 Persian Oriental RugThe art of rug weaving is a very old tradition in Persia and India dating as far back as the 1500′s. Historical references to Persian oriental rug production have been discovered in documents from the time of Akbar the Great of the Moghul Empire. Places mentioned in particular regarding carpet production are Agrah, Fathpur and Lahore although there was carpet making going on in just about every town at this time. When the East India Company came on the scene they opened up the door for export to Europe and this brought about a rash of cottage industries all over the place. When the Partition of India and Pakistan came about in 1947 there was a migration of carpet weavers, predominantly Muslim, to Lahore. These weavers often had to earn their living at some other trade and it took around a year before they could form groups and get themselves organized again. This was a difficult time for the weavers because the Partition caused shortages of materials, plus they didn’t have anyone committed to buying their carpets and there weren’t any local markets for these fine carpets. Everything they made was on spec and they couldn’t depend on getting a financial return for their outlay for materials etc. They did manage to weather the storm though and eventually exporting of their finished Persian style oriental rugs to Europe was resumed. Today there are still many of the Persian designs being produced in Pakistan. The Moghul designs closely resemble Persian designs,and although they are often thicker their quality can match or even better that of the Persian Newer production in Pakistan includes much newer designs other than the traditional designs of the Persian carpets. Producers are always on the lookout for new designs to generate more interest from buyers. Also they look for the really old designs in order to resurrect them. There are of course, many designs which have always been popular for years and these will continue to be produced as long as demand for these designs continues. |
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