Among people dedicated to the transhumance and nomadic group, since the year dot, carpet always represent un essential object of common use, as well as, one of the most important form of art and cultural expression of that societies.
Since the dawn of time people knotted material to create manufactories that were essencial for the all-day life. Like tent, wicker, but also bag in which was possible put food, tools etc.
For this reason, carpet became keeper and custodian of the symbolic universe in which – carpets knotting people – express themselves . Through drawings on the fleece, nomadic ethnic group, handed down the symbols of their clan and the memory of important moments of their social history.
Furthermore, they could express their creativity celebrating all-day life and their relationship with nature, animals end local landscapes.
Kashan Mohtashem carpets, XIX century:
The spreading of Islamic religion influenced motifs and decorations of Persian carpets. That ancient carpets, infect, are full of the mystic values; characteristic that would became soon fundamental in Persian carpets. It is lightweight and easily transportable, perfect quality to follow for Islamic people that have to respect Koran’s rules. Infect. the Islamic law imposes frequent prayer towards Mecca without touching the impure ground. For these reasons, carpet began sacred space: its edges the boundaries between sacred and secular, pure and impure. A symbol of the vicinity of the human beings to God. Infect, from that period, carpets were decorated with Koran’s settings.
The origins of the carpet are mysterious, but, for sure, preislamic.
The influence of Islamic mystic changed completely the motifs and the drawling styles of the Persian carpets. The Islamic religion imposes the prohibition of paint settings from Koran. This ban is called “aniconism” and this was the reason they become to produce carpets with abstract decorations full of symbolic value very difficult to understand by people that not belong to that culture. However, when they are deciphered, all the cultural intensity, history and traditions can be understand. For all this reasons, in many Asian areas, these knotted artifacts, preserve a particular mining. In the relationship between people and carpets, humans want to show the link between the all day life of individuals and families and no maters how much time pass and how changes people and society.
For example, in the modern Iranian houses, carpets are arranged in the same way they were put down in the ancient tents. The same carpets on which, today as than, the family meets for the worships.
Serapi carpet knotted in Heriz in the XIX century:
