page_title: Mamluk carpets
section_title: Features
hierarchical_section_title: Mamluk carpets / Features
caption_attribution_description: Carpet; Textiles-Rugs
context_page_description: Many studies have been conducted on Mamluk carpets, but scholars have not come to a consensus as to when or where they were made. Production of surviving Mamluk carpets started from the second half of the fifteenth century until the middle of the sixteenth century, and continued even after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. The group of carpets produced in this period were initially called "Damascene" carpets after their attribution to Damascus, Syria. However, a Cairene origin was established after some fragments of carpets in this style were unearthed in Fustat. Furthermore, there are several eyewitness accounts by travelers placing a center of carpet production in Cairo.
context_section_description: Two main weaving techniques are characteristic of Mamluk carpets produced in Cairene workshops: asymmetrical knots and S-spun wool.  Mamluk Carpets have distinctive features in their design, often dominated by geometric motifs and were colored in mostly red with accents of blues, yellows, and greens. Kurt Erdmann categorized arrangements of Mamluk carpets and subdivided them into three main groups according to their main background: type 1) the quadrangular main background has a small squared pattern in each of the four corners, such as the Mamluk carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art datable to the late fifteenth/early sixteenth century; type 2) the rectangular main background consists of a central element flanked by oblong panels that are further divided into two, three, or five medallions with designs echoing the central element, similar to the arrangement of the Mamluk rug from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (c. 1500-1550); type 3) the large carpet with a main background is subdivided into multiple sections and medallions, like the famous 'Simonetti' Carpet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art(c. 1500).
  The configuration of most Mamluk carpets can be simplified to a single central component radiating outwards from the core of the rug, which is either framed by the outer border or flanked by oblong panels often subdivided into tripartite shapes echoing the geometric design of the central component. In some cases the oblong panels contain rows of stylized cypresses, palm trees, and an umbrella-shaped leaf design, a common motif in Mamluk carpets; for example, the Kelekian Mamluk rug owned by the Textile Museum in Washington D.C. datable to the first half of the sixteenth century. The outer borders, a chief identifying feature of all Mamluk carpets, are consistently lined with medallions alternating with oval cartouches. Mamluk carpets have often been described as having a kaleidoscopic quality because of how the central design forms a series of interlacing stars and polygons around it, whereby each shape is further subdivided and decorated.
caption: Fragment, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mamluk Carpet, early 16th century
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