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Historical and cultural background
Muslims regard the carpet with special esteem and admiration. For the traditional Bedouin tribes of Arabia, Persia and Anatolia, the carpet was at the centre of their life being used as a tent sheltering them from the sand storms, a floor covering providing great comfort for the household, wall curtains protecting privacy, and useful items such as blankets, bags, and saddles. It was indeed a resourceful inspiration to make use of the abundant wool produced by their herds.
With Islam, another significant value was added to the carpet, being a furniture of Paradise mentioned numerous times in the Qur‘an. For example in Chapter 88 (Surah), the carpet is counted as one of the riches the believer will be rewarded in the afterlife.
There is considerable material dealing with the history, nature and character of the Muslim carpet. Such material is published under three main themes: the Oriental carpet, the Muslim carpet, or under regional classification such as the Turkish carpet, or the Persian carpet and the like. Historic sources have established that the carpet tradition is a very old custom practised by early civilisations. Recent discoveries (dating from 1949) of a carpet in the tomb of a Scythian prince in Pazyryk in the Altai Mountains (southern Siberia) date back to the 6th century BCE. This carpet, now in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, is the oldest extant knotted carpet . From a study of its knotting technique, as well as its decoration, it appeared clearly that the so-called "Pazyryk carpet" had a Persian origin. The next evidence available in the early development of the carpet consists of small 6th-century CE fragments from Turfan (east Turkestan), on the old silk road, which were discovered between 1904 and 1913. It appears clear from these two evidences that the carpet was first made in the region of what was to become later a substantial part of the Muslim world.
The earliest surviving Muslim carpet, however, are fragments found in Al-Fustat (old Cairo). The oldest of these belonged to the 9th century (821 CE), while the remaining were dated to 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Based on the form of their knots and decorative designs, these fragments were classified into two types. The first group included fragments having a knot similar to a later Spanish knot (knotted onto a single warp) and decorated with geometrical design similar to Spanish (Andalusian) carpets of the 15th century from Alcaraz. Therefore, these were considered to be the first prototype of the later Spanish design. The other category of fragments incorporated stylised animal presentations and were considered to be of Anatolian typology from the 14th and 15th centuries, when animal decorative designs were the fashion. The similarity to the Spanish and Anatolian carpets has made some historians think they were only Fatimid imports. However, the fame gained by the so-called "Cairene carpets" during the 17th century can only refer to the refinement reached by the Fustat carpet tradition.
