“A remarkable work of art… the design is of singular perfection… its size and splendour as a piece of workmanship do full justice to the beauty and intellectual qualities of the design.” – William Morris, a famous 19th-century English poet and textile designer.
The Ardabil carpet, measuring 10.5 x 5.3 meters and completed in 1539-40, is the most famous in the world. It is also of great historical importance. It was commissioned as a pair of carpets by the ruler of Persia, Shah Tahmasp, between 1524 and 1576 for the shrine of his ancestor, Shaykh Safi al-Din, in the city of Ardabil, in northwestern Persia. It became the most famous Persian carpet and has been the subject of numerous copies that vary in size, from small rugs to palace-sized carpets.
A Brief History of the Ardabil Carpet
Ardabil, a city in northwestern Iran (Azerbaijan province), is renowned for the shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili, a Sufi leader who passed away in 1334. Shaykh trained his followers in Islamic mystical practices, and his family, to whom his followers remained loyal after his death, gained increasing influence. The Safavids, who ruled until 1722, promoted Shaykh’s shrine as a pilgrimage site. Shah Tahmasp, expanded the shrine in the late 1530s, coinciding with the creation of a pair of carpets.
The Ardabil carpet boasts a rich, meticulously planned design. A dark indigo field is adorned with intricate floral motifs surrounding a central medallion. The composition of both carpets draws inspiration from the plan of Sheikh Safi’s mosque. The entire piece conjures the visual effect of a celestial dome illuminated with lamps reflecting their light in a pool filled with floating lotus flowers. As befits a carpet intended for a shrine, there are no human or animal figures, although such figures can be found in other carpets used in non-secular contexts.
Crafted in the mid-16th century, this pair of carpets is considered a pinnacle of classical Persian schools. There is no record of the carpets’ origin – Tabriz or Kashan are the most likely places – nor any evidence, except for its long-standing nickname, that the carpets came from the Ardabil shrine in northern Persia. After significant wear in the Ardabil mosque, they were sold in 1890 to a British carpet dealer who restored one of the carpets using its pair and then resold it to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The second carpet, smaller and borderless, was crafted solely from what remained from the restoration of the first Ardabil. It was sold to American businessman Clarence Mackay and later passed through the Mackay, Yerkes, and De la Mare art collections, exhibited in London in 1931. American industrialist J. Paul Getty purchased it from Lord Duveen for approximately $70,000 several years later. Agents representing King Farouk of Egypt approached Getty, offering $250,000 to purchase it as a wedding gift. Getty later donated the carpet to the Museum of Science, History, and Art in Exposition Park in Los Angeles.