A Small Ceremonial Rug

Turanian (Herat (?), 15th century or later)

Collection of the Textile Museum, Washington, DC

Relegated to virtual obscurity in the Bernheimer collection this very important piece was labeled as a nineteenth century saddle rug. TM Curator Carol Bier spotted this piece as fifteenth century or later Timurid piece. Masnad are small seat rugs used as a prerequisite of royalty. Bier rather insightfully places this rug somewhere to the east, Herat, Samarkand, or India. I am inclined to discard Mughal India as a possible attribution and suggest that this is of the type of Turanian rugs that Abu'l Fazl mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari. 2.

Structural Details from the Small Ceremonial Rug 3

Warps - White cotton (bleached) Z4 and Z6 (Z3S2Z) cabled warps.

Wefts - Pink or blue cotton 6S

Pile - Wool Z2 Asymmetrical open left H42 x V44 1848 knots to the square decimeter, 115 knots to the square inch.

Skirt cotton plain weave.

Size cm 73 x76