Garden pattern in handwoven carpet

Garden design in Iranian carpet

A garden carpet is a worldly and heavenly carpet, the Iranian carpet designer knows that what happens inside him has an external reflection. The origin of Iran's carpet art is the connection of love and the connection with the absolute and the plan of heaven and the reflection of all these processes. The design of a garden as a manifestation of heaven defines a manifestation of material peace imaginable for humans, that in these carpets, flowers and trees, animals and streams of water, all are the manifestation of divine grace, and in the eyes of the mystic and Islamic thinker, it is nature that manifests the attributes And it is the essence of truth. In the upcoming article, we are going to introduce the garden design in Iranian handwoven carpet and its types. Stay with us.

What are the most exquisite and famous garden carpets?

Carpet with a garden pattern was particularly popular in the Safavid period, interestingly, this period is also known as the glorious period of Iranian gardening art (four gardens of Isfahan), which also carries an allegorical concept of heaven. Garden carpets are very famous and are in various museums around the world, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna, the Pennsylvania Museum in the United States, the Jaipur Museum in India, the Krakow Museum in Poland and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, the National Museum and the Iranian Carpet Museum. They are kept in Tehran and Astan Quds Razavi Museum in Mashhad. Based on this, in the following, some well-known examples of garden carpets, which are also common to heavenly carpets, are mentioned: Baharestan carpet from the Sassanid period in Iran, whose beauty and splendor can only be understood by the descriptions of it in historical books. , the carpet in the Jaipur Museum of India, the carpet in the Paris Museum of Decorative Arts, the carpets in the Vienna Handicrafts Museum, the carpet attributed to Khorasan, the carpets in the National Museum of Iran, etc.  
Like the gardens of the Shah Abbas era, which contain an allegorical concept of heaven and heavenly gardens, these carpets also show this allegorical concept in the image and visualization of the gardens of their time, as the garden design in the Safavid era carpets is often geometrically divided. The design of four gardens is included, which shows traditional Iranian gardens.

Baharestan carpet, one of the most exquisite garden carpets in the world

This historical carpet has a symbolic design of spring and heaven, which is depicted as a clean garden full of flowers and plants with beautifully carved birds and winged animals, and it is considered a symbolic concept of the patterning of the promised paradise in Iranian carpets. Based on the documents left in historical written works, this carpet is considered to be the first example of Iran's garden carpet, which was associated with four divisions (arbaeh elements) in the pre-Islam period, and is considered one of the first mythological concepts and eternal forms of heaven. which was initially proposed in the early civilizations as a four-point plan and then developed with four divisions. After the Arab attack on Iran, this jeweled carpet was cut into pieces and looted.

Chaharbagh Mehrabi carpet - Astan Qods Razavi Museum

This exceptional silk carpet, which is also known as the "Four Seasons Carpet", was woven in the 11th century by Mohammad Amin Kermani. Its design is a garden altar. A garden full of trees with colorful flowers and various birds covers the text of the rug. This garden is divided into four parts by two streams. At their intersection, the water streams form the eight-fairy tranj pond, in which thirteen fishes are floating in total. In front of the altar, the phrase "Subhan Rabi ul-Ala wa Bhamda" is woven. The reason for the fame of this rug for the four seasons is that the pile of this silk rug creates interesting bright shadows against the light and depending on the viewing angle of the viewer, as a result of which the color of its text turns from green to yellow or vice versa. The border of the carpet is the border of the entrances, among the trees and flowers, two cedar trees are carved in the shape of a simile on the upper part of the carpet on both sides of the air in such a way that two birds are sitting on it in a similitude. Among other birds, hooded is also observed. In general, the space of heaven is framed in front of the worshiper in this rug.

Types of garden carpets

Garden carpets can be divided into two main categories based on their designs:

1- Garden design with geometric divisions

Garden designs that are accompanied by geometric divisions (cross) in the field of the carpet, such that the carpet is divided into four separate parts by two streams, which shows the concept of "Iranian Four Garden". In this type of carpets, the pond in the middle of the garden design is reminiscent of the Kausar pond, and the streams separated from it are an allegory of the four heavenly streams that divide the background space of the work into four gardens. This pattern is exactly in line with the design of the four gardens of the Safavid era, which shows the same symbolic concept of heaven in the art of carpet weaving and garden making in Iran, and shows the effort of the Iranian mystic artist to visualize and depict Alevi concepts of heaven in a way that is comprehensible and consistent with perception. And the material realm of the tangible human being is earthly, to make the lofty spiritual concepts like heaven and heavenly gardens earthly to the extent of his intelligence and talent and bring it from the beyond to the earth.

2- Garden carpets with non-geometric shape

In other garden designs, the aspect of imagination and coding is more visible, as there is no mention of geometric division and water streams, and the space of the carpet is wide in such a way that the divine safe space is obvious in it, and the trees, animals, mysteries and mythological and mystical roles of all They are placed side by side on the text and border of the carpet. In these designs, the mystical artist ties the nature of the garden to the taropod of the carpet in such a way that it is worthy of the manifestation of the concept of holiness and reminds of the eternal memory of heaven, and in this connection of space and time, in addition to the form of symbols and symbols, the position of human existence and in fact the whole existence. It determines the world and links it to the beyond and heaven; That's why he uses elements such as trees, peacocks, fish, and simorgh to portray this eternal memory as well as possible, and to show human efforts in the material world, he uses motifs and concepts such as grips and grips. In fact, it is these divine concepts that find a special effect in the design and motifs of Iranian garden and paradise carpets, as it shows itself in the design of rug motifs and patterns in the form of an anhar effect and the planting of plants and trees in the form of four gardens.

The role of water in the garden carpet

The most beautiful description of heaven is achieved by using the combination "Jannat Tajari Man Tahtaha Nahar" which is the turning point of the images of heaven and means gardens and campuses that constantly flow from under its trees and palaces (not under its ground), streams of water. . The use of water in Iranian gardening is one of the most important allegorical cases of paradise in the Iranian garden, which has also been reflected in the opinions of foreign tourists, as "Benjamin" says: while the tourist has walked for hours in a dry and burning desert, Suddenly, in front of him, he finds a village in the middle of the desert, green and fragrant and with a gentle air, with a small river running through it, and it is like he has suddenly entered a small paradise. In garden carpet designs, the two main axes in the form of four streams of water have divided the carpet into four parts, which is reminiscent of the design of four gardens in Iranian garden and campus architecture, as in the garden carpet in Pennsylvania, the four parts of the garden are separated by streams. and in each part, patterns of trees and flowers can be seen.

The role of bergamot in the garden carpet

The role of bergamot in the carpet has been faced through a series of stages from simplicity to complexity, not only in terms of appearance, but also in terms of symbolic concepts. It started in the pre-Islamic way and has appeared with the religious and mythological beliefs of the ancient Iranian artist in the form of a source or reservoir in a simple, natural and earthly form. In the Islamic era, the Iranian Muslim artist first transformed this heritage into a garden by changing its form, then by abstracting and symbolizing the same natural motifs in the center of the carpet, they went to the point where they generally gave it a concept beyond the concept of earthly paradise. This event appears by creating a sacred space in a specific area in the center of the carpet and in the form of a composite pattern called tanraj, which is mainly intended to create a space beyond the material space. In order to create such an atmosphere, the Iranian Muslim artist has to abstract and complicate the motifs. Here, the role of bergamot is the continuation of the same concept of heaven, which in the center of the rug refers to a level higher than heaven, and this level is a sacred, infinite and necessary space, and does not fit in the form of a shape or symbol, and all the shapes within the range of bergamot instill the concept of unity from plurality. are located; So that the eternal space that can be the meeting of God is manifested in its most abstract form, which is the point in the center of the carpet.

The role of the tree in the garden carpet

Trees and their shadows are one of the most beautiful interpretations of heaven, which can also be seen in Iranian gardens. In the meantime, Tubi, Sedra, Seder and Talah are among the heavenly trees that are described in the Qur'an. "Garden design" in the Iranian carpet weaving reform is a design in which the imaginary and symbolic role of heaven is displayed in the form of a clean garden full of flowers and plants and massive and towering trees, and the patterns of trees are in the margins of the text or in the background. The work is reminiscent of the trees of the heavenly gardens, which contains the concept of heaven. In any case, the concept of tree is widely used in carpet patterns and designs, which is very important as a symbol of heaven, and at the same time, it has a special variety among carpet designs. The pomegranate tree is mentioned in the Qur'an as a heavenly fruit, and this pattern can be seen on the carpet in the form of "pomegranate flower" designs in the background of the carpet.

Background of Iranian garden carpet

Apart from the Pazyrik carpet, which has been called a kind of garden carpet or Golestan due to its design, Arthur Upham Pope, a famous artist, believes that almost all Iranian carpets of the great [Safavid] period, in a form with splendor, diversity and often in a lively way, the concept They express "the garden"... In the largest carpets the concept of the garden finds its most complete pictorial form... The design of the garden prevents the drawing of a real complete garden. Khosrow's carpet (Bahar Khosrow or Baharestan) was a spring that was trapped and imprisoned and gave its magnificent beauty to the palace... A thousand years later, a carpet weaver confessed to the same [garden] that:  
It is a field of tulips, but not in the way that led to the two hands of Khazan  
Kurt Erdman, a famous German carpet expert, also writes that it was in the early sixteenth century that Iranian weavers were able to achieve the skills that enabled them to create carpets comparable to the Bahar Khosrow carpet, in many carpets of Tabriz, Qazvin and Kashan, the field of work, became a garden. In these carpets, flowering trees and massive cypresses with a spring boiling at their feet are depicted, and birds are sheltering among the branches and various animals are searching under the trees.

Garden carpet after the Safavid period

After the Safavid period, this design continued with changes in the 18th century in the northwest and west of Iran, especially in Kurdistan, and was woven into carpets. Kurt Erdaman writes in this context: It seems that the continuation of the "Bahar Khosrow" courtyard has become possible in the carpets belonging to the 16th and 18th centuries... These are reminiscent of another type of carpets from the north of Iran in the 18th century, some of which still remain. remained. The background of these carpets shows the oriental garden design from above.

Final word

Baghi design is one of the most beautiful designs and motifs of Iranian carpets, whose history should be considered at least to the Sassanid era and the beautiful and legendary carpet of Baharistan. In fact, Iranian artists have tried to create a transcendental and heavenly space to decorate the interior of the house by following the design of the four Iranian gardens. And walking on a garden carpet always evokes the feeling of walking on a heavenly garden.  

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