Quarterly Scientific-Research Goljaam

Regarding the design, pattern and color of Timurid carpets, although no sound and safe one of such period has been survived, there are so many paintings addressing the carpets that most probably have been produced in that time. These paintings are mostly accessible from various manuscripts that have been developed by Timurid princes and patrons. We can even reproduce a whole carpet by analyzing these paintings. One of such manuscripts was created in Harat in the royal library of Baysonghor Mirza under supervising of Ja’far Tabrizi and is dated back to 1429, namely “Shanameh-ye-Baysonghori”. In this paper we are going to analyze six paintings of the manuscript, and to determine the design, pattern, color and even designers of Timurid carpets. This research is descriptive-analytical in nature and its necessity is due to understanding the carpets of the past eras and introducing them to designers and artists of nowadays carpet industry.

The manufacturing of costly hand woven rugs and floor coverings during the 15th to 17th centuries represented a splendid golden age for the Iranian textile industry. Without using high-quality yarns, the productions of such woven materials were surely impossible. To analyze and identify the technical specifications of the required yarns in this industry during the aforementioned centuries, the remaining products not only could be analyzed, but they also could be examined in the great works of the paintings of that era. Examining the 15th to 17th centuries main paintings in which spinning were manifested, characteristics and technical specification of spinning handicrafts within this period have been determined. The collected data revealed that spinning, which was done by the middle-aged, elderly, and disabled as one of their daily activities, used to be very common during the 15th to 17th centuries. The painters, carefully portraying the various parts of the spindle and the spinning wheel in their works, were completely aware of the yarn source and their technical differences in spinning different yarns. This could be clearly observed in their works. According to the social situation of the painting context and with emphasis on the specific considerations of the various instruments usage, special use was made of various types of spindles and spinning wheels. 

Findings and opuses of Islamic civilization era are designed and rendered on different surfaces such as wood, stone tablet, tore, cloth, kilims, jijims, carpets and rugs in geometrical or curvilinear forms of motifs existing in nature or purely spiritual symbols. The art of carpet designing and weaving which was mixed with its concurrent crafts and industry as well as naturalistic and visual symbols, is the key to the connection of the artist to his/her surroundings and even his/her thoughts, faith and beliefs and incorporated with novelty. This research is mainly concerned with such Persian carpets which their designs include a Mihrab on a carpet (prayer rug). This paper focuses mainly on Persian Mihrabi carpets to present the common concepts in the culture of Islamic era, such as, "Taqe Mihrab" and "Darvaze"(gate). Then the origins of such carpets are examined regarding the painting works, and some works are introduced. Some early examples, in which flowers, plants and birds are used as well as two common symbols in such carpets, i.e., Qandil and cypress tree, are discussed and analyzed.

One of the prosperous periods of Persian commercial carpet industry is the Safavid era especially the 10th and 11th centuries (A.H.). Governments’ attention to arts and artists and expanding the facilities on the one hand, and willingness of other artists such as illumination artists and Persian painters’ to beautiful designs for carpets, along with the progress of the dyeing industry, provided carpet weaving with a special place in the field of art and industry. The main question of the present study is: Who were the carpet designers at different geographical locations and in different times for various woven products? The main hypothesis in this paper is that in Safavid era, some of carpets were designed by famous Persian paintings artists. For this purpose, a comparative method has been used for comparing two survived carpet samples with the paintings of that era. It can be seen that the most of the arts, including traditional arts and architecture, were closely related at that era which indicate the existence of a unified artistic management in the cultural system of that period, and such responsibility was undertaken by the prominent painters and architects. The comparison of motifs of paintings and carpet may indicate that some of the carpets have been designed by some great painters such as Kamal al-Din Behzad and Aghamirak Isfahani and Soltan Mohammad Iraqi, etc and there are some valuable carpets woven directly under the supervision of these masters. On the other hand, some carpet designers were trained who followed their masters and this indirectly influenced the development of carpet motifs, so that the carpet designers were mostly inspired by these masters in manufacturing workshops.

As a result of expansion of relationships between Gurkanian (Indian Muquls) and Safavid Kings, we can see some impacts of Iran on Indian carpets, illustrations, architecture and related arts. Some of the motifs in carpets were spread to India during Gurkanian Era. This paper tries to find out the direct or indirect influences of depicted carpets’ motifs in Persian paintings on Indian arts. So the questions are: What is the reason for the representation of Persian carpets in Indian miniatures during Muqul era? What are the represented motifs from Persian carpets in Indian miniatures? The applied research method is descriptive- analytical via library data collection. The results show that, Indian kings’ interest in arts, the relationship with Safavid Kingdom, and immigrations of Iranian artists to India in Shah-Tahmasb’s Era, are the reasons for representation of Persian carpets’ motifs in Indian miniatures. The represented carpets’ motifs in Indian miniatures besides the influence Iranian artists' exercise represent the nativity of vegetative motifs in either abstract or natural forms depicted by Indian artists