Sykes' History of Persia Vol 2 (pdf) - Heritage Institute

ARCHITECTURE AND ART 291
silk carpet, 60 ells long.
The design represented was
a firdaus^ or garden,
with running streams marked out
by crystals,
the ground in gold thread, the leaves
worked in silk and the blossoms represented by precious
stones.
The tradition of this marvellous carpet, which was
probably not the only specimen made, was never lost, and
an example believed to have been woven for Shah Abbas
has been preserved.
Of this I am able to give an illustration,
which deserves careful examination. The carpet,
woven in wool, is divided into the four customary plots
by the main stream of water, crossed by a smaller stream.
To quote from Mrs. Villiers Stuart, (( the characteristic
canals, the special feature of the type, are unequal in
length, but their form is only
a modification of the older
cosmic cross. The central pavilion
is
very small, little
more than a fountain basin, in which four birds swim, a
curious mixture of swan and royal peacock. The carpet
shows the old symbolic avenues of cypress and flowering
fruit-trees with their mystic
birds beak to beak and tulip
border close to the stream. Four large plane trees are
planted at the angles of the pavilions forming an outer
avenue, and trees fill the squares
at the corners of the
central tank." l
It is impossible to write, however briefly, about Persian
carpets without a reference to the exquisite 40- foot
carpet from the Shrine of Ardebil, which, as the inscription
proves, was woven in the reign of Shah Tahmasp, in
A.H. 946 (1540). Thanks to it
English patriotism was
bought for the nation and is now one of the most prized
treasures of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The
ground is of dark blue, the medallions are yellow and
the cartouches and borders are red. From the great
central group of medallions lamps depend, and the tracery
is so rich and so natural that the carpet resembles a
beautiful picture.
One of the most convincing proofs of Persian genius
in carpets is the remarkable variety of design, every
work.
1
Gardens of
the Great Mug/ials, p. 149, by C. M. Villiers Stuart, a most charming