The Question of Para-Mamluk Rugs

Para-Mamluk Rug Textile Museum Collection

Mamluk rugs are a small distinctive structurally cohesive group of rug. I show some in my Guide to Mamluk Art. The key to attribution is a combination of distinctive style, limited palette and the S spin of the fibers.

 A strand may either be spun to the left or to the right. If they are spun to the left, it is termed "Z" spun and if spun to the right, it is termed "S" spun. More than 99% of all hand woven Oriental rugs in the world are Z spun but Mamluk Rugs are S Spun. 

The whole question of Mamluk rugs is made even more challenging by a tiny group of rugs that appear to be Mamluk except that they are Zspun. Charles Grant "Charlie" Ellis delineated a group of seemingly Mamluk rugs that were Z spun. Charlie was a Research Associate at the TM and the above rug was one of the rugs that they examined in the mid 50s when 
 Ernst Kuhnel and Louise Bellinger wrote Cairene Rugs and Others Technically Related, Washington, D. C., 1957. Ellis proposed an attribution of Para-Mamluk, from Damascus Syria. The Ellis Syria attribution has been generally accepted but now and then we will see these rugs attributed to Tabriz, Iraq, Syria, or Anatolia (Modern day Turkey.) .  

The Syrian attribution is attractive in some ways. Up until 1517 Syria was part of the Mamluk empire.  There were and are Turkmen in Syria so rugs woven with an asymmetric open left knot are possible. There have never been very many Syrian rugs but then again there are not very many Para-Mamluk rugs.

The Joseph Lees Williams Para-Mamluk Rug

Charlie Ellis wrote the catalog entry on this rug:

Para-Mamluk Rug

Artist/maker unknown, Turkmen

Geography: Probably made in Tabriz, northwestern Iran, Iran, Asia

or made in northern Iraq, Iraq, Asia

or made in northern Syria, Syria, Asia

Date: 15th century

Medium: Wool and goat hair(?)

Dimensions: 5 feet 10 inches x 4 feet 1 1/4 inches (177.8 x 125.1 cm)

Curatorial Department: East Asian Art

Accession Number: 1955-65-2

Credit Line: The Joseph Lees Williams Memorial Collection, 1955

As we can see Ellis is straddling the attribution. He includes Tabriz for no reason that is apparent to me. Tabriz rugs use symmetrical knots in all cases and all time periods of which I know. Structurally Tabriz is improbable. Perhaps the Tabriz attribution is a politic move related to the gift. So this what about Syria or Iraq? I lump them together because for all intents and purposes they are the same. If the rug is from either Syria or Iraq then as Ellis points out it has to be Turkmen. Most probably some remnant of Ak Koyunlu or if Northern Syria maybe Karamanoglu. 

I think there is another very possible origin of the Para-Mamluk rugs which I will address in a future post.

See also

The Mouncey Checkerboard Rug - Damascus?

Pashmina Rugs and Pashmina Goats

Many of the greatest Mughal Rugs are not woven from wool or silk but instead super fine Kashmir goat wool called Pashmina. The name Pashmina comes from the Persian word Pashm which means wool

Pashmina Goats




This is a Pashmina Mughal Millefleur Gateway Rug that Joe McMullan donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Millefleur Gateway Carpets

Millefleur Rugs 

Millefleur Rugs take their name from the French; mille meaning 1000, and fleur meaning flowers.  The word is used to describe a floral pattern with many small flowers in the design. 

The McMullan Millefleur Gateway Carpet - Detail

The McMullan Millefleur Gateway Carpet

The McMullan Millefleur Gateway Carpet - Detail
Please note the multitude of blossoms and the bifurcated cypress on the right.

Many Mughal rugs are called Millefleur because of the small blossom patterns. However the most famous is a particular type of rug design of which the McMullan  Pashmina Millefleur Gateway Carpet is the best known:


McMullan Millefleur Gateway Carpets
Object Name: Pashmina Carpet with Gateway-and-Millefleur Pattern
Date: second half 18th century
Geography: Northern India, Kashmir
Medium: Cotton (warp and weft), pashmina wool (pile); asymmetrically knotted pile
Dimensions: Rug: H. 74 3/16 in. (188.5 cm) W. 47 11/16 in. (121.2 cm) Mount: H. 79 1/8 in. (201 cm) W. 51 1/4 in. (130.2 cm) D. 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm)
Classification: Textiles-Rugs
Credit Line: Gift of Joseph V. McMullan, 1970
Accession Number: 1970.302.7
The Gateway Millefleur Carpet design features a pair of cypress trees under an arch. This is seen as the gate to the Islamic afterlife a flower filled garden paradise.  Joe McMulan’s rug has a central vase which is not common to all of these. 

Lahore Indian rug 

Lahore Indian rug 

Here we see a later Lahore Indian rug in the Gateway Millefleur Carpet from Christie’s Sale 4941 European Furniture, Works of Arts, Tapestries And Carpets
17 January 2006, London, South Kensington

Qashqai Millefleur Gateway Rug Early 29th Century

Qashqai Millefleur Gateway Rug Early 29th Century

In the early 20th century the Millefleur Gateway Carpet pattern began to show up in Qashqai rugs.  My suspicion is that one of the Millefleur Gateway Carpets was published in an early German rug book which sparked the Lahore and Qashqai copies. 

Gol Farang Rugs

Gol Farang

ID Tip: Take a look at the Roses in these rugs. It is a more Western use of Perspective. When you see this you can call it a Gol Farang. Old time dealers will often call these “Cabbage Rose”.

In Persian and Caucasian Rugs there is a floral pattern called the Gol Farang. Also seen as Goli Farngi, Gol-e Farang, Golfarangi, etc… Gol is Persian for flower and Farang is Persian for Frank in the sense of French. Going back to the time of the crusaders encountering the Mongols, all Europeans were called Franks or Farang. So when we see Gol Farang it means European Flowers.  What makes a flower European? Generally it is the use or perspective which we do not normally see in Oriental Rugs.

It was not unusual for Mongols and Muslims to call Christian Europe Frangistan.

Certain types of rugs more commonly use the Gol Farang pattern. It is very common in Senneh rugs:

We also see it frequently in antique Karabagh Rugs: