WikiRug:Featured Article/2023/7

Because of the scarcity of surviving materials it is difficult to separate the history of carpet making in Iran from that of the rest of the Islamic world before the Mongol invasion. Furthermore, the kind of rigid distinction between carpet and other textile designs that characterizes later production probably did not exist in the early Islamic period. On surviving fragments and contemporary depictions of both carpets and textiles simple patterns of lozenges, circles, stripes, and the like are the main designs; animal designs on early carpets seem to have been modeled on those of deluxe figured textiles, again suggesting a more general approach to the design of floor coverings at this period.
Textiles as floor coverings. On early Islamic metalwork and ceramics from Iran male figures are commonly depicted seated directly on the ground, with no cushions or textiles beneath them; kings and other important figures, on the other hand, sometimes sit on thrones covered with cloth.(Full article...)