One of the most common decorative items is a rug.
Rugs add color and warmth to a variety of spaces, including stairways, kitchens, bathrooms, and living rooms.
For this reason, every homeowner wants to get a good handcrafted deal on a rug. But when was the first hand-knotted rug made? Or what rug is the oldest in the world? Find out by reading on!
A Brief History of Oriental Rugs
As the name suggests, the Moghul dynasty of the Indian subcontinent was headed by monarchs who were proud of their Mongol ancestry.
Babur, the first Moghul Shah from 1526 to 1530, was linked to Ghengis Khan since he was a fifth-generation descendant of Tamerlaine. He toppled the Delhi Sultanate while ruling Afghanistan previously.
His son and heir, Humayun, was exiled by an Afghan uprising ten years after his death and spent nine years in Shah Tahmasp's Persian court.
Two of the most prominent Persian court painters joined Humayun when he returned to India in 1549, helping to establish the Moghul school of painting, which had a significant impact on the style of numerous carpets including Jaldar handmade rugs from the subcontinent.
Humayun had a strong appreciation for Persian art.
The Moghul Empire gained strength under Akbar the Great (1556–1606), the son of Humayun.
Akbar sponsored carpet-making workshops, much like the early Safavid Shahs of Persia, under whose rule the craft of rug weaving was thriving at the time. Many of these workshops were established with Persian weavers in charge.
As a result, Persia's designs, particularly the curvilinear ones like Isfahan, had an impact on designs in the subcontinent.
It's also probable that Isfahan provided the first Persian weavers who were brought to Lahore.
The earliest documentary proof of carpet manufacture has been obtained by historians from Akbar's time.
The official history of his master's reign was written by Abu'l-Fazl (1551–1602).
The subcontinent's carpet industry thrived for centuries, but it wasn't until the East India Company arrived that they began to become truly commercialized.
The East India Company made it possible to export carpets to Europe and promoted carpet weaving as a cottage industry in numerous subcontinental cities.
The carpet weavers, who were predominately Muslims, moved to Lahore in 1947 when India and Pakistan were divided. The weavers frequently supported themselves in several other trades during the turmoil and dislocation of Partition.
The next year, a few families with Kashmiri ancestry from Amritsar who had relocated to Lahore started making attempts to reassemble and reform the weavers.
Due to material limitations or unavailability, a lack of local markets for high-end carpet committed customers, and a fast financial return on investment, this was a challenging undertaking.
After surviving many crises, they gradually started exporting finished goods to Europe once more.
Today, Pakistan produces a wide variety of styles, from extremely high-quality Jaldar rugs online to Moghul designs from Kashmir and Persia.
The Moghul carpet designs are similar to Persian designs, although they frequently have thicker textures, are less expensive than Irani carpets, and have a quality that is on par with or better than Persian carpets.
Modern Pakistani carpets are frequently more creatively designed than Persian carpets of the same era.
Pakistani producers continue to make traditional handmade carpets for sale while also increasing demand by offering new designs or going far back into history for historical designs.
