Ardabil Carpet
One of the world’s oldest dated carpets, with a golden medallion and hanging mosque lamps.
The carpet was made for the shrine at Ardabil in north-west Iran. It was bought in 1893 by the Victoria and Albert Museum, where it is shown in low light in a glass case. A twin, partly made from both, is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Materials: Wool pile on silk warp and weft
Manufacture: Hand-knotted with about 340 knots per square inch, over twenty million knots in all.
The central medallion with sixteen pointed ovals and two mosque lamps of different sizes.
The inscription at one end with a poem, the weaver’s name and the year 946 of the Hijra.