The title of tonight lecture is ‘The forgotten century of Persian carpets’
This lecture will address the subject of carpet production in Iran in the150 years following the downfall of the
Safavid Empire. The importance of this period is that the carpets were entirely woven to meet local and domestic demand,
rather than to pander and cater to international tastes. In parallel, this was a lengthy period where trends and styles
were formulated by the more rural and provincial sectors of society rather than by the dominant urban workshops
