Spanish Carpet

Spanish Carpet
General information
Name	Spain Carpet
Original name	فرش اسپانیا، قالی اسپانیا
Alternative name(s)	Spain Rug
Technical information

Spanish Carpet or Spanish Rug is one of the western rugs that woven in Spain.
Most of the Iberian peninsula was under Muslim rule from the eighth until the thirteenth century. The Muslims were finally expelled in 1492. Records show that Spain was an important rug production area from the twelfth century. Existing Spanish cut-pile rugs from the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries were woven with knots tied to single warps. Knots are in staggered rows, usually with a single three-stranded weft. Mudejars (Moors, i.e. Muslims of Arab or Berber origin who remained in Spain after the Christian reconquest) wove rugs in two styles: a synthesis of Islamic, Christian, and folk motifs and copies of Turkish motifs.
Many rugs bearing coats of arms have survived and these have been used to date rugs from the early part of the fifteenth century. Often these armorial rugs have Kufesque borders. Rugs influenced by Turkish styles have large octagon medallions or Holbein or Lotto designs. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Turkish styles became dominant. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, copies of Aubusson and Savonnerie carpets were woven using the Turkish knot.