The Origin of Oriental Rugs
While very little is known about the early history of hand knotted pile rugs, one can safely assume that handcrafted rugs were first created by nomadic tribes on the Asian continent. The oldest knotted rug still in existence today is the Pazyryk carpet (also spelled Pazyrik, Pazirik, Pasirik, Pasyryk), that is about 2500 years old. It was discovered 1949 in a burial chamber in Siberia near the border of Mongolia by the Soviet archaeologist S.I. Rudenko. The Pazirik carpet measures about 6' by 6', it has been woven with the Turkish knot and shows Persian motifs surrounded by elks and horsemen. Its origin is unknown, but many believe that it was made by Persian weavers. Today the Pazyrik rug is in the Hermitage Museum in
St. Petersburg (Leningrad), Russia.
The art of oriental rug weaving in Persia took a major step forward during the reign of the Safavid Dynasty in the 16th century. Especially Shah Abbas set up royal rug workshops with master carpet designers all over Iran in cities like Isfahan, Herat, Joshaqan, Kashan, Kerman, Shiraz, Sabzevar, Tabriz, and Yazd. A prime example for the outstanding rugs of this period are the famous Ardabil carpets.
The Ardebil rugs are a pair of nearly identical carpets, that have their name from a shrine of Sheikh Safieddin Ardebili where they were originally located. Today one is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, the other in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The weaving date 1540 and the name of the weaver, Maqsud al Kashani, have been woven into the rugs. Both measure about 17' by 34', they have a silk foundation and a wool pile with about 300 Persian knots per square inch. It's unknown where the Ardebils have been woven, but probably it has been either in Tabriz, Kashan, or Mashad.
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