Dr. Telman Ibrahimov. Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences
Medallion carpets The origin, symbolism and transformation definitions.
The emergence of large carpets with a central medallion is associated with the flourishing of palace culture in large Muslim empires, such as the Late Timuride, Ottoman, Safavid, Mongol. Afshar, Gajar and others. In the early Islamic empires, such as the Arab caliphate, the state of Seljuks, Ilkhanid and the early Timurid empire, palace culture had not yet acquired the scope, pomp and wealth that were observed in the late Muslim renaissance era. The heyday of the palace culture of the last quarter of the XV - the end of the XVIII century is identical to the flourishing of the European palace culture of the late Renaissance and Baroque. The enormous size and wealth of the eastern palaces - dictated new, large sizes of carpets for flooring. These carpets were created by craftsmen whose worldview was based on the values of Islam. Islam was not only a religion of worship to God, it also contained a new doctrine of cosmology, according to which Allah was central to space. Allah was perceived as the center of the universe. The spatial and temporal thinking of a Muslim in Islam acquired a “fulcrum” and a “starting point”. Any activity of a traditional person of this time began with praise of Allah, the ruler and customer. Any thing created by the master and claiming perfection should also reflect this unshakable cause-and-effect hierarchy. The palace carpet, created by the master, also acquired perfection and standardization, if it contained the symbolism of this hierarchy. To understand the symbolism of the carpet wizard’s mind, one should rely on the Quran, which defined the basic concepts of the structure of the world and life. Three theses (Ayat) taken from the Koran clearly demonstrate the symbolism of the center (source) of the sacred and profanic world in the Muslim version: 1. Allah is one, there is no other deity except Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger: (Symbol of the Muslim faith). 1