Ardabil Carpet

Timeline

1. c. 1535–1540Safavid court weaving workshop · IranA white inscription panel at one end of the carpet weaves in a verse by Hafez, the signature 'servant of the court Maqsud of Kashan,' and the date AH 946. Maqsud was more likely an supervising official or designer than a single weaver. This date makes the Ardabil Carpet one of the earliest clearly dated Persian pile carpets known, slightly earlier than the 1542 hunting carpet in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan.
2. 1540–1843Sheikh Safi al-Din Shrine, Ardabil · ArdabilSheikh Safi al-Din was the progenitor of the Safavid dynasty, and his shrine was already a center of pilgrimage and dynastic legitimacy in the 16th century. The paired giant carpets together could cover a nearly square hall. During Tahmasp I's expansion of the shrine, such carpets served both religious devotion and court display; Humayun also visited Safavid ritual spaces during his exile in Persia, though whether he saw these carpets cannot be confirmed.
3. c. 1870Victoria and Albert Museum, London · LondonThe paired carpets left Iran in the second half of the 19th century. During restoration, one was used to complete the other, resulting in today's pair of one complete and one damaged carpet. William Morris, after examining them, called their beauty 'logical and consistent'; the V&A acquired the complete one in March 1893 for £2,000. The paired carpet later entered Los Angeles. The displays in both museums made this carpet a core object for explaining Islamic court weaving to the public.