Note 10 — Chapter VI

Sir George Birdwood has made the statement that “A deep and complicate symbolism, originating in Babylonia and possibly in India, pervades every denomination of Oriental carpet. Thus the carpet itself prefigures space and eternity, and the general pattern or filling, as it is technically termed, the fleeting, finite universe of animated beauty. Every colour has its significance; and the design, whether mythological or natural, human, bestial, or floral, has its hidden meaning. Even the representatives of men hunting wild beasts have their special indications. So have the natural flowers of Persia their symbolism, wherever they are introduced, generally following that of their colours. The very irregularities either in drawing or colouring, to be observed in almost every Oriental carpet, and invariably in Turkoman carpets, are seldom accidental, the usual deliberate intention being to avert the evil eye and insure good luck.”