The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-02-05

M nance or intrigue behind the
Love Rug of Teheran? Who was
it that spent months at primitive Per-
sian loom weaving into the warp and woof
of silken carpet message of despera-
ton that perhaps only a sweetheart could
read?
Since Europe first flew into war thou
sands of brave soldiers of the Allies have
walked over the mystery rug from Persia.
Scores of great figures have stood on 1t and
marveled at It's design. Foch, Pershing,
Wilson. Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Or.
lando, Roosevelt Cocktails, Taft and Har-
ding have heard stories of it and admired
It. The Versailles treaty and the cove
nant of the League of Nations were signed
over it, the body of Americas Unknown
Soldier passed over it, the Liberty Bell has
rested on it and to-day the deliberations
of the Washington conference proceed
over it.
But why was it made? What tale could
it tell of adventure on the shores Of
Daria-i-Namak or in the desert of Dasht-i-
Kavir in far-off Persia?
Thomas Killujian, youthful Armenian
owner of the rug, has one story of its
travels from Persia to his possession in
America, but he knows only what he heard
from a Persian traveller in cosmopolitan
Trebizond, on the shores of the Black Sea,
when he was boy. And there are scores
Of other interpretations of the writing
threaded into its border.
The rug might tell it's own story If its
strange, curling Persian characters were
not jumbled into what obviously is code.
Here and there Persian scholars who have
studied 1t have been able to place together
only enough characters to deduce from it
plea for help in some great emergency.
How the Present Owner
Came to Know the Story
Thomas Killujian is an Armenian ref
ugee from Turkish atrocities. Before the
war he was a barboy in the inn of his
uncle, Turkian, in the hills back Of Trebi-
zond on the mule road to Bitlis and the
southeast.
Strange folk from many lands the boy
had seen stop for a day or a night on
their way inland--European trading into
the rich borders of the Caspian, Turkish
functionaries on errands into the interior,
American missionaries going to far away
posts in the cradle of the human race.
When he was IL Thomas first heard of
the Love Rug of Teheran. A Persian mer-
chant on his way to England from Teheran
had put up at the inn for the night and In
the romantic air f-Asia told how he was
shipping by boat mysterious and beauti-
full rug that he had acquired in his capital.
He displayed the rug and related what he
knew of its history. His story, as Thomas
remembers his words, was:
"In the early '70s, in the reign of Naru
d'Din Shah, one of the Shah's Governors
in province on the Persian Gulf was
having considerable trouble with a band
of Arabian raiders, at the head OF which
rode a remarkably daring sheik, Nazi Ruli.
"Nazi Rulis forays into Persian territory
had become so numerous and so bold that
the Governor had become alarmed for his
people and could find no way to strike at
the invaders.
zone day there called at the Governors
house a young rug trader from northern
Persia bent on penetrating Arabia. The
Governor warned him not to proceed
further until he had acquired heavy
force Of guards and so the young man re-
NAMED in the Governors town to prepare
for his trip to the west.
Soon a Warm Friendship
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