Safavid

An Afghan Safavid Garden rug, knotted by hand with hand-carded, hand-spun, vegetable-dyed wool, woven by master weavers in northern Afghanistan.

Inspired by the classical chahar bagh “four gardens” carpets of Safavid Persia, the design depicts a bird’s-eye view of a Persian paradise garden, with compartments of flowering trees, flowing water channels, and richly decorated garden plots. The earliest surviving carpet of this tradition dates to about 1622–32. The design was carried forward by weavers in Kurdistan during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, becoming increasingly stylized while preserving the essential garden motif. The survival of this centuries-old garden conception in a newly woven carpet is extraordinary, bringing a historic Persian design into the present through a living weaving tradition.