Mahan Carpet Fragments: Patronage and Aesthetic Connections with the Shrine of Shah Ne‘matollah Wali

Since the publication of their photographs and a brief discussion by Arthur Upham Pope in A Survey of Persian Art, the Mahan carpet fragments kept at the National Museum of Sarajevo (no. 1049) were the subject of scholarly attention in an article by Sbetko Popovic in 1955 with regard to their inscriptions, and the date of the carpet (1066-67/1656-57), and later in a presentation by Jenny Housego during the colloquium held in conjunction with the exhibition 'Carpets of Central Asia' in 1976 in which she established that the fragments were specifically woven for the dome chamber that houses the cenotaph of the Sufi and poet Shah Ne‘matollah Wali (d.1431) in Mahan. Although the unfortunate circumstances that have resulted in the closure of the Museum in 2012 have made the carpet fragments inaccessible, several aspects of them could be unraveled by a close study of the data already available. The aim of this paper is to deal with two of such aspects: the visual idioms shared by the carpet and the shrine’s interior, and patronage of the carpet by descendants of Shah Ne‘matollah Wali.

Woven in the style of ‘vase’ carpets that were common in Kerman at the time, the fragments originally formed two or four pieces to abut the cenotaph of Shah Ne‘matollah in his dome chamber where the interior is decorated with Timurid wall paintings that consist of vase and medallion motifs. A similar link is found in the inscriptions of the carpet and the epigraphic program of the shrine.

To my knowledge, the only discussion of patronage of the carpet has been its attribution to Shah ‘Abbas II based on the date of production. In the inscriptions of the carpet however, three descendants of Shah Ne‘matollah Wali are named: Mirmiran, Soleyman, and Mahdi, among whom the latter is mentioned as the patron of the carpet. Influential figures during the Safavid period, the family inter-married the Safavids several times. Ghiyath al-Din Mohammad Mirmiran (d.1589), his son, Soleyman Mirza (d.1640), and his grandson, Mirza Abo’l Mahdi (d. unknown) received suyurghals and endowments from Shah Tahmasb (r.1524-1576), Shah Safi (r.1629-1642), and Shah ‘Abbas II (r.1642-1666), and were appointed to positions such as governorship of Yazd.

This paper will contextualize the carpet fragments within their historical and architectural settings, and connect them to the Ne‘matollahi order and their social and financial status during the Safavid period.