Glossary

abrash:
An unintentional variation in yarn color caused by variations in dye lots. It generally appears in the form of horizontal stripes of lighter and darker shades of the same color.

arabesque:
A decorative pattern based on highly stylized foliate forms in which one leaf “grows” out of the tip of another, forming a continuous pattern that seems to have no beginning and no end.

border:
The ornamental or decorative design that runs around the outer edge of a carpet.

Buddhism:
One of the world’s great religions, which originated in India in the sixth century B.C. The basic tenets of Buddhism teach that life is impermanent, illusory, and filled with suffering caused by desire and ignorance, which gives rise to a continuous cycle of death and rebirth. The cessation of suffering (nirvana) is achieved when desire and ignorance are extinguished, a state that can be achieved through a life imbued by moderation, morality, and meditative practice.

calligraphy:
The art of elegant handwriting; an element in Islamic art and patterns.

cartoon:
A full-size drawing used as a pattern for weaving, especially tapestries or carpets.

cashmere:
A very fine fiber made from the undercoat of Himalayan goats, sometimes called pashmina.

cochineal:
A red dye made from the bodies of crushed insects.

dyestuff:
Any natural or synthetic material that can impart color to a fiber or yarn by absorption.

field:
The center portion of the carpet.

grotesque:
A fantastic and unrealistic animal or human form.

guard bands:
Thin areas of pattern that separate the carpet border from the field or run along the outer edge of the border.

heddle stick:
A stick that serves as a harness in simple looms. The heddle stick is laid perpendicularly over the warp threads on the loom. Alternate warp threads are attached to the stick with a lenght of string. When the heddle stick is raised, every other warp thread is pulled up, creating a shed through which the weft yarn can pass.

Hinduism:
One of the world’s most ancient religions, Hinduism is a complex accumulation of beliefs, some intuitive, others based on folk traditions tied closely to nature, and others incorporating highly philosophical and intellectual ideas: time is cyclical, the world is transitory and its appearance is an illusion, and all living beings are continually reborn in different guises. One’s good and bad deeds and thoughts accumulate from life to life and determine the form in which one is reborn. The four goals of life on earth are righteous living, or dharma; wealth acquired through the pursuit of a profession, or artha; human and sexual love, or kama; and spiritual salvation, or moksha.

huqqa:
An Arabic word for the base of a water pipe; sometimes the water pipe itself.

Islam:
The religion founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the early seventh century A.D., in Mecca, Arabia. The word of God, as revealed to Muhammad, was collected and written in Arabic in the Qur’an. Muslims believe that Muhammad was the final figure in the long line of Old Testament prophets; Jesus is revered as the last prophet before Muhammad. After the death of Muhammad, Islam spread to the Mediterranean lands of the Byzantine Empire (Syria, the Holy Land, and Egypt), the Sasanian area (Iraq and greater Iran), and North Africa, Spain, and parts of India.

Jainism:
An Indian religion founded by Mahavira, a contemporary of the historical Buddha. Jains do not believe in a god or gods; they believe that divinity dwells within every soul. Followers who attain perfect souls are venerated as the Supreme Spirit, and to reach this state one must strive toward right belief, right knowledge, and right action. This religion is probably best known for its practice of noninjury to living beings.

loom:
A machine or frame for interlacing two or more sets of thread to form cloth. Simple looms function mainly as holding frames for a series of parallel warp threads, keeping them taut and in their correct order.

madder:
A Eurasian plant whose roots provide red dye.

mordant:
A chemical added to the dye bath to increase the absorption and fastness of the color.

mihrab:
An Arabic word for the niche in the wall of a mosque, indicating the direction of Mecca, toward which prayers are directed.

millefleur:
A French word meaning “a thousand flowers,” used to describe artworks in which the background is covered with individual flowers.

naturalism:
An approach to art in which things are depicted as closely as possible to the way they are visually perceived.

pashmina:
From a Persian term for wool (pashm), meaning the fine, soft fiber spun from the undercoat of Himalayan mountain goats. Pashmina is also known as cashmere.

pattern:
A design element based on the repetition of a motif or unit according to a grid or plan.

pile weave:
A weave characterized by ends or loops of yarn that are knotted into the structure of the fabric and that protrude from the surface of the fabric. In carpets, the ends are usually clipped to an even length.

pointillism:
A term, usually applied to nineteenth-century paintings, which describes the experimental use of colors applied in tiny “points.” The same effect can be seen in pile carpets when knots of different colors are tied closely together to provide texture, shade, or highlights on a form.

Rajput:
Literally, "king's son," the term refers to the variety of Indo-Aryan castes that made up the Hindu royalty or nobility of northern India.

qanat:
A Persian word for a portable textile screen surrounding a tent complex.

saf or saph:
An Arabic word for a prayer rug incorporating multiple niches.

senneh knot:
The kind of knot used by Persian rug weavers; often called the Persian knot.

shed:
The space created when warp yarns are raised or lowered for the insertion of weft yarn into the structure. See loom.

shed stick:
A flat stick used to create a shed on a simple loom. By inserting the stick over and under alternating warp threads, then turning the stick on its side, a shed is created through which the yarn on the shuttle can pass. The shed stick is used in combination with the heddle stick; each raises a separate group of warp threads. See loom.

shuttle:
A device upon which the weft yarns are wrapped so that they can be inserted in a shed created in the warp yarns.

spinning:
The process of twisting and drawing loose fibers into a continuous strand of yarn.

spindle:
In its simplest form, a weighted disk at the bottom of a long notched shaft that is set in a spinning motion by hand to twist and draw fibers into yarn.

symmetry:
The duplication of a shape or motif in mirrorlike repetition along either side of a central axis.

Taj Mahal:
The mausoleum built in Agra by Shah Jahan for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth in 1631. Over 20,000 craftsmen from India, Asia, and Europe were employed in its construction. Built of white marble, the Taj Mahal is a fusion of Islamic and Hindu architectural styles.

tapestry:
A woven structure in plain weave, in which the weft yarns cover the warp yarns, usually in a discontinuous fashion, creating a decorative pattern or expressive image.

warp:
The threads that are placed on the loom lengthwise and parallel to each other; the weft yarns are inserted between them. See loom.

weft:
The crosswise threads that are inserted into the parallel warp threads, usually on a shuttle. Together, the warp and weft provide a foundation for the pile. See loom.

Bibliography

Resources found in Uris Education Center/Library and Watson Library:

Alden, Carella. Royal Persia: Tales and Art of Iran. New York: Parents’ Magazine Press, 1972.

The Islamic World. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987.

Batterbery, Michael. Chinese and Oriental Art: Discovering Art Series. New York, San Francisco, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1968.

Denny, Walter B. Oriental Rugs. New York: Cooper-Hewitt Museum, 1979.

Dimand, Maurice S., and Jean Mailey. Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973.

The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts Under Mughal Rule. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982.

Komaroff, Linda. Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum: The Historical Context. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992.

Norman, Jane, Margit Echols and Stef Stahl. Patterns East and West, A Teachers’ Packet. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986.

Patnaik, Najeen. A Second Paradise: Indian Courtly Life 1590-1947. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1985.

Robinson, Francis. Atlas of the Islamic World: Since 1500. Oxford, England: Phaidon Press Ltd., 1982.

Textiles in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Reprinted from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Winter 1995/96). 1995.

Walker, Daniel. Flowers Underfoot: Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997.

Watts, Edie, and Alice W. Iglehart. The Art of Islam, A Teachers’ Packet. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1981.

Welch, Stuart Cary. India: Art and Culture 1300-1900. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1985.

Interdisciplinary Connections

  • Art
  • Science
  • Math
  • Language Arts
  • Social Studies

    Art:

  • Are the carpets part of a separate artistic tradition or do they reflect the other arts of the time? (The repeat patterns show a relationship with both printed and woven textiles; the pictorial designs reflect the same subject matter and representation seen in book illustration and illumination. The patterns, arches, and niches appear in Mughal architecture and floor designs.)

  • What were some of the artistic choices made by rug designers and weavers? (Persian and Indian influences existed together in the Mughal rugs and could manifest themselves in different ways. For example, a geometric border could surround a pictorial landscape field. Yarns could be used in a painterly fashion to give a pointillistic effect as knots of different colors or shades tied closely together created light and shade.)

  • How would knots per square inch affect the kinds of patterns and designs? (More knots per square inch meant that more complex designs were possible. The curves of arabesques and vine patterns could be more refined. Shadings created with knots could be more subtle.)

  • What is the relationship of textiles to architecture in India and in other parts of the world where people move around or live outdoors? (Tents can be made from fabrics, they can provide privacy and segmented spaces, they can also be very luxurious. They have the advantage of being portable; textiles can be rolled or folded up and moved.)

    Science:

  • What fibers were used in the carpets? Did they come from plants or animals? (Silk comes from silkworms, cashmere, or pashmina, or goats, from Himalayan mountain goats, wool from sheep or sheep, and cotton from plants.)

  • Which fibers were used for the warp and weft and which for the pile? Why? (Cotton yarns are strong, so they often were used for the warp and weft, although wool and silk were also used. Cotton was native to India, and it was readily available. The pile was usually made from some kind of animal fiber because these fibers absorb dyes well, and they are soft and luxurious.)

  • What dyestuffs were used to color the yarns? (Natural dyes from plants include blue from indigo, red from madder, and yellow from saffron, turmeric, and other plants. These colors could be overdyed to obtain additional colors. A deep purplish red dye was extracted from the crushed bodies of cochineal insects. Black dye came from oak gall, but the tannic acid in this dye tended to cause the wool to deteriorate over time. Sheep with black, brown, or gray fleece provided wool that did not need to be dyed.)

  • Is it possible to identify specific plants depicted in the rug designs? (Yes, you can recognize roses, lilies, irises, carnations, bellflowers, violets, peonies, and other species native to or introduced into India. Palm trees also can be seen in some of the carpets.)

  • What specific animals can be seen in the carpets? (Animals that can be identified in the carpets are ibexes, cranes, tigers, crocodiles, cheetahs, lions, and elephants. The emperor Jahangir kept a rhinoceros in his collection of exotic animals, and it is depicted in a rug from his era.)

    Math:

  • How would you figure how many knots were tied per square inch? (Look at the back of the carpet, where the individual knots can be seen more clearly than in the fuzzy pile. Isolate a square inch; count the knots going across and those going down, then multiply these two numbers together to get knots per square inch.)

  • How many knots per square inch are in these carpets? (The carpets in this exhibition range from 60 to 2,000 knots per inch.)

  • How would knots per square inch affect the value of a rug? (The more expensive, luxury fibers are capable of being spun finer, creating denser concentrations of knots. The more knots that are tied, the more time is involved in weaving a rug.)

  • What kinds of symmetrical patterns are evident in these rugs? (radial, bilateral)

  • In the exhibition there are remnants and fragments of carpets. How would you be able to identify the size, shape, and pattern of the original rug from looking at one of these fragments? (First you would need to identify the pattern motifs and their plan of repetition. From this information you could chart the design and speculate on its relationship to the size and shape of the original carpet.)

  • The Islamic world made major contributions to the knowledge of science and mathematics. How is this reflected in artworks, especially the rugs? (Through close observation of nature, geometrical variety, and precision in the patterns.)

    Language Arts:

  • Who designed the scenes on the pictorial carpets? (Painters probably created the cartoons for the weavers to follow. The pictorial designs are very much like the paintings used to illustrate books, showing scenes of court life, hunting parties, and animals in landscapes.)

  • Do the pictures represent any recognizable stories or fables? (Some of the animals are mythological--phoenixes, dragons, and composites. The depiction of heads growing from tree branches might be a reference to the oracular tree that warned Alexander the Great not to invade India. There is also an Islamic legend of Zakkum [Zaqqum], the terrible tree of hell whose poisonous fruits grew in the shape of human and animal heads. However, there is also a decorative tradition in Islamic art of embellishing the ends of vines and branches with heads.)

    Social Studies:

  • Why would carpet weaving flourish in India, a hot and humid country with no need for heavy carpets? (In the sixteenth century, weaving was a highly advanced art in India, but the textiles produced were light in weight, suited to the climate. The Mughal emperors were familiar with the carpets of Persia and Turkey, and they wanted the same thing for their courts.)

  • What were the carpets’ functions? How can they be identified? (The sturdiness of the weave, the value of the materials used, the number of knots per square inch, and the design provide clues to the use of carpets. Coarsely woven carpets were probably placed on the floor, and fine velvety ones might have been hung on the wall. Very fine carpets were saved for ceremonial use. Prayer rugs can be identified by their depiction of the niche and also through patterns of wear from kneeling.)
  • How is it possible to identify a place and date for the carpets? (Techniques and imagery, even color schemes, varied according to location and period.)

  • Who wove the rugs? (Carpets intended for Mughal or Rajput court use probably were woven in royal workshops by anonymous artisans. Later, provincial weaving centers came into being.)

  • Who else bought carpets? (European merchants and traders bought and commissioned carpets. Sometimes they had the weavers incorporate a coat of arms or guild insignia in the woven design. Dutch traders took carpets to Japan.)

  • Which designs are typically Indian and which come from other sources? (The more naturalistic flower and animal designs reflect Indian influences; the stylized, geometric patterns are a feature of Islamic art; some of the flower designs may be inspired by European herbals; and the little clouds and animals with flames shooting from their bodies are typically Chinese.)

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