WEALTH OF KINGS
Masterpiece Persian Carpets
Plate
Navigation
Plate One

Plate Three & Four

Plate Eight

Plate Ten

Plate Twelve

Plate Fourteen

Plate Sixteen & Seventeen

Plate Nineteen

Plate Twenty-One

Plate Twenty-Three

Plate Twenty-Six

Plate Twenty-Eight

Plate Thirty
Plate Two

Plate Five, Six & Seven

Plate Nine

Plate Eleven

Plate Thirteen

Plate Fifteen

Plate Eighteen

Plate Twenty

Plate Twenty-Two

Plate Twenty-Four

Plate Twenty-Seven

Plate Twenty-Nine

Plate Thirty-One & Thirty-Two




The initial onslaughts of the Mongol Il-Khans, who controlled Persia from about 1230 to 1336, left the country in chaos but soon their leader Hulagu realized the need for a functioning infra-structure. Ghazan, his successor, ruled from 1295 until his death in 1304. He was the first Mongol ruler to adopt Islam though his brother, Oljaitu, who succeeded him was baptised as Christian.

Oljaitu later became a Sunni Muslim but he then seems to have then converted to the Shià cause, making a pilgrimage to Kerbala in Iraq. After the authorities there refused to hand over the reliquaries of Ali and Hossein, which Oljaitu wished to place in his own Mausoleum, he reverted to Sunnism.

Oljaitu was the last great Mongol khan of Persia and when died he had himself buried in a mausoleum of his own making, figure 2. The year was 1316 and the place Sultaniya. This area is rich in history for in 1256 Oljaitu`s great-grandfather, Hulagu, wiped out the Ismaili sect (known to us as ‘the assassins') in nearby Alamut. Later, in the mid 16th century, the Safavid Shah Tahmasp founded his own splendid capital at Qazvin where, by the way, the last of the subsequent
pretenders who sat on the Safavid throne also withdrew.

After Oljaitu's death the power of the Mongols declined and for 80 years Persia descended into chaos. Despite their bloodthirsty reputation, the Mongols were great patrons of Persian culture not just in collecting works of art but, more importantly, in supporting the artists themselves. Thus the greatest flayers of men and beasts succumbed to the civilizing qualities of Persian refinement like all other invaders before them.

 
Figure 2

Figure 3
Figure 3

It was during this Mongol Regency in Persia that the influence of Chinese art entered all aspects of artistic production. This will be further discussed in the Plate section of the exhibition. However, the il-Khanids, as the Mongols who ruled Persia became known, were at pains to maintain diplomatic relations with the West, having a common enemy in the Mameluks who ruled from Spain in the south to the Syrian border in the north.
Moorish Spain undoubtedly had an influence on the coming Safavid art, as a luster tile panel from Malaga dated to 1400 clearly shows figure 3. Without its escutcheons we have the makings of a wonderful carpet complete with arabesque loops, spiral vines, and a tabula ansata calligraphic border.

At the end of the 14th century Persia had been parceled out amongst various clans of Mongol, Afghan and Arabic-Persian descent, who fought each other on the slightest pretext. Unbeknown to all a new danger was brewing in Transoxania and, in 1381, the Turkish warlord Tamerlane annexed the city of Herat and subsequently Khorasan.

On his return in 1383 he so thoroughly destroyed the fragile irrigation system of Seistan in East Persia that it never fully recovered.
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