ate
with every two threads of the warp. The second traditional knot is the
Persian or Sehna knot, which, though better calculated to produce a
close, fine, even, velvety surface, has in many parts of Persia been
abandoned for the Ghiordes knot, which is a trifle more easily tied. The
Persian or Sehna knot is tied so that from every space between the
warp-threads one end of the knot protrudes. The number of knots to the
inch tied according to either the Turkish or Persian method is
determined by the size and closeness of the warp-threads and the size
and number of weft-threads thrown across after each row of knots. The
patterns of the fabrics made by country weavers are usually taken by
them from old rugs. But in towns where weaving is conducted under more
organized conditions new patterns are often devised, and are traced
sometimes upon great cardboards, on which the stitches, or knots, are
indicated by squares each painted in its proper colour. In some of the
Persian carpets and rugs made at Sehna, Kirman and Tabriz, the warp is
of silk, a material that contributes to fine compact pile textures.

Date of original pile textures.

There is much uncertainty as to the period when cut pile carpets were
first made in the East. Their texture is certainly akin to that of
fustian and velvet; while that of the finer Persian carpets, which were
not made much earlier than about the 15th century, is practically not
distinguishable from velvet, having long or heavy pile. Fustian, the
English name for a cut short pile textile, is derived from Fostat (old
Cairo), and such material is likely to have been made there, as soon as
anywhere else, by Saracens, especially during the propitious times of
the Fatimite Khalifs, who for more than two centuries previously to the
13th century were noted for the encouragement they gave to all sorts of
arts and manufactures. It seems that velvet came into use in Europe not
much earlier than the 14th century, and various French church
inventories of the time contain entries of "_tapis velus_ (cut pile
carpets) _d'aultre mer, a mettre par terre_" (see _Essai sur l'histoire
des tapisseries et tapis_, by W. Chocqueel, Paris, 1863, pp. 22-23). It
is an open question if the making of cut pile carpets in Persia or by
Saracens elsewhere preceded that of fustians and velvets or whether the
developments in making the three proceeded _pari passu._

Carpets with flat surface.

The making of carpets wi