138 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



and Tatar clouds. In the center of the field is a large cusped 

 medallion or roundel, containing dainty arabesque ornament ; around 

 the medallion is a series of pointed oval-shape panels, each filled in 

 with floral and arabesque or Tatar cloud devices of different design. 

 From the central pointed oval panel hangs an elaborate mosque lamp 

 amidst flowered blossoms growing on delicate stems arranged in 

 spirals, straying symmetrically all over the chief part of the ^eld. 

 Close to the lower border is a white rectangular panel with the name 

 of the maker of the carpet. At the corners within the border are 

 segments as of the great central ornament. The narrow light bands 

 of the whole border are enriched with repeated Tatar cloud devices. 

 Of its kind this is probably the most remarkable carpet, and was 

 made nearly 50 years before the accession of the great Shah Abbas 

 to the throne of Persia. During his reign the arts were much 

 encouraged at his capital of Ispahan and at other important towns of 

 eastern Persia. It is hardly possible now to identify the manufacture 

 of carpets of Perso-Mohammedan style with any particular town of 

 central and eastern Persia. Several fine carpets were made from 760 

 to 1258 in western Persia or Mesopotamia — at Bargdad for instance, 

 for luxury-loving Abbasid Caliphs. The ornament of these, however, 

 was chiefly geometric (as in pi. 3, fig. 4), if one may judge from 

 Persian miniatures in the British Museum, of which I find a number 

 quoted by Mr. Martin in his big work on " Oriental Carpets." 



This is part of a Persian carpet perhaps, from Herat, with a border 

 designed in a different style from what we have hitherto seen. The 

 large arabesque curved forms between the pairs of varied pointed 

 oval panels remind one of Chinese forms sometimes used in that 

 ancient ornamentation composed with goggle-eyed ogre masks, which 

 I have mentioned already in connection with the mosque of Tulun. 

 The field of this carpet contains the wavy Tatar cloud shapes and 

 several animals, the design of which seems to be Chinese in char- 

 acter — as, for instance, the beast on the left with curious almost 

 dragon head and a' lashing tail; there is a smaller version of him 

 within a pomegranate form below. Still lower down is a black 

 panther, perhaps springing across a similar dappled beast. Above, 

 on the right, is a dappled stag with antlers. Stags and fawns are 

 favorite animals in Chinese porcelain of the Ming dynasty 

 (1368-1644). 



Here is another variety of design in which Chinese influence seems 

 to me to be very strong. The border is of delicate arabesque design ; 

 within the counter-changing and almost lotus-shape compartments 

 the group of the leopard or cheetah seizing an antelope or goat is 

 repeated. But on the field are many devices, the like of which our 

 previous designs have not given us ; for example, the highly decorated 

 vase or bottle toward the center with a pair of Kylins at its foot. 



