The Rug Library

A Met fragment of a Kashmir or Lahore carpet, about 1650, has a claret-red field divided by a leafy trellis into lozenges, each centred on a large composite palmette.

A medallion carpet is one dominated by a single symmetrical centrepiece, such as a star, circle, quatrefoil or octagon, often with quarter-medallions in the corners of the field.

The Herati pattern, named after the city of Herat where it was once thought to have originated, repeats a rosette framed in a rhombus with palmettes and leaves.

The Kevorkian Hyderabad Carpet sets geometric lozenges filled with plant motifs in a mirrored garden layout around a many-lobed centre that represents a fish pond.

Warangal durrie motifs include named designs such as Illam, Dil, Gadya, temple borders, Irak and stars, and prayer rugs (jainamaaz) there show minarets in a geometric format.

Navalgund dhurries from Dharwad, Karnataka, use named geometric motifs such as badi ghari and nanhi ghari (diamonds), laheri (wave), bhell (zigzag) and dhara (horizontal stripes).

Panja dhurries of Salawas near Jodhpur are named after the claw-like panja tool used to beat the weft; their designs combine geometric compositions, flowers and the wave-like leheriya pattern.

Dhurrie designs usually draw on three sources: stripes, geometric forms that are abstract or based on architecture, and naturalistic flora and fauna.

The term 'gul', used for the repeated medallions of Turkmen rugs and bags, comes from the Persian 'gol', meaning flower or rose.

A Milas prayer rug at the Met stylises the niche, shaping its arch into a lozenge with a small notch at the top.

In the Wagner Garden Carpet, two long parallel water channels, joined by a central pool and short tributaries, form an 'H' that divides the garden into six rectangular sections.