Yerevan

Many legends, puzzles and mysteries are woven into Armenian carpets. If you look closely you might imagine the imprint of the famous form of Cleopatra. The shapely Egyptian Queen ordered herself wrapped in a scarlet carpet and delivered to Julius Caesar while he was stationed on the Island of Pharos; a worthy container for such a royal gift!

According to the accounts of historians, “Armenian red carpets” were much in demand on the markets of Cairo. Further, the fuchsia-colored carpets from the Egyptian town of Assuit were highly prized because of their similarity to the Armenian carpets. Even on the broader market of Persian rugs, those that equaled the quality of the Armenian carpets were considered the most desirable. In those ancient days, the carpets made in the Iranian province of Esfahan were ranked as being of the most supreme quality, the standard against which all others were compared. These too were created by Armenian weavers, who had been forcefully relocated by Shah Abbas to Persia from the historic Armenian town of Jugha (also known as Julfa), presently a village in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic. Although the Esfahan rugs and the Armenian reds were seen as representatives of distinct weaving traditions of the time, at the level of the knots themselves, both were Armenian in origin, which may explain why Esfahan’s rugs resembled those from Armenia.

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