Story

This is a unique & brilliant Ottoman-era religious carpet woven by the native Greek community of Cappadocia in Asia Minor in 1910, the descendants of the ancient Hellenic & Byzantine peoples who had lived there for over 4,000 years.

The field is dominated by the double-headed eagle bearing two swords ⚔️ in its talons, the famous emblem of the Byzantine emperors and, subsequently, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. It represented the Emperor’s dual suzerainty over the temporal and spiritual worlds or, alternatively, the eastern and western spheres of Christianity. In short, power. The eagle 🦅 is topped by an ecumenical crown 👑 with cross, representing the emperor (and after 1453, the GO Patriarch) as Christ’s vicar on earth.

The roundel bears a Greek inscription which reads 𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙮 𝘾𝙝𝙪𝙧𝙘𝙝 𝙊𝙛 𝘼𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞. The top end of the rug has a further inscription ΤΑ ΠΑΝΤΑ ΚΑΙ ΕΝ ΠΑΣΙ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ: Everywhere and in everything lives Christ. Further writings appear in the lower part.

The golden saffron field is very eye catching and reflects medieval Byzantine imperial and ecclesiastical banners, which you may still see today outside churches in Greece and elsewhere in the Green Orthodox & Greek Catholic world. The rug has melodious purple and sweet green tones which do not show so well in these hurried photos I took indoors (rain etc). The flower garland above the crown and the blossoming vines above that are delightful.