The Islamic World 

From Maqsud of Kashan to Azul

Due to the scarcity of wood in most of the Islamic world, furniture like beds and tables are rarely seem in Muslim buildings. A room’s functions like eating or sleeping can be changed simply by rearranging the carpets. Therefore, the design of carpets has been well developed. 

The carpet I chose to introduce today is called Ardabil (Arda’bil) Carpet, one of the largest Islamic carpets in existence. As the picture shows, it includes rich geometric patterns, vegetative scrolls and floral flourishes. The immense(i-ˈmen(t)s) size of the carpet—10.51m by 5.34m —is also impressive. 

The carpet was woven for the ancestral shrine of the Safavid (Safaveid) shahs, the pious(ˈpaī-əs) foundation built around the tomb of Shaykh(shei ha) Safi al-Din, in Ardabil, northwestern Iran. At that time, the shrine of Ardabil was important as a basis of Safavid royal entitlement. Safavid court culture emphasized the dynasty’s magnificence through the visual arts. The specific design of the Ardabil Carpet , in its complex design, iconography (icon ography) and site-specific format, confirm a Safavid message of kingly magnificence, pious charity, and divine grace.

Thanks to an inscription on one side of the carpet, which contains a poem and a signature, we can know the related artist.

‘Except for thy threshold (thresh·​old), there is no refuge for me in all the world. 

Except for this door, there is no resting-place for my head.

The work of a servant of the court, Maqsud of Kashan.’ (From Wikipedia)

Maqsud was probably the court official charged with producing the carpet and not a slave literally.

In conclusion, the carpet is not only stunning in its own right, but it is bound up with the history of one of the great political dynasties of Iran.

Before gathering information about the carpet, I was playing a board game, which has a similar art style. Both of them include gorgeous colors and absolute symmetry, showing a logical beauty of integrity, purity, and regularity. 

The background story is also related to islamic culture.

Azulejos (azu·​le·ho) were fully embraced by the Portuguese (ˈpȯr-chə-ˌgēz) when their king Manuel I, on a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain, was mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the Moorish decorative tiles. The king, awestruck by the interior(in-ˈtir-ē-ər) beauty of the Alhambra, immediately ordered that his own palace in Portugal be decorated with similar wall tiles. As a tile-laying artist, players have been challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.

When I unpacked this board game, I was stunned by the pattern of such bricks at once. It is extremely difficult to achieve colorful but not gaudy in color, exquisite and diverse but not cumbersome in pattern. But obviously, thanks to the Muslim artwork, this board game strikes a good balance. 

However, the two works are also very different. Although the artistic styles are similar, the carpet uses a more dignified, darker color suitable for royalty as well as a more integral meaning and more detailed graphics. The board game, on the other hand, uses brighter colors and simple, basic patterns consisting of vertical lines, circles and diamonds.

This actually represents a difference in the cultural value embedded between two pieces.

So how should we judge the value of these two artworks?

To be honest, the carpet is actually worth much more than the game from the production process, difficulty of design, longevity and the historical significance. However, in terms of development, both have certain value.

The carpet bears witness to the past, whether it is prosperity or overthrow, it represents the light point of an era. The wheel of history rolls forward without stopping. We have such artwork, although we can’t go back to that treacherous (treach·​er·​ous) world, but we can also get an epitome(i-ˈpi-tə-mē) of the time and feel overwhelmed.

This board game tries to bring traditional culture to the present, as well as the future. Classical art has always been boring and difficult for most people to understand. So contemporary artists try to combine the ancient culture with popular games, so that people who are too lazy to know the past can inadvertently create a thirst for art.

This kind of publicity definitely has a positive meaning. Although I have no power of prophecy, I am convinced that the butterfly wings waving at this moment will eventually cause huge effects in the future.

Maqsud of Kashan, carpet from the funerary mosque of Shaykh Safi al-Din, Ardabil, Iran, 1540. Knotted pile of wool and silk, 34’ 6” x 17’ 7”. Victoria
& Albert Museum, London.

Azul, a board game from Plan B Games in 2017.