Lot Essay
The inscription reads, farmayesh-e janab-e jalalat-ma’ab-e ajall aqa-ye soltan mohammad khan mo‘in-e homayun dama iqbaluhu al-‘ali ‘amal-e bakhtiyari, ‘Commission of His exalted Excellence, the most exalted, Aqa-yi Sultan Muhammad Khan Mu‘in-i Humayun, may his lofty success be perpetual. Bakhtiyari work.’
Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a number of imposing large scale carpets and colourful smaller rugs were woven for individual khans, of which many bore lengthy and often dated inscriptions. These inscribed Bakhtiari ‘Khan’ carpets form a link between tribal and workshop weaving and the tribe’s great khans and ilkhans who were key figures in Iranian polity at the time. Ian Bennett has documented the group using specific carpets to illustrate the progression of the Bakhtiari rulers (‘Carpets of the Khans, Part 1’, Ian Bennett, HALI, Issue 43, pp.41-51).
Sultan Muhammad Khan (1842-1924), also known as Sardar-e Ashja’, "Bravest Commander", was born into a powerful branch of the Bakhtiari tribe in which his father, brothers, uncles and cousins were all extremely prominent members. He was five times the governor of Isfahan, and at other times governor of Arak and deputy head of the whole Bakhtiari tribe (Il-Begi). He died in 1924 of an illness in Europe. A pair of Bakhtiari white ground bid Majnun rugs woven in 1899 and inscribed in the name of Sultan Muhammad Khan were sold in these Rooms 11 June 1987, lot 59, (illustrated Bennett, op.cit., p.45, fig.9). An ivory ground Bakhtiari prayer rug bearing a different design but woven for the same patron, and dated AH 1317 / 1899-1900 AD, was sold in these Rooms, 21 April 2015, lot 115 and a prayer rug of identical design but woven for Master Ghulam Khan Shihab al-Saltanah in 1898, sold in these Rooms, 16 April 2007, lot 10. A further prayer rug of identical design, but unsigned, was sold at Rippon Boswell, 15 May 1993, lot 86.
Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a number of imposing large scale carpets and colourful smaller rugs were woven for individual khans, of which many bore lengthy and often dated inscriptions. These inscribed Bakhtiari ‘Khan’ carpets form a link between tribal and workshop weaving and the tribe’s great khans and ilkhans who were key figures in Iranian polity at the time. Ian Bennett has documented the group using specific carpets to illustrate the progression of the Bakhtiari rulers (‘Carpets of the Khans, Part 1’, Ian Bennett, HALI, Issue 43, pp.41-51).
Sultan Muhammad Khan (1842-1924), also known as Sardar-e Ashja’, "Bravest Commander", was born into a powerful branch of the Bakhtiari tribe in which his father, brothers, uncles and cousins were all extremely prominent members. He was five times the governor of Isfahan, and at other times governor of Arak and deputy head of the whole Bakhtiari tribe (Il-Begi). He died in 1924 of an illness in Europe. A pair of Bakhtiari white ground bid Majnun rugs woven in 1899 and inscribed in the name of Sultan Muhammad Khan were sold in these Rooms 11 June 1987, lot 59, (illustrated Bennett, op.cit., p.45, fig.9). An ivory ground Bakhtiari prayer rug bearing a different design but woven for the same patron, and dated AH 1317 / 1899-1900 AD, was sold in these Rooms, 21 April 2015, lot 115 and a prayer rug of identical design but woven for Master Ghulam Khan Shihab al-Saltanah in 1898, sold in these Rooms, 16 April 2007, lot 10. A further prayer rug of identical design, but unsigned, was sold at Rippon Boswell, 15 May 1993, lot 86.