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?