This book contains the proceedings of the international conference entitled “Carpets and Textiles in the Iranian World, c. 1400–1700,” held at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford in August 2003. Thirteen leading scholars in the field of carpet and textile studies, Islamic art, and history contribute articles to enhance the understanding of Iranian carpets and textiles produced during the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, covering various aspects such as their history, trade, function, and technical and stylistic characteristics. Through the thirteen articles, which are accompanied by detailed notes, a full bibliography, appendix and more than 200 color images, readers of this book can gain a good picture of not only the methods, most recent discussions, and discoveries, but also the further possibilities that exist in the field of carpet and textile studies, a field that is related to many other disciplines. Undoubtedly, this book will become one of the most important works on Iranian textiles and carpets since the 1987 publication, Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart: Textile Arts of Safavid and Qajar Iran 16–19th Centuries, edited by Carol Bier.Footnote ¹

As Yolande Crowe vividly describes at the beginning of Carpets and Textiles in the Iranian World 1400–1700, in the field of Islamic art, different media such as textiles, ceramics, woodwork, metal work and paintings share similar patterns, motifs, and designs reflecting the socio-economic and cultural circumstances at that time. Therefore, studying carpets and textiles provides useful information for those interested in history, trade, economics, and cultural exchange. The articles following that of Yolande Crowe can be divided into the following four categories: 1) analysis of design elements; 2) discussion of the provenance of certain types of carpet; 3) research on trade and consumption of certain types of textiles; and 4) study of certain types of textiles.

In her article, “Carpets and Kufesque,” which falls under category 1, Julia Bailey analyzes the inscription-like border designs of Iranian carpets, and concludes that these borders have a semantic association. Articles in category 2 include Jon Thompson's “Carpets in the Fifteenth Century,” Walter Denny's “Anatolia, Tabriz, and the Carpet Design Revolution,” and Christine Klose's “Traces of Timurid Carpets in Contemporary and Later Carpets from the Near East.” Considering various aspects including the historical background at that time, the depiction of carpets in contemporary paintings, and designs used in metal work, ceramics, book binding, and architectural decoration, Jon Thompson argues that fifteenth-century Turkish export carpets reflect an international Timurid style and that Ushak carpets were produced through commercial enterprises rather than the court workshop. Walter Denny states that the center of the fifteenth-century “design revolution” in carpet weaving did not take place exclusively in Herat as Kurt Erdmann suggested, but in Anatolia and Azerbaijan. Walter Denny emphasizes that the use of the cartoon played an important role in this revolution. On the other hand, Christine Klose traces the design of the Persian cartouche carpets to establish a chronology. In addition to enlightening readers on the key issues and the methods employed in the study of carpet, these three articles are a reminder that very basic facts such as the dates and the production centers of certain types of carpet are still very much under discussion and open to further investigation.

Among the articles which fall under category 3, Jessica Hallett's “From the Looms of Yazd and Isfahan: Persian Carpets and Textiles in Portugal” makes a significant contribution to the field. Until the 2007 publication of The Oriental Carpet in Portugal edited by Jessica Hallett and Teresa Pacheco Pereira, which catalogued Persian and Indian carpets held in Portuguese national museums, it had been difficult to grasp a picture of the Persian carpet trade undertaken by the Portuguese.Footnote ² In the article in this book, further advances in research on this aspect are presented. By using the depiction of Persian carpets in Portuguese paintings, historical materials, inventories and other primary sources, Jessica Hallett reconstructs the circumstances in which Persian carpets and textiles were brought to Portugal and analyzes how and why these carpets and textiles were used. Of particular importance to her research is the unpublished inventory of the fifth Duke of Bragança, D. Teodósio I (1510–1563), which records the origins, dimensions, design, and commercial value of each of the carpets in his collection. The attached appendix of this transcribed inventory will certainly be of interest to other researchers. Further invaluable data is also contained in the article entitled “The Import of Indian Textiles into Safavid Persia,” in which Willem Floor reveals which kinds of Indian textiles were imported into Persia from which parts of India. Based on information drawn from the Dutch East India Company records, he provides twelve tables about the types of textiles imported into Persia. In “A Global Enterprise: Armenian Merchants in the Textile Trade in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” René Bekius presents his analysis of unpublished documents to shed new light on the textile trade conducted by Armenians between the Dutch Republic, the Levant, Persia, and Russia at that time. Additionally, his article contains color images of a Safavid carpet and a Mughal silk velvet used as a cover for the Tebah (the platform used by the rabbi) in the Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam, rare examples of Persian and Indian textiles used in religious ceremonies in the Netherlands.

Five articles that can be classified as falling under category 4 provide new observations on specific types of carpets and textiles. In Steven Cohen's “The Use of Fine Goat Hair for the Production of Luxury Textiles,” he focuses especially on pashmina and suggests that sixteenth-century pashmina-pile carpets from Khorasan were models for seventeenth-century north Indian pashmina pile carpets. Additionally, using historical material and pictorial sources, he demonstrates how a less-known type of felt carpet called a namad was used among Muslims in Persia and India.

Safavid textiles, garments, and sashes are the focus of others: Mary McWilliams describes her technical analysis of a specific textile, the Safavid Velvet in the Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. On the other hand, using contemporary manuscript paintings, Jennifer Scarce divides Safavid textiles for garments into four types by design. Patricia Baker's short but insightful article entitled “Wrought of Gold or Silver: Honorific Garments in Seventeenth-Century Iran” combines information drawn from the early eighteenth-century manual Tadhkirat al-Muluk, European travelers' accounts, pictorial material, and the technical analysis of metallic threads of Safavid textiles to reconstruct four items, a sash, a sleeved garment, an over-mantle, and a crown of honor that constitute khal‘at, or “gifts to acknowledge loyal service.” Beata Biedrońska Słota's “Persian Sashes Preserved in Polish Collections” explores how one of these items, the Persian sash, became part of Polish national costume. In order to establish a chronology, she analyzes seven Persian silk sashes, which used to be owned by Polish aristocrats, that are now in the collection of the National Museum in Cracow.

Having reviewed the contents, it is perhaps apposite to return to the introduction, which reads “since the death of Kurt Erdmann in 1964, the serious study of carpets has been somewhat out of the mainstream of art historical scholarship, with few opportunities for study at academic institutions.” To the contrary, this book clearly indicates that the study of carpets and textiles has strong potential to provide a plethora of information that can shed new light on society, trade, economics, and cultural exchange. As is apparent from the above brief summaries of the articles contained in this book, the study of carpet and textiles is relevant to various disciplines and would greatly benefit from further collaborative work between art historians and scholars from different fields such as history, trade, and economics. In a sense, this book is an open invitation from art historians to other scholars to undertake interdisciplinary study and come together to do collaborative research.