Ask the Scholar

This textile has a repeated design of goatherds piping to goats in a landscape setting. At the top is an inscription reading: “Work of the servant of the court, Abū al-Quāsim Kāshānī, year 929.” In the Muslim calendar 929 is equivalent to 1523, but this fabric was woven in the 1900s. This textile emulates examples from the Safavid period (1501–1722), regarded as a high point of Iranian culture.<br><br>A lampas weave is characterized by the combination of two weave structures with two sets of wefts—the threads over and under which the warp threads are woven. Threads of the pattern weft are laid on top of the background weft to form the design. Lampas is typically woven in silk, sometimes with the addition of metallic thread.