I have always been fascinated by the language of politicians. They have a special ability to talk without saying anything, to insinuate rather than state and to walk the fine line of semantics to make nonsense sounds like intelligible argument.
A typical example is Mogens Camre’s last remark that he was abandoning his place in the Parliament to avoid discussions with “an Arab with Carpet traders’ logic” (referring to Naser Khader).
The context in which this sentence was said reveal that it is a sentence said in despise and was meant as an insult. The first that came to my mind when I heard this sentence was Napoleon’s description of the English as “a nation of shopkeepers”. This was also meant as an insult and the immediate similarity here is showing contempt through connection with commerce.
There is an ocean of difference however between the two statements. For the first Napoleon, didn’t use his own words, he cited a sentence by Adam Smith in his book “Wealth of Nations”, and showed himself to be knowledgeable with the great English philosopher and economist’s work. For the second, Napoleon’s statement was unequivocally clear. It dismissed England’s preparedness for war against France and insinuated that the Idle English can’t match the militant French.
Mogen’s Camre’s words, on the other hand, is a hollow attempt to insult without even trying to make a good argument for it. They are unclear, and pathetic in their lack of knowledge about Carpets, trade, and the Arabs’ great achievements in both.
Being an Arab, I wish to invite you to a ride on the flying carpet, back in time to follow the caravan of carpet traders with their precious cargo of colors and fairy tails, from the deep heart of the Orient to the churcehs, palaces and homes of Europe.
Defending Carpets!
It is not certain however, if the Egyptians, the Chinese, or even the Mayas first invented carpet making. The first mankind’s woven pictures were found in a tomb of pharaoh Tutmos IV of the New empire (XVI-XI BC). One of Ben Hassan’s frescos (discovered in 1953) dated X BC, shows a handloom and all the weaving process as we know it today.
By the fifth century BC carpet making had reached a high artistic level. This was proven by the Russian archaeologists Rudenko and Griaznov, who in 1949 discovered the oldest known “knotted” carpet in the Pazyryk valley, about 5000 feet up on the Altai Mountains in Siberia. The Pazyryk carpet which is of rare beauty and woven with great technical skill was found preserved in the frozen tombs of Scythian chiefs. It is now kept in The State Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg).
Carpets were always in the centre of the lives of the traditional Bedouin tribes of Arabia, Persia and Anatolia being used as the tent sheltering them from the sand storms, a floor covering providing great comfort for the household, wall curtain protecting privacy and useful item such as blanket bags and saddles. In the Old Testament (ref. 26, 8-38) it is spoken of “the tent arranged from weaving of coverlets”.
Muslims regard the carpet with special esteem and admiration because the Qura’n speaks of the carpet as being a furniture of paradise and as one of the riches the believers will be rewarded in the hereafter, for example:
“(other) faces that day will be joyful, pleased with their striving, In a garden on high, Where they shall hear no (words) of vanity: Therein will be a bubbling spring, Therein will be thrones of dignity, Raised on high, Goblets placed (Ready), And cushions set in rows, And rich carpets (all) spread out”. (Surah 88: 8-20).
Can you imagine Europe without carpets
Historic sources indicate that the earliest floor covering in Europe consisted of Rushes that were scattered over the floor and renewed from time to time. This practice continued op to the second half of the fifteenth century. Erasmus (1466-1536) revealed that these rushes were sometimes left too long that he condemned their use: “The floors are in general lid with white clay and are covered with rushes, occasionally renewed but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed sometimes for 20 years harbouring expectorations, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish and other abominations not fit to be mentioned. I’m confident the island will be much more salubrious if the use of rushes were abandoned”. In a later stage rushed were woven into mats and widely used in Europe in this form. In fact rush matting continued till the reign of Charles the 1st (1625-1649).
Carpet-making was introduced to Spain in 10th century by the Moors. Al-Idirsi (c. 1096-1166) revealed that woollen carpets were produced in the 12th century in Chinchilla and Mucia (both now in Spain) and were exported all over the world. European fascination with Muslims carpets and textile products however accelerated when contact with the Muslim world were made during the crusades and trade resulted in the import of oriental art objects including textiles. Such products were so valued that Pope Silvester the 2nd (950-1003) was buried in luxurious Silk Persian cloth. Queen Eleanor the Castilian bride of King Edward the 1st brought to England Andalusian carpets as precious item of her dowry in 1255.
In France the carpets were particularly popular at the time of Louis the 9th (1215-1270) under the name “tapis sarrasinoia” and in 1277 there were trade privileges for this tapis in Paris while In the 15th century Italy the most popular carpets were Tapedi damaschini (Damascus carpets) and tapedi Ciarini (Cairo carpets).
The study of paintings made in late medieval periods supplies considerable information on how and where these carpets were used and how they were regarded. Many examples of Carpets with Islamic motifs (Arabic, Turkish and Persian) as early as 300 could be seen in the paintings of the Simone Martini, Nicolo of Buonaccorso, Stefano de Giovanni, Anbrogio Lorzenetti, and Hans Holbein the junior. These motifs were also present in Christian themes painted by Van Eyck’s and Hans Memlinc.
During the reign of Shah Abbas (1571 – 1629), encouraged contacts and trade with Europe and transformed his new capital Isfahan, into one of the most glorious cities of Persia. He also created a court workshop for carpets where skilled designers and craftsmen set to work to create splendid specimens. Most of these carpets were made of silk, with gold and silver threads.
When traders brought the carpets to Europe they brought more than pieces of cloth. They brought art and culture that influenced Europe’s artistic taste and sense of beauty, let alone the mystic adventures of Aladin’’s and his flying carpet. They brought comfort and refined taste and later a whole new industry and incentive for technological advancement. When the first carpet factory in Europe (probably at Wilton, the UK in 1644) and in the years to follow, Europe’s carpet production were merely an imitation of the oriental carpet whether in technique, colours or motifs.
Defending traders logic!
Until recently, most people were expected to work in one of two ways, as peasants or as artisans. That, said Luther, was how they “best pleased their creator”. When Mogen’s Camre shows contempt to Carpet traders and their logic, he follows a good old European tradition. For a long time Merchants were held in suspicion. Hermes, who was the Olympian God of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, and of commerce in general, was a trickster and thief. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes invokes him as the one “of many shifts (polytropos), blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods.”
Plato meant that it was impossible engage in trade and be virtuous at the same time. St. Thomas Aquinas –though his Academy was founded by a merchant- said merchants were bound to have trouble attaining salvavtion because the temptation to sin was inherent in their occupation.
Theodore Zeldin noticed that “The first world religion to show enthusiasm for commerce was Islam. The prophet Mohammed had been engaged in trade and his first wife was an important businesswoman in Mecca. The Muslims were the first to produce a book in praise of commerce, The beauties of Trade, by Ja’far ben Ali Ad-Dimishqi, the the 12th century arguing that the trade is “the best of all gainful employements and the most conductive of happiness”. Islam’s extraordinary rapid expansion over half the globe was a commercial as well as a religious victory. So Muslim Merchants had no need to defend mecantile values against religion. On the contrary, the scholars (Ulama) were often engaged in trade also. An example is Adallah al Sarqawi (Rector of the Al-Azhar in Cairo from 1793 to 1812) who after starting life in poverty, grew exceedingly rich in this most senior of religious posts because he was a businessman, while his wife excelled as an investor in property, shops and baths. Trade in the Muslim world was a branch of sociability, to be savoured as much for pleasure of human contact, conversation and haggling as for the monetary profits”.
In the eighteenth century, Europeans also began to change the merchant’s image; intellectuals now saw the merchant as an ally against aristocracy. Voltaire portrayed English businessmen as models of adventurousness and honesty.
When European 18th century playwriters presented merchants as universal men uniting nations by trade and bringing peace and prosperity, they have captured the true essense of trade and the true nature of traders’ logic. Historically, when human beings started to trade they learned how to coexist in peace. Trade paved the ground for a peaceful coexistence in which negotiating a deal substituted the acquisition of needs with force. For the purpose of maintaining the peace, human beings invented the contract whether oral or written and made its respect a legal and moral duty. This has laid the foundation for a society governed by the role of law.
Since primitive societies started to trade and until now, trade’s ultimate goal was maintaining peaceful coexistence. Traders’ logic has always been to negotiate a deal that fulfils mutual needs and to secure its implementation through trust and the role of law. No wonder Mognes Camre despises that so much for he has never been an advocate of coexistence and he has just betrayed the trust of the people who elected him to the parliament, broke the unwritten contract he had with them and fled to his secure seat in Europe Parliament. Among politicians, this may be considered a political manoeuvre, but among carpet traders, this is a scandal.
References:
Cheyney,E.P. 1908, Readings in English History.
Theodore Zeldin, The intimate history of Humanity
Rabah Saoud, 2004, The Muslim carpet and origin of carpeting, Foundation of Science, technology and civilization.
* Denmark