Carpets and rugs represent an important branch of the traditional arts and handicrafts of the Muslim world. The carpets used by the nomadic Turks in Central Asia were, beyond their functional usage, an art which they carried with them in their journeys to different lands, especially from the tenth and eleventh centuries onwards. The Turkic peoples’ carpets influenced the Mamluk carpets, which constitute the theme of this book. Most renowned and most valued examples of Mamluk carpets are available in musuems, dating from until the sixteenth century. This book by Dr. Sumiyo Okumura, a historian of art from Japan, is an extensive study of Mamluk carpets, their unique features and their evolution, with due regard to cross-cultural influences observable in this process. The author included seventy-seven Mamluk carpets in the catalogue section of the book and extensively analyzed twenty of them in her chapters. The book is an amply illustrated beautiful edition.
