ANTIQUE CARPETS
water with a duck sitting in the middle of the pool , streets and canals with fountains passing through pleasant gardens and fields . It was surrounded by lush greenery and orchards . The foliage of the trees was decorated with a variety of buds , blossoms and birds as symbols of spring . Pearls were used for pebbles , gold to present soil , crystal was used for water colour , emeralds for leaves , silk for flowers and colourful gemstones for fruit . It may seem that walking on such a carpet was a problem , but according to the latest theories , it was used for walking in the spring garden .
This carpet resembles Persian gardens , which is a symbol of paradise and Ferdows . In paradise , there were all kinds of best and most beautiful animals and plants and they had eternal life . Paradise in the Iranian imagination had seven consecutive fences , one of which was wider and taller in the middle than the others ( the demon or the devil could not enter the garden ). These walls were showed in the form of margins .
It had seven margins , the centre margin was wider than others and the lines which separated these margins meant water . Paradise itself had a perpetual water source which never dried out . For this reason , it had flowing rivers and waterfalls . Water branched out into square or rectangular reservoirs , dividing the garden into four equal parts .
According to the description of Baharestan carpet , the garden of Ferdows and paradise in the Zoroastrian religion , we may say that Baharestan carpet , which was woven in the time of Khosrow Anoshirvan and his successors until Yazdgerd III , was used for special occasions . According to their beliefs , it was a sacred symbol of heaven , and perhaps for this reason , after the defeat of the Sassanids and the conquest of the Taq Kasra , the Arabs saw this beautiful carpet and were surprised . In the Quran , to go to heaven means a reward and it was a manifestation of heaven . For this reason , they gave up dividing it and asked their second caliph , Omar to load this carpet on 900 camels and send it to Medina . But in the end , Omar ordered to cut it into pieces and give to the Muslims ( Hasouri , 2002 ).
Garden carpet designs of Iran , Anatolia , and the Mediterranean coast have their roots in Baharestan carpet , which history has always remained in our memory and been passed down by word of mouth .
Rock relief of Taq-e Bostan
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