In 1935-36 about one hundred fragments some Selçuk in origin were discovered at Fostat and taken to Sweden by C. J. Lamm. Many of these are still to be found in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; one is in Gothenburg and others are in Lamm’s private collection. A large number have also been acquired by other museums: the Benaki Museum, Athens; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Islamic Museum, Cairo; and the Museum fur Islamische Kunst (Islamic Art Museum), Berlin. Lamm has pub-lished drawings and pictures of twenty-nine of these fragments from the collection in the Swedish museums; the ones in the Benaki Museum, however, are neither exhibited nor published and therefore remain unknown. The other Fostat fragments in the museums of New York, Cairo and Berlin are also unpublished.
The story of the discovery of some of these Fostat carpets by Riefstahl is worth relating. When purchasing some old carpet fragments from a Cairo antiçue market where they were being sold for very Iittie, he learned from the dealer that these were but a few from among many pieces which were constantly coming to light from excavations at Fostat. Soon such fragments began appearing frequently at the markets and of course their price rose steeply Riefstahl in his article about this states that “all rug fragments discovered in Egypt are described as coming from the ruins of Fostat. We must, however, admit that many of these fragments may simply have been found in the rubbish heaps to the south and east of Cairo. Unless a definite scientific record of a find is established, we have no guarantee that a rug fragment is from Fostat or predates the destruction ofthatcity, i.e. the middle of the twelfth century.” He further notes, “I have seen such fragments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; in the G. H. Myers Textile Museum, Washington, DC and in a Paris collection.
Seven of the twenty-nine carpet fragments published by Lamm unguestionably belong to the Konya group. They enrich our comparatively slight knowledge of Selçuk carpets, giving evidence of new designs and helping confirm that the production of Konya carpets must have extended into the 14th century. Undoubtedly, other Selçuk examples would surely appear, if as a whole all the pieces that have been discovered so far were available to be studied. The Fostat carpets are smaller than the Konya ones and their knots are tighter and finer. They are woven with the Turkish knot with a warp of mat white or brown wool, and a weft of red wool. Geometric compositions are prevalent, although some have animal figures too. İt is remarkable that though there are many representations of animal-figured carpets in European paintings, there are com-paratively few showing geometric designs, while those of the animal figured carpets of Fostat with complex figured groups are very rarely represented.
Let us look more closely at the seven Selçuk fragments from Fostat which were published by Lamm. The first six are in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
The first example is a small fragment ofthe field of a woolen Anatolian carpet dating from the 13th century and measuring 0.14×0.165 m (Inv. No. 39/1936). The design contains off-set rows of thinly scattered dark red lozenges with a pair of “U“ and “V“ like fillings turned outwards, all on a dark blue ground. The lozenges are terminated at both ends with a Kufic like hooked motif outlined in dark red or brown on a light red field. İt is very difficult to identify the main composition but other smaller lozenges with blue and green fillings can be clearly identified alongside the main motif.
The second example is a fragment from a woolen carpet measuring 0.26×0.17 m (Inv. No. 220/1939). The main field contains a large polygonal medallion with dark blue inner contours and a brown outline. The medallion is symmetrically filled with four large cream eight sided stars with rectangles in between. The remaining space is filled with squares and lozenge shapes in red and cream. Besides the medallion, small stylized dark purple floral motifs which resemble lilies cover the rosered field.
The third fragment is the border and a section of the main field of a woolen carpet measuring 0.315×0.18 m (Inv. No. 42/1936). Dark olive green motifs resembling lilies, which in the previous example surrounded the medallion, here cover the rose red field . They probably filled the area between the border and the central medallion. The Kufic border is light green on a dark blue ground. The interior border consists of a whitish angular flower design with a dark brown outline. There is a white band on either side of the interior border and a blue band separates the main field from the border.
The fourth fragment measuring 0.40×0.145 m is from the border of another woolen carpet (Inv. No. 43/1936). The composition contains a row of yellowish Kufic motifs outlined in brown on a red field. Depressed green rectangles join the letters (Pl. 19). The inner guard border contains a row of chevrons in brown on a cream field with alternating red and green triangles filling the empty spaces.
The fifth example dating from the 13th or 14th century is a small fragment from a woolen carpet measuring 0.33 x 0.95 m (Inv. No. 222/1939). The field in this fragment consists of a row of dark blue and red rosettes with angular stylized flowers outlined in brown on a belge ground (Pl. 20). The flower like design alternately faces downwards and upwards.
The sixth fragment is a small part from the field of a carpet dating from the 14th century (Pl. 21). İt measures 0.275×0.105 m (Inv. No. 221/1939). The design contains a device derived from an eight pointed star with arrowheads projecting from the four sides and is outlined in brown with red and green fillings.
The seventh fragment which is kept in the Röhss Museum, Gothenburg is severly dam-aged and very small, 0.31×0.255 m (Inv. No. 321/1935). İt consists of a section from the field and border of a woolen carpet from the 14th century (III. 2).
Though it is impossible to establish the relationships between the Fostat fragments and the Konya and Beyşehir finds, certain additional facts about them give us clues in the dating and composition of the total group. The Kufic inscriptions, for example on some of the Fostat fragments bear the date H. 202 (817-818), that is, during the Abbasid Period. As mentioned earlier this shows that those carpets were pretulunid. These carpets are knotted on a single warp with a technique bearing some similarity to the one traditionally identified as the Turkish knotting technique. (This single warp knot is also
seen later on Spanish carpets.) However, a possible link of relationship is seen in the fragments in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm containing offset rows of octagons. These do resemble the Konya carpets, but a vertical link between the octagon and the hexagons flanking them has been added to the composition. The filling devices are also different. The border resembles that of the Beyşehir carpet belonging to the proto Holbein carpet. İn short, the evidence of relationship remains inconclusive.
Before proceeding to a general discussion of compositional design and historical perspectives, let us turn to one last Fostat fragment.
A Fostat Konya carpet fragment purchased by the late Richard Ettinghausen in Cairo and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York is a piece belonging to the late 13th or early 14th century. İt measures 0.31×0.225 m and bears the same color characteristics as the Konya carpets, that is red, dark blue and light blue. The main composition consists of dark blue hexagons on a red field with light blue symmetrical hooked devices. Octagons with hooked devices project from their corners and thick double stemmed floral motifs appear above and below the main device. The hexagons are linked on each side.
This composition is not to be found in the Konya Alâeddin Mosçue carpets, though the hooked devices issuing from the corners of the motif show a considerable similarity of style to two of the Konya carpets. Both have a geometric framework derived from cloud devices, something which is also characteristic of the Damask silks belonging to the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). İt is impossible to state with certainty whether the origin of the device in the Fostat fragment was a cloud motif of the Chinese silks and damasks or an ogival lotus motif. These Chinese prototypes, if indeed they can be called that, are to be seen on medieval silk fragments belonging to the Mameluke Sultan Muhammad Nasr bin Kalavun (1309-1340) which were discovered together with other date-inscribed silks in excavations in Upper Eygpt.
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A great deal can be learned about carpets in general and these in particular by turning to some literary references. İn writings of the period, Anatolian Selçuk carpets of the 13th century were highly praised. The Venetian, Marco Polo on his journey from Anatolia to Iran between 1271 and 1272 passed through Sivas and Kayseri. İt is not certain that he visited Konya. We have no conclusive evidence, either, that he was able to observe the magnificence of the three architectural monuments in Sivas whose dates of completion were the same year as his visit. They were the Gök Medrese, the Çifte Minareli Medrese and the Buruciye Medrese. All of them are situated on the main street of the city so it would have been very difficult for him to have missed them. İt is recorded, however, that because of language he was not in contact with Müslim Turks but made contact with the Christians in the area. The following quote records the event. “İn Turcomania three types of people are found. Of these the Türkmen live by raising animals, the Greeks and Armenians are engaged in commerce in the cities. Here the world’s richest carpets are woven.
In the same period Ebul Fida in his writings informs us that, according to İbn Said (d. 1274), “There, Turcoman carpets are made and exported to all countries of the world. Aksaray is mentioned as a center of production and is probably the “there” referred to in the quote. Another traveler, İbn Battuta who passed through Anatolia in the 14th century, similarly praises the carpets of Aksaray, which he says are exported to all “the Turkish countries” referring to Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
The fragments found at Fostat corroborate this. İn fact, as Lamm relates, whether they came from Fostat or from the rubbish heaps near the tombs, it is certain that they are all examples of carpets imported to Egypt from Anatolia between the 13th and 15th centuries. The commercial channels between the two areas were well established by this time. During the Selçuk era important trade routes passed through Anatolia and certain trade rights were granted to the Venetians and Genoese. For example, in 1220 trade rights from the port of Antalya were granted specifically to the Venetians.
We can also learn a great deal of Information from examining the contemporary paintings of the period both in the East and in the West. We see characteristic Selçuk carpets represented in paintings as early as the 13th century. The Makamat Manuscript (İstanbul, Süleymaniye Esad Efendi Library, Inventory No. 2916) contains a miniature representing a carpet with a geometric field pattern and Kufic border which is compositionally a varia-tion of the Selçuk type. The field design is reminiscent of the eight Konya carpets with their interlinked octagons interspersed between small squares.
Towards the end of the 14th century and even more so in the 15th century, these carpet representations began to appear in Iranian miniatures. Ira design these painted carpets contain a main field filled with small, repeated geometric devices and borders which are derived from Kufic motifs. A miniature of Huma and Humayun, in a Shiraz Baysungur manuscript dated 1420, shows Hümayun who fainted when he first looked at Huma. He is lying on a carpet of a similar composition consisting of interlinked octagons with a border of interlaced Kufic devices, a composition which also could even be a ceramic design (III. 5). Another miniature in the British Museum, London dated 1485, contains a carpet with a design composed of rows of interlaced cruciform and star motifs with alternate rows of star-shaped rosettes between them. This composition is typical of the first type of Holbein carpets (III. 7). Squared geometric divisions and interlaced Kufic borders are the marked features of these carpets of this period and are clearly seen on the carpets in all of these miniatures.
But towards the end of the 15th century we begin to see interlacing appearing between the field devices. Also medallions and foliate scrolls begin to appear alongside the geometric motifs, and finally they become so dominant that they replace the geometric motifs altogether. A Herat miniature from the first half of the 15th century found in Folio 24a of an album in the Topkapı Treasury (Inv. No. 2153), contains a representation of su eh a carpet (III. 6).
Another example can be seen in a fresco painted by Giotto in the Arena Chapel in Padua dated 1304. İt was used as an altar hanging. The field design is an exact copy of the one in the second Komya carpet. Here we see a series of stars outlined by cruciform arms. İt is quite possible that as a model Giotto might have used a carpet which was imported from Anatolia. İn fact a document dated 1305 refers to such importations.
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The influence of the use of Turkish carpets is seen in the all paintings during the 15th century, first in Flemish paintings by the Eyck Brothers in the city of Ghent, and then later in the Italian artists and particularly those in Venice. İt became a popular custom to drape these carpets from windows or balconies. The use of the colors in these carpets can also be seen in paintings starting with Giovanni Bellini and it was then taken up by other Renaissance painters like Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.
The dating of the Selçuk carpets has been challenged by some authors notably Agnes Geijer, who traced the patterns of one of these carpets to a Chinese textile of the 14th century. The proof of this argument lies primarily in the similarity of the motifs in the textiles of the Yuan Period (1279-1378) in China. The comparison is made with a small Konya purplish red carpet containing stylized flowers in alternate diagonal rows. The stems of flowers are twisted alternately left and right.
İn a Chinese scroll by Liu-Kuan-Tao deseribed earlier, the Kubilay Han hunting scene is exactly represented as the background motif of the biggest Selçuk carpet at the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, İstanbul. The background motif decorated with flowers and roses in the middle, can also be seen on a Chinese silk fabric which was found in Egypt.
The Chinese silk fabrics and the carpet represented on the scroll which were said to have been influenced by the Huns, are all left from the time of the Yuan family. This family, belonging to the Mogul dynasty of Cengiz Han, and the Moguls were all faithful to the Turkish culture and the art developed in the hands of the Turks especially the Uigars. So, it is more logical to say that the Turkish carpet motif s have influenced the Chinese textile and art with the help of the Moguls. New information about these Chinese scrolls and silk fabrics is being documented.
The tendency to say that the Selçuk carpets belong to the 14th, even to the 15th century is a result of not knowing the Selçuk art and culture well enough. There has always been both an interrelated and a parallel development in Selçuk art particularly between carpets and other branches of art such as architecture, tiles, fabrics, decoration, paintings and miniatures. Later on however, this has changed between the Selçuk and Ottoman periods, as can be clearly seen in the architecture of the 14th and early 15th centuries.
The Selçuk field motifs can also be seen on a Spanish carpet from the second half of the 15th century. An example is the carpet with Spanish knots having dimensions of 3.73×1.52 m which was brought to the Washington Textile Museum from the Dumbarton Oaks collection. On it hooked dark brown flowers are lined up on a dark mustard colored ground. The border has braided bands like the ones on later Spanish carpets and the inside border is made up of diamond shaped designs (III. 11).
The characteristic background design of these Selçuk carpets also has been used on the Uşak carpets of the 16th century. A long half rug (5.75×1.56 m), now in the İslamic Art Museum, Berlin has a dark brown background with red flowers and yellow in the middle and diagonal clouds scattered among the flowers. These are interlaced with each other with stems from the tips. Selçuk carpet motifs have most certainly influenced the 14th century Chinese silk fabrics as they have also influenced the 15th century Spanish carpets and the 16th century Uşak carpets (III. 12).
The geometric motifs of the Selçuk carpets have survived in Anatolian carpets, kilims and cicims and are considered as traditional motifs used on Middle Asia Türkmen carpets for many centuries. The Turkomans especially the Tekke Turkomans have used the Holbein Type I carpet compositions and color contrast up to our time. Maybe the origin of these carpets goes as far back as Turkestan’s old carpet art.