NORTH INDIA, SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY

The designers of Agra carpets often took their inspiration from the classical carpets of the Safavid and Mughal periods, made newly available to them by the colour illustrations in books published around the turn of the 20^th century (for more discussion of the impact of these books in a Persian context, see lot 156 in the present sale). It is more uncommon, however, to see weavers take inspiration from other media, and it is in this that the interest of this carpet lies.

The design of this carpet is based on the illustrated manuscripts of Mamluk Egypt, which has been considered a golden age of Islamic book arts. More specifically, it is an adaptation of the frontispiece of a Qur’an which was commissioned by Sultan Barsbay and donated to his madrasa in Cairo in 1425. Today it is kept in the Cairo National Library (published Esin Atıl, Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks, Washington D.C., 1981, cat.no.7, p.42). The carpet successfully adapts the pattern of the outer border, and gives an impressionistic sense of the gold illuminated strapwork which frames each of the panels, and appears here as an irregular, almost pseudo-Kufic, framing device. A looser approach has been taken towards the central field, which on the manuscript is a concentric design based around a single flower, but on this carpet is broken up into four discreet units. The manuscript frontispiece has inscription cartouches containing Q.56 (sura al-waqi’ah) vv.77-80. On the carpet, only two words appear, which are taken from v.79: la yasmuhu illa al-mutahharuna 'touched by none except angels'. The fragment - yasmuhu illa - appear mirrored in both the horizontal and vertical axes. For all these differences, the carpet successfully captures the spirit of a masterpiece of Mamluk illumination.