Symbolism and Its Effects on Iranian Carpet

Symbolism and love of beauty are two fundamental particulars of human kind having special effects on his works of art. Carpet, particularly in Iran, has been one of the grounds of manifestation of symbols and carpet patterns represent symbolic designs. This study is an effort to study this issue, especially in the Safavid and Ghajrid eras which are considered to be the flourishing age of Iranian carpet. Written references as well as 80 pictures of carpets of that period of time constitute the main resources of this study and confirm our hypothesis of great effect of symbolism on Iranian carpet designing. In this study, I have introduced the theoretical grounds of carpet patterns symbolism and for the first time a classification is drawn up which may be used as a starting point for other studies.