Quarterly Scientific-Research Goljaam

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Persian silk rugs are the most intricate, and often most valuable ones among all hand-knotted carpets. Silk is luxurious, lightweight and soft. Additionally fineness of silk carpet is amazing. Then it is very important to improve its quality and useful life time. During its usage, a typical high quality Persian or Oriental silk rug is exposed to many water-based stains. Although there are now a number of luxury silk carpets on the market, oddly enough they stain easily with the simplest of liquids, i.e. water. That can be bad news for investing goods such as carpets made of this expensive fiber. Getting a water stain out of silk can be tricky, but it is possible. Moisture absorbency of natural silk yarns leads to easy staining of these products by these kinds of pollutants such as tea, coffee, juice, etc. as well as their decreased life time. Textile substrates with super hydrophobic surfaces have attracted much attention for industrial applications and it is a very important resource of advanced materials and new technologies; while this is not applied in hand-woven carpet industry. In this paper hydrophobicity of silk carpets with good compatibility has been improved by treatment with Nano-poly di-methyl silicone. The silk substrates were modified with a silicone compound to achieve low surface energy. Dyed silk by metal complex 2:1 acid dyes as pile yarns and cotton warp yarns applied to weaving silk carpets, and kilims. Treatment by nano-poly di-methyl silicone has been done in low temperature. Evaluation of treatments has been done according to AATCC Test Methods. Durability and stability of surface-treatment of silk carpets were measured too. After washing of carpet and dye-injection on the surface of carpet, contact angle and wet-out time measurements on the silk carpets still show much improved hydrophobic properties. The resultant silk carpet exhibits superior water repellent properties.

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The pictorial rug of "Layla’s camel" belongs to the Qajar era, in which the central image is occupied by the large body of an "intra-hybrid" camel; the outer shape is realistic and the inside is composed of a large number of small human and animal motifs.
Creating patterns of some creatures in this way became popular in Iranian painting from the Timurid period, which reached its peak and popularity in the Safavid era. This method also was considered in the Mughal art in India at the same time as Safavid.
In this article, the "Layla’s camel" rug is described and analyzed with iconographic approach and using library resources and some scientific websites. The purpose of this study is to introduce a specific example of pictorial carpet and analyze it in a scientific way. In this regard, an attempt has been made to answer these questions:

1. How can the relation of rug inscriptions with its central image be read?
2. What is the main theme of the story from the perspective of iconographic analysis?
3. What is the irony of the collection of animal species that make up the body of "Layla’s camel"?
4. What do the presence of the angel-harpy and the red-winged dragon symbolically mean in the rug?

Poetic inscriptions in the margin of the rug, in harmony with the pictorial elements of the text, refer to the story of Layla’s wedding with Ibn-Salam and her farewell to Majnun, quoting "Maktabi_e Shirazi". But the main meaning of the story at this stage is the victory of good (Majnun) over evil (Ibn-Salam) by the animals.
The "intra-hybrid" camel also consists of animals that Majnun was accompanied in the mountains and in the desert, but at the same time has a caravan of wedding joy. Also, the image of the angel-harpy in its ancient meaning is a symbol of victory, which refers to the battle of the animals that support Majnun with the dragon – Ibn-Salam– and kill him.

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A hand-woven rug has a language and inherits the cultural, religious, and social messages and its weaver feelings. To know the messages that a rug can offer from the past to the present needs to read the symbolic language of the designs and motifs. However, in most cases, information about the meanings of a rug as an artwork is not available; hence, a logical and systematic method should be used to get past the image and reach the real concept. This research tries to reveal the hidden messages behind the motifs of a Hadji-Djalili rug with a Mihrab design, which has two prominent features:  (1) the tree of life in the middle of the rug is a hybrid type, and (2) the weaver has dyed it with special elegance in the way of a real highlight (or Abrash). These are rarely seen in other altar rugs. Based on this, the study follows to find answers to these questions: What are the symbolic concepts that are hidden behind the design, pattern, and color of the mentioned rug? And how can they be achieved? What is the final meaning of the symbolic language of these motifs? Thus, the aim of this research is to use Panofsky's iconology method to find the layers of meaning through the three stages of "pre-iconography description, iconography analysis, and iconology interpretation". This research is written with the descriptive-analytical method and uses library information and written documents. The results of the iconography analysis, which is formed by connecting the chain of meanings hidden behind the motifs, confirmed the "votive or endowment" of the mentioned rug. On the other hand, the interpretation of iconology shows that the weaver of this rug knowingly or unknowingly created an artwork, which emphasizes the need for a man (or a worshiper) to achieve spiritual evolution through the entrance to the existence circle and spiritual ascension.