were used to garnish the palaces of the Pharaohs. If one may judge from rare remains of decorative textiles, in the museum at Cairo especially, dating from at least 1480 B.C., such Egyptian fabrics were of linen inwoven with coloured wools in a tapestry-weaving manner, and were not tufted or piled textures. Taken from the palace at Nineveh is a large marble slab carved in low relief with a geometrical pattern surrounded by a border of lotus flowers and buds, evidently a copy of an Assyrian floor cover or rug about 705 B.C., such as was also woven probably in the tapestry-weaving manner. On the other hand, its design equally well suggests patchwork—a method of needlework in vogue with Egyptians, at least 900 years B.C., for ornamental purposes, as indicated by the elaborately patterned canopy which covered the bier of an Egyptian queen—the mother-in-law of Shishak who took Jerusalem some three or four years after the death of Solomon—and is preserved in the museum at Cairo. In the Odyssey, tapetia are frequently mentioned, but these again, whether floor coverings or hangings, are more likely to have been flat-textured and not piled fabrics. On the tomb of Cyrus was spread a “covering of Babylonian tapestry, the carpets underneath of the finest wrought purple” (Arrian vi. 29). Athenaeus (bk. v. ch. 27) gives from Callixenus the Rhodian (c. 280 B.C.) an account of a banquet given by Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, and describes “the purple carpets of finest wool, with the pattern on both sides,” as well as “handsomely embroidered rugs very beautifully elaborated with figures”; these again were probably not piled fabrics but kindred to the hangings in the palace of Ptolemy Philadelphus decorated with portraits, which were likely to have been of tapestry-weaving, and would be nearly the same in appearance on both sides of the fabric. Of corresponding tapestry woven work are Egypto-Roman specimens dating from the 2nd or 3rd century A.D., a considerable collection of which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington. From about the same period date bits of hangings or coverings woven in linen, over-wrought in a method of needlework with ornament of compact loops of worsted (Plate I. figs, 1 and 2). These are the earliest extant specimens of textiles presenting a tufted or piled surface very kindred to that of woven pile carpets of much later date. But the modus operandi in producing the earlier only remotely corresponds with that of the later—though making a surface of loops by means of needlework as in the Coptic or Egypto-Roman specimens of Plate I. figs, 1 and 2 seems to be a step in a progress towards the introduction at an apparently later date of tufts into loom weavings such as we find in 16th-century tufted or piled carpets.
The simple traditional Oriental method of making these latter is briefly as follows:—The foundation is a warp of strong cotton or hempen or woollen or silk threads, the number of which is regulated by the breadth of the carpet and Method of making piled carpets. the fineness or coarseness to be given to its pile. Short lengths of coloured wool or goats’ or camels’ hair or silk are knotted on to each of the warp threads so that the two ends of each twist or tuft of coloured yarn, of whatever material it is, project in front. Across the width of the warp and above the range of tufts a weft thread is run in; another line or row of tufts is then knotted, and above this another weft thread is run in across the warps, and so on. These rows of tufts and weft as made are compressed together by means of a blunt fork or rude comb-like instrument, and thus a compact textile with a pile or tufted surface is produced; the projecting tufts are then carefully clipped to an even surface. In the East the rude wooden frames in which the warp-threads are stretched either stand upright upon, or are level with, the ground. They are easily transported and put together, and the weaving in them is done chiefly by wandering groups of weavers. The local surroundings, often those of rocky arid districts, in which Kurdish and other families weave carpets are well illustrated in Oriental Rugs by J. H. Mumford. For making pile carpets and rugs two traditional knots are in use; the first is termed the Turkish or Ghiordes knot, from Ghiordes, an old city not far from Brusa. It is in vogue principally throughout Asia Minor, as far east as Kurdistan and the Caucasus, but it is also used farther south-east in parts of Persia and India. The yard of the pile is knotted in short lengths upon the warp-threads so that the two outstanding ends of each knot alternate with every two threads of the warp. The second traditional knot is the Persian or Sehna knot, which, though better calculated to produce a close, fine, even, velvety surface, has in many parts of Persia been abandoned for the Ghiordes knot, which is a trifle more easily tied. The Persian or Sehna knot is tied so that from every space between the warp-threads one end of the knot protrudes. The number of knots to the inch tied according to either the Turkish or Persian method is determined by the size and closeness of the warp-threads and the size and number of weft-threads thrown across after each row of knots. The patterns of the fabrics made by country weavers are usually taken by them from old rugs. But in towns where weaving is conducted under more organized conditions new patterns are often devised, and are traced sometimes upon great cardboards, on which the stitches, or knots, are indicated by squares each painted in its proper colour. In some of the Persian carpets and rugs made at Sehna, Kirman and Tabriz, the warp is of silk, a material that contributes to fine compact pile textures.
There is much uncertainty as to the period when cut pile carpets were first made in the East. Their texture is certainly akin to that of fustian and velvet; while that of the finer Persian carpets, which were not made much Date of original pile textures. earlier than about the 15th century, is practically not distinguishable from velvet, having long or heavy pile. Fustian, the English name for a cut short pile textile, is derived from Fostat (old Cairo), and such material is likely to have been made there, as soon as anywhere else, by Saracens, especially during the propitious times of the Fatimite Khalifs, who for more than two centuries previously to the 13th century were noted for the encouragement they gave to all sorts of arts and manufactures. It seems that velvet came into use in Europe not much earlier than the 14th century, and various French church inventories of the time contain entries of “tapis velus (cut pile carpets) d’aultre mer, à mettre par terre” (see Essai sur l’histoire des tapisseries et tapis, by W. Chocqueel, Paris, 1863, pp. 22-23). It is an open question if the making of cut pile carpets in Persia or by Saracens elsewhere preceded that of fustians and velvets or whether the developments in making the three proceeded pari passu.
The making of carpets with a flat surface, however, is probably far older than that of cut pile carpets, and characteristic of one such old method is that in the making of Soumak carpets (Plate II. fig. 5), the ornament of which done in Carpets with flat surface. close needle stitches with coloured threads completely conceals the stout flax or hemp web which is the essential material of these carpets. Soumak is a distortion of Shernaka, a Caucasian town in the far east of Asia Minor. But so-called Soumak carpets are made in other districts, and the particular needlework used in them is practically of the same kind as that on a smaller scale used for the well-known Persian Nakshe or woman’s trousering, and again that used on a still smaller scale in the ornamentation of valuable Kashmir shawls. Quilted and chain-stitched cotton prayer and bath rugs from Persia are referred to in the article on Embroidery.
Another method of making carpets with a flat surface is that of tapestry-weaving (see Plate II. fig. 4), which, according to existing and well-authenticated specimens of considerable antiquity (already referred to), appears to be the oldest of any historic process of ornamental weaving (see Tapestry).
Very broadly considered, the traditional designs or patterns of Oriental carpets fall into two classes: the one, prevailing to a much larger extent than the other, seems to reflect the austerity of the Sunni or orthodox Mahommedans Motives in traditional designs in Oriental carpets. in making patterns with abstract geometric and angular forms, stiff interlacing devices, cryptic signs and symbols and the like; whilst the other suggests the freer thought of the Shiah or unorthodox sect, in
