Abstract:
Although zīlūproduction has been mentioned in the historical texts of the tenth century, the surviving examples belong to the sixteenth century onwards. Some scholars have considered a zīlūwoven in Maybod and dated 808/1405 as the earliest known zīlū, but they have mistaken in reading the date and it belongs to the Safavid period. The only known pre- Safavid zīlūis preserved in the Hermitage museum. Historians of Islamic art believe that this zīlūbears no date and introduce it as one of the masterpieces of Ilkhanid art. This paper with careful scrutiny of both artistic style and inscriptions offers a new suggestion for its weaving date. It can be hypothesized that this zīlūhas been woven in Ramadan 808/1406 in Nūshābād, a small town near Kashan. Thus it can be considered as the earliest dated zilu surviving from Islamic Persia. One of the important questions concerning this zīlūaddresses its function. Although other scholars considered this flatweave as a saf – carpet with repeated niche designs that may have been intended for large congregational mosques, use of Quranic inscriptions in a carpet, which would be trodden on by feet would have been disrespectful. Regarding the content of the inscriptions shows that it probably was a prayer rug and connects it to sufi circles
Machine summary:
Nushabad Zilo: The Oldest Known Carpet from the Islamic Era of Iran 1 Mohammadreza Ghiasiyan Assistant Professor, Department of Higher Art Studies, Faculty of Architecture and Art, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran 2 Mohammad Mashhadi Nushabadi Associate Professor, Department of Religion and Philosophy, Faculty of Literature, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran Abstract Although Zilo and Zilo-weaving have been mentioned in historical texts since the fourth century AH, all surviving Zilos belong to the post-Safavid period.
This writing, through a more precise examination of the artistic style and the inscriptions of the Zilo, presents a new proposal regarding its weaving time and raises the possibility that it was woven in Nushabad, Kashan, in Ramadan 313 AH / 1416 AD, and is the oldest dated carpet known in Islamic era Iran.
In 1991, the Hermitage Museum exhibited an ancient Zilo signed by "Master Ali Noshabadi" in an exhibition titled "Masterpieces of Islamic Art in the Hermitage Museum" at the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyya in Kuwait, which researchers have identified as the oldest surviving Zilo from Iran, belonging to the Ilkhanid period or the middle of the eighth/fourteenth century.
As previously mentioned, other researchers, based on the form of the Kufic inscription letters, consider this Zilo to belong to the art of the late Ilkhanid period (first half of the 8th/14th century) and one of the oldest remaining carpets from the Islamic era of Iran have been considered.
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