There is no trace of Persian carpet which brings back to periods of time before the XVI century. The art of knotting in Persia was probably practised also before that period thanks to natural comparison between neighbouring people and to nomad phenomenon foreboding exchanges. As a matter of fact there are miniatures of the period preceding the XVI century that testify this and show manufactures of clear derivation from Anatolic medieval carpet. They date back to the beginning of the XV century and show royal or heroic figures on carpets with geometrical decorations and kufic types.   .  

 In three miniatures, contained in the manuscript called "The Book of the Kings" written by the Arabian Firausì (XIV century) three carpets are described; two of these emphasize in the central part a drawing with crossing ovals "as can not be found on any of the following Persian carpets". During the preceding period similar drawings could have been made in Caucasus. On the third carpet there are stylized figures of animals in double octagon, similar to those which can be found in Anatolic carpets of the XIV century. These artists have reproduced samples which they knew.  Clearly, in that period, that was the kind of carpet produced in Persia. They would probably have produced a different model, if they have had one. Later miniatures and pictures show no longer geometrical carpets, but carpets with medallions and floral decorations. 

The arrival of safawide 

It is impossible that in Persia the art of the carpet could suddenly burst for exclusive will of a dynasty, if no local production had already existed, even if a demotic-artisan one; it was, as said before, a production with starting characteristics very similar to Anatolic and Caucasic ones. Already the "red" Ismail (as known from the last calendar of the "Market in Persia" of the 2nd July 1520) reorganized the production of carpets. Afterwards, the whole dynasty (particularly Tahmasp and Abbas the Great) endeavoured in the same way thanks to the enlightened management of the governors and particularly thanks to the new political and religious incentive (Shiitism) of which they were spokesmen. The carpet becomes one of the most typical expression of Persian art; Shite current - which is directly connected to koranic precepts more than to religious tradition - gives vent to fantasy; so that the carpets get richer with endless new motifs. The whole decoration gets richer with leaves and rolled up stalks. Central medallion was born, then hunting, vases, arabesques, floral decorations, gardens and animals, as well as figures in different postures, as koranic law  did not forbid it: it only ordered to avoid impurities of the idols.   Let's say again that it had been Yhedith, that is the tradition, faithfully followed by Sunnite Turkish people, to state that no representation of living beings was allowed, so that the artist was not in competition with the only and absolute creator Allah.   The art of the carpet up to the end of  XV century is then daughter of Sunnite tradition. The broad-mindedness of the Safawidi (so called by the founder Safi-ed-Din) was a political attitude more then just an artistic tendency of the sovereigns (it must be remember that Shah Abbas himfelf loved devoting to the knotting of the carpets). In fact, to gain people consent, political sensitivity suggested to leave more freedom to creative spirit of a people of such a long and prooved civilization. This dispute forced particularly Ismail and Tahmasp to hard struggles; the had to defend the wide Iranic territory with weapons, they had alternate vicissitudes which forced them to move the capital from Tabriz to Kazvin and to other towns, until the empire consolidated under the reign of Shah Abbas I, who settled the capital in Isfahan. The arrival of safawide was the new fact which produced a new way in carpets manufacturing. No comparison with the past is possible. Centres of production and factories increased; new ones were established which worked for and at the Court ("Karkhanehs", royal workshops) to produce the famous courtly Persian carpet, which will reach every country of the world thanks to the flourishing of industry and commerce. The material is the best one: golden and silver threads are sometimes added to wool and silk, looms are improved and enlarged. But what is really important is that miniature, painting and binding artists are engaged to prepare the cardboards and all qualified skilled workers are moved all through Persia. Tabriz, Kashan, Kirman, Herat become cardinal points and  Shiraz, Isfahan, Zazvin, Ioshagan Yazd and others add to them. 
The geometries and the lines blend with elements of the natural world in a harmonic synthesis of rythms and shades.  
A new reality more open and more free imposes. The figure does not occupy a predominant position but together with the composition forms a harmonious whole. This is the constant characteristic of Islamic art: an art which transfigures reality and regulates its human, natural, vegetable and geometrical elements in a strict game of rythms, repetitions, symmetries, where nothing is left to improvisation; an art soaked in mysticism where the feelings of world's vanity and of the endless creation bring to the cancellation of personality and to abstraction. 

Attribution places of ancient Persian carpet 

It is safer to denote a larger area of reference, at least when it is possible.   The safawide period, as explained above and as it will be clarified below, affected all other coeval and later production from Anatolia to India and to some areas of west Europe.   It was an unprecedented renewal in carpet's art, but it has grown weaker since the XVI century with Afghan Sunnite invasion in 1722.   Even when Shah Nadir succeeded in reassembling, in XVIII century, what had once been the safawide empire, he shoed to be a man of taste and culture, of such prestige and enterprise that Persian arts were once again back to formerly achieved levels.   European companies would later arrive on the market to exploit local production.   And so it was polluted by the necessity to meet different enterpreneurs'orders.   This signed the end of the art of Persian carpet, even if, in the last two centuries, remarkable samples were not absent. 

Carpets with medallion with hunting scenes and animals  

Medallion carpets are those most produced in Persia, even before the production became courtly. It shows, in the middle field, a big medallion usually in the form of a star from which rectangular or sometimes enlarged rhomboid hangings begin. It is a motif that occupies the whole field. It appears also in the corners so to complete the architecture; on the contrary in similar Turkish carpets it seems that the drawing could go on to infinity. The delimitation meets the requirement of transposition coming from book decoration and miniature arts which express within precise borders. It is an architecture which divides the field into four equal parts with diagonals that, starting from the cornes, go through it.