Flying Carpets and Other Western Delusions
“Any ideas of ‘other’ are complicated, and otherness is relative to personal ideas of ’normal.” Meshell Ndegeocello, 1968
My first encounter with oriental rugs was during the same time Disney released the animated film Aladdin in 1992. The main character, Aladdin, romantically sweeps princess Jasmine away on a magic flying carpet, rescuing her from her sultan's palace balcony, accompanied by the song, A Whole New World. It is safe to say that 7-year-old I was mildly fascinated.
Oriental rugs are surrounded by mystery, myths and a bit of magic, and perhaps due to them being an enigma, there have been several attempts to “solve” the mystery by interpreting ornaments, texts and figures depicted in the rugs. There are still no clear answers, not even an exact date on when the first rugs were made. According to an oriental and antiquity dealer, Matt Cameron´s website, the oldest hand-knotted oriental rug known to the western world is called the Pazyryk carpet. It was excavated near the grave of the prince of Altai, near Pazyryk the Altai Mountains in Siberia in 1948. Radiocarbon testing dates the carpet to the 5th century B.C., making it approximately 2500 years old. The Pazyryk carpet is believed to originate from Persia, and its figurative, detailed motif consists of geometrical and floral ornaments and animals. Notably, here is how the carpet dealers position themself as experts, writing articles about oriental rugs and their origin on websites built solely for commercial purposes.
In my exploration of oriental rugs, I found a lot of similar “expert” texts on websites from carpet dealers another example is below (fig. 2) a Bakhtiari rug created by the Bakhtiari tribe in Iran, furthermore the text states that this one - of - a -kind” carpet “...bears an inscription to the Order of the Head of the Army, making this an incredibly personal piece. Bakhtiari rugs are considered an esteemed form of art, mastered by the nomadic Bakhtiari tribe in Iran. These lustrous, richly toned antique carpets prove that the weavers of this time truly knew the meaning of unique design. Baktiaris are known for the traditionally brilliant and vibrant colours, as the palette acts to set off a visually stunning medallion. The motif is classical Baktiari, mixing the best of nomadic Tribal designs with more typically sophisticated urban Persian elements.”
For $209,625.00, it is not surprising that the dealers of these rare carpets have positioned themselves as oriental rug specialists and are writing exhaustive texts around the exclusive pieces of handicraft. Reading Hugh Honour and John Flemming´s text on “Early Islamic Art” in A World History of Art the Bakhtiari rug is profoundly Islamic in its design, the composition consists of floral ornaments set on a dark green background resembling a garden or a forest filled with stylistic vegetal ornaments framed by a border band consisting by both a calligraphy text and geometrical figures in an underlying mathematical structure. It is even possible to interpret the pattern as the Islamic holy paradise described in the Koran - “gardens through which rivers flow, where they shall remain forever”.
Westerners seem to lump all carpets made by tribals in one group, naming them oriental rugs and/or oriental carpets, when it perhaps in reality is perhaps not so simple. In “Twentieth-Century Myth-Making: Persian Tribal Rugs”, art historian and textile expert Patricia L. Baker explores the phenomenon of Persian tribal rugs and the image of making them portrayed in David Attenborough´s film Wowen Gardens from 1976. According to the author’s article, the film simplifies and ignores several cultural factors regarding the rugmaking practice and its history.
The Western fascination with oriental carpets is apparently inexhaustible, nourished to a great extent by mythology which revolves around the twin concept of ´origin´ and ´authenticity´ of the object. Aesthetic value is accordingly conferred by the identification of tribal and /or regional production, with the interpretation of genuineness and or desire for it often relating to the supposed individuality of the piece, its function and the reading (i.e. symbolism) of its decorative composition and motif.
Baker comments and argues how we in the West decide what is an authentic/genuine/original “oriental” carpet and how our and the views of them before us have come to shape the myth and surely pushed the prices of the handwork. She extracts statements from Wowen Gardens - WG and dissects and questions the truth and intent behind them. According to Baker, there is a long history of labelling carpets and rugs according to their provenance rather than their technical structure or by the main colour design motif or basic pattern composition. An example is how WG describe authenticity through the weaver and the carpet, almost like they are magically linked. How females at a very young age, without formal training, simply start weaving their tribe´s or family´s design and patterns and how, as a result, the most authentic carpets are made from wool and materials gathered from close by nature and how the sole weaver´s “life story” gets weaved into the carpet, making it a highly personal aka. expensive object.
“Thus it is assumed that the carpets of the weaver working in the tribal encampment are purer, more authentic (and so better) than those of a village or urban weaver, who may have received schooling or committed their patterns to paper, but who has anyway deserted the encampment:
Tribal carpets are not designed as such but woven directly from memory… Traditional and sacred patterns are woven into the rugs, making them part of the very fabric of tribal life and identity… All these patterns, charged with significance, can only be understood by reference to the culture of those who use them. “
Baker proceeds to the Western history of naming the carpets after their appearance in Renaissance paintings depicting Anatolian carpets, such as Holbein´s French ambassadors at the English court, resulting in “Holbein carpets”. All pointing to authenticity and provenance to further feed the myth and mystery surrounding oriental carpets and driving up the price. In Carrier´s text on Oriental rugs in European paintings, he even writes, “ Carpets have not undergone the same development as paintings and therefore are often dated by western scholars based on when they appeared in paintings.”
Even in modern carpet production, like LCRN, a Moroccan contemporary carpet maker, old traditions and symbols are used. Depicting a full, simplistic text stating “Tu es le soleil de mon coer” - “You are the sun of my heart”, using an old Islamic traditional method of weaving text into an object, filling it with meaning for the owner.
In Islamic culture, carpets are created to sit on; a Muslim would never walk over a text inscription. In the West, we place heavy furniture and walk over the “oriental” carpets without removing our shoes or even glancing at the motif. Oriental carpets, to us in the West, are riddled with Sufism - Islamic mysticism, symbols we struggle to interpret and find meaning in. While at the same time, we step all over them and have little respect for even the proper use or the true provenance of them. As long as they have been depicted in a 14th-century oil painting, they must hold value. This article is merely a brief glimpse into the vast area of oriental carpets, this complex subject deserves a book.
