Exploreutpersiancarpets 1

Discover the World of Persian Carpets Explore UT 2016……………Part 1 Saturday, 5 March 2016 Calhoun Hall 200, 1-1:40 pm a PowerPoint presentation by Michael Craig Hillmann Department and Center for Middle Eastern Studies DMES: Arabic Studies Hebrew and Jewish Studies Islamic Studies Persian Studies……..……Persian language Turkish Studies Persian literature Iranian Culture: Persian Art Persian Carpets

Map of Iran in the Middle East

Topographical Map of Iran

Iran, mostly a high plateau land, is very different from Arab lands, and its textiles, especially its Persian carpets, are immedi-ately recognizable as Iranian, as is its Islamic architecture.

Typical Iranian Plateau Mountain Foothills Countryside

The City of Yazd and Its Wind Towers

Tehran and the mountains to its north.

A tenth of Iran’s population of 80,000,000 live in Tehran.

Typical Iranian Plateau Countryside In the Iranian plains regions, trees and greenery mostly grow only where irrigation takes place.

Z창bol rectilinear Torkaman gol [= rose] repeat pattern carpet, its colorfulness in vivid contrast to the brownness of the Iranian environment.

An Iranian New Year’s [= Norooz = spring equinox, usually March 21st] stamp depicting shâh ‘abbâsi, cypress, and boteh [= shrubbery] motifs that appear in Persian carpet designs. Iranians have been celebrating Spring and Norooz for 2,500 years.

• A curvilinear floral medallion with plain field carpet from Kermân.

• Persian carpets can be curvilinear (floral), rectilinear (geometric), medallion, multiple medallion, repeat, two-directional, one directional, portrait, prayer, etc., almost all of them depicting garden scenes.

•Even rectilinear motifs and designs depict flowers and garden, respectively, even if they look like geometric shapes and patterns.

Kerm창n floral medallion with a plain field carpet

Tekke Torkaman repeat pattern gol [= rose] carpet

These village weavers are cutting pieces of the appropriately colored yarn from spools above them and inserting those pieces of yarn into the foundation of warps attached to the top and bottom of their loom. They have woven more than half of the carpet. The warp foundation is visible above their bench.

There are basically two ways of inserting or looping or knotting these pieces of pile material into adjacent warp thread, called Persian knots and Turkish knots, respectively.

Persian Knots Illustrations from P.R.J. Ford’s The Oriental Carpet

Pieces of pile material are looped around two adjacent warps and brought up on the same side of each warp to create the pile surface of the carpet.

Turkish Knots Illustrations from P.R.J. Ford’s The Oriental Carpet

Pieces of pile material are looped around two adjacent warps and brought up through the middle of them to create the pile surface of the carpet.

Persian carpets • ubiquitousness • garden images • Iranian spring • royal gardens • paradise gardens • Iranian monarchy • Islam

Royal Square, Esfah창n, Early 17th Century

15th-century Persian book Cover Designs

Sh창h Mosque, Royal Square, Esfah창n

Sh창h Mosque Dome, Royal Square, Esfah창n

Esfah창n Arabesque Medallion and Arabesque Field Carpet

• This PowerPoint slide show called Explore UT Persian Carpets.pptx is available online in two parts at: www.Issuu.com/MichaelHillmann.

• Any questions you may have about Persian questions will get quick answers from mchillmann@aol.com.