of the image of a 21st-century of the country’s economy and cultural home that are made exactly the expression. Though rooted firmly in a same way today as they were 2,500 tradition of excellence and Persian culture, years ago. That handmade carpets the art of carpet making today produces are still a relevant part of our daily groundbreaking works, pieces that belong lives is remarkable, as is the fact that to the cutting edge of contemporary the people who wove carpets in Iran design. A new generation of artists and three millennia ago would recognise designers are renewing the tradition with today’s carpets from Iran as identical; fresh approaches to composition, motifs the techniques, the materials and the and colour, strengthening the link between colours are the same. the looms of Iran and our homes. ‘ While many nations can claim deep affinities to artistic traditions, that of Iran and carpets is unique’ Photo: Mohammad Farahani Varvani 04 05 2500 YEARS OF PERSIAN CARPETS: AN UNBROKEN HISTORY WILLIAM MORRIS ‘ I saw yesterday a piece of Carpets and carpet weaving have While substantial gaps in our (1834–1896) HERITAGE been part and parcel of Iranian knowledge still remain, the ancient Persian... that fairly CRAFT life and culture for at least two record is one of extraordinary and a half millennia. Recent technical innovation and threw me on my back: DESIGN archaeological and art historical artistic development, of discoveries have pushed back repeated episodes of revival and I had no idea that such the ancestral timeline for today’s renaissance, all based on the wonders could be done fine Persian carpets to the early innate Persian sensibility for this empires of the Iranian heartland. universally appreciated art form. in carpets’ 06 07 HERITAGE From 2500 BCE to 2017 carpets handmade HERITAGE CRAFT A PERSIAN CARPET in Iran by nomads and villagers, as well CRAFT DESIGN TIMELINE as in professional city and courtly weaving DESIGN ateliers, have presented the world with an innovative compendium of carpet weaving techniques, materials, colours and designs. 515 BCE 214 BCE 196 BCE 130 BCE 800 1010 1617 The building Construction of the Rosetta Stone records The building Emergence of modern The Shahnama (Book of Kings) The ambassador of Philip III of Persepolis Great Wall of China coronation of Ptolemy V of Ctesiphon language (Farsi) is completed by Firdausi of Spain arrives in Esfahan 0 800 BCE 500 BCE 300 BCE 100 BCE BCE CE 500 1000 1100 1200 1400 1300 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2017 550 BCE 224 CE 1073 CE 1256 CE 1370 CE 1501 CE 1750 CE 1785 CE 1979 Achaemenid Sasanid Seljuk Ilkhanid Timurid Safavid Zand Qajar Islamic Republic Horse or Camel Cover Tapestry-weave Kilim The Pazyryk Carpet The ‘Faces’ Animal Carpet Pius IX’s Hunting Carpet Shah Abbas Carpet Chahar Bagh Carpet Persepolis Carpet Heidarzadeh Tabriz Carpet Iran, 800–364 BCE. Iran, 487–379 BCE. Scythia, 383–200 BCE. Azerbaijan, 1042–1218 CE. Tabriz, dated 1522 CE. Central Persia, circa 1600. Kurdistan, 18th century. Kerman, late 19th century. Northwest Persia, ca. 2016. All wool. 87 x 219 cm. All wool. 77 x 81 cm. All wool. 183 x 200 cm. All wool. 170 x 235 cm. Wool, silk and cotton. Wool, silk, cotton, metal Wool, cotton. 375 x 925 cm. Wool, cotton. 528 x 739 cm. Wool, cotton. Private collection, Zurich Private collection, Germany Hermitage Museum, Private collection, Germany 335 x 682 cm. Poldi Pezzoli thread. 335 x 555 cm. Imam Al-Sabah Collection, Nazmiyal, New York Heidarzadeh, Tabriz St. Petersburg Museum, Milan Reza Shrine, Mashhad Kuwait National Museum This all-wool animal cover Wool kilims woven in Discovered in 1948, in a Preserved for generations The Hunting Carpet carries The nomenclature of this The Kuwait Kurdish Signed by masterweaver A newly made, traditionally may be the oldest surviving the interlocking tapestry Scythian prince’s frozen in a Tibetan monastery, an inscription in the central ‘Shah Abbas’ style carpet is of Garden carpet is generally Aboul Ghasem Kermani, styled, hand-knotted, fine complete knotted pile rug technique using natural tomb in the Altai region this C-14 dated 11th–12th cartouche which bears the twofold significance. First, the agreed to be the oldest of the this fine large pictorial carpet woollen carpet made in the known today. Its C-14 undyed colours continued of southern Siberia, this century woollen carpet date 929 AH (1522 CE) and carpet, which was most likely extraordinary sub-group of shows a flat perspectival plan long established workshops dating falls into a period to be made by tribes in the sophisticated knotted fragment was most likely the name of a masterweaver woven in Yazd, was donated Chahar Bagh design carpets of Persepolis with the most belonging to a Tabriz family when Persia was ruled by mountains of western Iran pile rug was preserved in knotted in northwestern or designer, Ghiyath al-Din to the Mashhad shrine by made in northwestern Persia famous reliefs included and firm set up some two hundred the Medes who controlled until the late 19th century, remarkable condition for Iran. Its highly abstracted Jami. Previously owned by Shah Abbas I in the early in the 18th and early 19th labelled, and records many years ago by the great-great Iran, eastern Anatolia and as well as in Arabia. The almost 2,500 years. Its enigmatic design may have Pope Pius IX (d.1878), it 17th century. Its pair is in the centuries. Its design echoes of the ancient cuneiform grandfather of the present Afghanistan 615-549 BCE, material of this small rug compartmented field design some connection to an was found in the late 19th shrine at Najaf. Second, the the classical four-part Islamic inscriptions, translating them principal. Like several followed by the Achaemenid is unlike any of the carpets is borrowed from ancient ancient death and ancestor century in the Quirinale directional all-over palmette garden format.