We can divide  carpets according to their geographical or policy area of origin such as Persian carpet or Iranian carpets.

The article written by Simone resumes some information from blogs and old publications containing truth and some inaccuracies. Let me write some comments in order to help you to better understand this fascinating and varied world.

Indian Carpets

“The production of Indian carpets began in the sixteenth century, under the dynasty of the Moghul dynasty. The first Indian carpet production was heavily inspired by Persian carpets used to furnish imperial mansions. The ancient Indian carpet show Safavidi influence both in the designs and in the compositional set, with a strong predominance from natural inspiration: flowers become the central element of every manufacturing production. The colour and use of dyes like red with blue shadows, called Lac or Lacquer, emphasize the whole decoration when drawn near to white, green, yellow, gold and blue.

The Moghul masters also proved to be very skilled in knotting the carpet: it has a high density of knots ranging from 900 to 2000 for carpet with cotton warp, but also up to 40000 per square decimeter for those made of silk. The raw materials used to make these carpets were of great quality, from Kashmir wool to silk, sometimes enriched with gold and silver yearns. Typically Indian are carpets that reproduce motifs with animals or hunting scenes, always dating back to the Moghul era production ”

Turkmen Carpets

Turcoman carpets, however, are treating by several specialized blogs, which argue that:

“In the history of East Carpets, the territory of Western Turkestan is of outstanding importance. The carpet production, in fact, very widespread until the nineteenth century, was the main unifying factor in the customs of many local nomadic tribes.

It is not the production of carpets that unifies the customs of the nomadic tribes, but it is the culture of the population that manifests itself through the carpets and patterns of the carpets, which become symbols and characteristic idioms.

Called in the West until a few decades ago with the generalizing name of Bokhara or Bukhara (name of a collection city), the carpets of Turkmen are characterized by the same color repeated, a tone of red, brown and black and by decorations , usually called gul, which are distributed over ordinate lines, often alternating with smaller geometric motifs of variable shape. Finally, the knots used may be asymmetrical as symmetrical whereas the material used is almost always wool on wool, with rare cases of use of silk or mercerized cotton ”

Please do not reduce the mythical city of Bukhara to a mere carpet collection center; first of all, because if that was the case, this function is certainly marginal, then it is now more than obvious that the historical fame of this city has favored the similitude between his name and any red carpet with gul shaped design knotted in Middle East.

Iranian Carpets

With regard to Iranian carpets, in particular I have collected information on Keshan carpets, this manufacture includes different types of carpets:

“The city of Keshan has long been known for its textile products and hand knotted carpets along the “Silk Road”. The production of Iranian silk Kashan carpets dates back to the fifteenth-sixteenth century and becomes flourishing between the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Some historians believe that the famous pair of Ardabil carpets were knotted just in Kashan in the 16th century. The pair of carpets was given in 1539 by Maqsud Kashani, most likely native of Kashan, at the Sheikh Safi-ad-din complex of Ardabil. These marvelous silk carpets often used also silver and gold yarns to give the rugs extraordinary graphics and chromatic effects. These are unique pieces, which are now kept in large museums or in the most important private collections. Among the most beautiful carpets made in Kashan are Vienna’s Carpets, three precious masterpieces whose fields reproduce hunting scenes with knights and prey on a floral background made of bushes and flowers”