Salmiya

The Safavid dynasty was founded by Shah Ismail I (1487-1524) who established Shi’a Islam as state religion in the Persian Empire. Shah Abbas I (1571-1629) is considered the most eminent ruler of the Safavid dynasty. He brought into reality his brilliant visions of architecture in his new capital Esfahan. Although Esfahan has a much longer history, he in fact made it again the most wonderful city in the world. I have described my ever growing fascination of his architectural achievements and other miracles which can still be found in this place in many posts of this blog. Due to successful military campaigns against Uzbeks in Khorasan and in present day Iraq against the Ottomans, the expulsion of the Portuguese from areas around the Persian Gulf, and his diplomatic skills Abbas the Great re-established the Persian Empire after the Arab conquest as one of the major world powers. Personally-wise, he was a cruel emperor. He was obsessed with fear of being assassinated. So, many of his fa...

I assume that only few Westerners who have lived for some time in the Middle East have not become addicted to oriental carpets. It is wonderful, handmade artwork. You’ll see the efforts, the vision, and talents of the artisan. A good carpet always tells a story. Interesting carpets may also have little anomalies in symmetry or irregularities in pattern which invite us to study them in greater detail. Sooner or later you will end up in counting the colors and checking the type of the knots: Is it Ghiordes (Turkish) or Senneh (Persian) ? And you may also count the knots per square inch. The finer the better, but tribal carpets may have few and are charming anyway. Persian carpets have been manufactured for thousands of years. The so far oldest fragment is the Pazyryk carpet which had been discovered in the Altai Mountains in Siberia in 1949. Although it was found in a tomb of Scythian prince, the pattern is Achaemenian. Amazing is the number of symmetrical knots per square inch: 232 (or ...