One of the best-known features of Iranian culture worldwide is the ornately-decorated Persian carpet, often featuring elaborate floral and geometric designs. Often, when an Iranian family is decorating their house, they purchase the rug first as the centerpiece and then choose the rest of the furniture to go with the carpet. And, of course, carpetmaking (which is primarily done by girls and women) is an important economic activity in many parts of Iran.
Early carpet design and tribal origins
While carpetmaking has a long history in the Iranian world (and the Middle East in general), a lot of today's familiar design elements only date from the end of the Crusader Kings timeline and afterward -- i.e. the Timurids and especially the Safavids. Before then, carpetmaking was largely a tribal activity, and the designs were made up entirely of straight lines. Unfortunately, very few carpet samples from this period have survived, but depictions in miniature paintings can also give us an idea of how they might have looked.
New design elements
Sometime around the 1400s or 1500s, that changed. Carpet designs started incorporating curved lines (done by copying from a pre-drawn sketch called a "cartoon") in new motifs such as arabesques and floral elements, and the concept of a "medallion" in the middle was also introduced. A lot of these elements were directly adapted from book decoration and miniature painting. This basically gave us the archetypical Persian carpet design that we see today. The Ardabil Shrine Carpet is one of the most famous examples of classical Safavid carpet design; you can see how it has these new features to get an idea of what I'm talking about.
From tribe to city
These changes in design were accompanied by a shift in carpetmaking from a mostly tribal, pastoral activity to an urban one. The direct influence from book designs and miniature painting -- which were done in specialized workshops in major cities -- show how there was this coming together of city and tribal artforms. Also during this period, especially under the Safavids, the rulers set up royal carpet workshops in certain cities.
What this could mean for CK3
I've tried to brainstorm ideas for Persian culture in CK3 before, but one of the problem is that a lot of the interesting concepts are no older than the Safavid period -- such as ta'ziyeh plays, zurkhanehs, the Heydari-Ne'mati rivalry in some cities -- and probably inappropriate for CK3 times. Carpetmaking, though, is a bit of an exception. While the golden age of classical Persian carpets was under the Safavids, it's possible that some of the developments I mention above had already begun in the 1400s. With that in mind, I see no reason why we can't have royal carpet workshops in CK3, at least in the very late game.
My proposal would probably be to have a "cartoon" innovation (or something along those lines) in the late game, probably culturally or regionally exclusive. This innovation would unlock the ability to build and patronize carpet workshops, which besides being a source of income could also grant prestige. You could then also have impressive carpets as artifacts, or endow religious buildings with a fine carpet (as the Ardabil Shrine Carpet was used) to grant piety.
And, idk, maybe you could use them to hide a dead body or something. Or so I've heard... >_>
Anyway, I think the upcoming Persia flavor pack would be a perfect opportunity to introduce some of these features to the game. It would be a great way to add some flavor to Persian culture (and probably some others as well, especially the Turks) and make it stand out.
Early carpet design and tribal origins
While carpetmaking has a long history in the Iranian world (and the Middle East in general), a lot of today's familiar design elements only date from the end of the Crusader Kings timeline and afterward -- i.e. the Timurids and especially the Safavids. Before then, carpetmaking was largely a tribal activity, and the designs were made up entirely of straight lines. Unfortunately, very few carpet samples from this period have survived, but depictions in miniature paintings can also give us an idea of how they might have looked.
New design elements
Sometime around the 1400s or 1500s, that changed. Carpet designs started incorporating curved lines (done by copying from a pre-drawn sketch called a "cartoon") in new motifs such as arabesques and floral elements, and the concept of a "medallion" in the middle was also introduced. A lot of these elements were directly adapted from book decoration and miniature painting. This basically gave us the archetypical Persian carpet design that we see today. The Ardabil Shrine Carpet is one of the most famous examples of classical Safavid carpet design; you can see how it has these new features to get an idea of what I'm talking about.
From tribe to city
These changes in design were accompanied by a shift in carpetmaking from a mostly tribal, pastoral activity to an urban one. The direct influence from book designs and miniature painting -- which were done in specialized workshops in major cities -- show how there was this coming together of city and tribal artforms. Also during this period, especially under the Safavids, the rulers set up royal carpet workshops in certain cities.
What this could mean for CK3
I've tried to brainstorm ideas for Persian culture in CK3 before, but one of the problem is that a lot of the interesting concepts are no older than the Safavid period -- such as ta'ziyeh plays, zurkhanehs, the Heydari-Ne'mati rivalry in some cities -- and probably inappropriate for CK3 times. Carpetmaking, though, is a bit of an exception. While the golden age of classical Persian carpets was under the Safavids, it's possible that some of the developments I mention above had already begun in the 1400s. With that in mind, I see no reason why we can't have royal carpet workshops in CK3, at least in the very late game.
My proposal would probably be to have a "cartoon" innovation (or something along those lines) in the late game, probably culturally or regionally exclusive. This innovation would unlock the ability to build and patronize carpet workshops, which besides being a source of income could also grant prestige. You could then also have impressive carpets as artifacts, or endow religious buildings with a fine carpet (as the Ardabil Shrine Carpet was used) to grant piety.
And, idk, maybe you could use them to hide a dead body or something. Or so I've heard... >_>
Anyway, I think the upcoming Persia flavor pack would be a perfect opportunity to introduce some of these features to the game. It would be a great way to add some flavor to Persian culture (and probably some others as well, especially the Turks) and make it stand out.
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