Medallion carpet

~~Prior to 1400 several major design traditions flourished and disappeared from the Islamic world. The fifteenth century saw the “golden twilight” of Islamic Spain before the Christian Reconquest of 1492. In other parts of the Islamic world, a decorative style based on floral vine scrolls, arabesques, and Chinese-inspired...

Once paper was available in the Islamic lands, artists and artisans eventually came to exploit its possibilities, but they were somewhat slower to do so than were writers, mathematicians, geographers, and merchants. Before paper, artists and artisans worked directly with their chosen materials—clay, bronze, cloth, brick, plaster—relying on experience and practice to do what we would...

Evidence for the patronage of the portable arts by members of the Ottoman dynasty before the conquest of Constantinople (see Chapter 10) is limited, but with the establishment of court ateliers there by Mehmed II (r. 1444–81, with interruption), a burst of activity ensued in a variety of media. Artists sought inspiration from a...