The Ardabil Carpet

One of a matched pair, this is among the largest, oldest and finest carpets in the world, over ten meters long and tied from perhaps twenty-six million knots of wool and silk. A golden sunburst medallion floats on a deep indigo field strewn with flowers, a mosque lamp hanging at either end. A woven inscription names Maqsud of Kashan and gives the year, and quotes a longing verse by the poet Hafiz. It was made for the shrine of Shaykh Safi at Ardabil, the ancestral home of Iran's Safavid dynasty.