May 11, 2004

Carpets from the Islamic world. A splendid exhibition, with lots of historical information. (Via Plep.)
posted by languagehat 20 years ago
  • This is very good, but now that I'm inside your carpet thread, languagehat, shouldn't you be offering me some mint tea?
  • mmmm....gorgeous! splendid! quid, I think we should be making some nice mint tea for the 'hat.
  • Languagehat, your post makes me want to go back overseas. I love Idaho, but Turkey was fantastic. Yes, Carpet shops and chi in little glasses with a ton of sugar, brought by a 10-year-old boy on a silver serving tray. ICK! I'd almost rather have had "lion's milk" (raki with water) except for it makes you much more susceptible to the sales pitch. Can't tell you how many times I drank tea strong enough to give an elephant spasms while looking at carpets. I finally learned enough Turkish to ask for hot water so I could thin it out, and I didn't CARE if they snickered at me. You either love to visit carpet shops and look (me) or you hate it (other half.) Turkish tea ruined my kidneys! Ah, but it was soooo worth it. I bought an extremely high quality kilim, a kilim runner, and a decorative ceremonial horse blanket that I use as a carpet near my bed. I love the functional kilims almost more so than the lush carpets, but I wish I'd have bought more of everything when I had the opportunity, including one of the silk carpets --something I'd never in a million years be able to afford in the States. *sigh All the Turkish carpets are even more beautiful and intricate than the pictures can ever begin to show. You can drool over designs here and find an absolute Turkish ransom of information at this site.
  • ah, my family has one of those. you can stare at them for hours when you're eight years old. unfortunately, it has begun to wear out after 20 years... it now hangs on a wall.
  • Beautiful stuff. Thanks!
  • Man, I bet one of those could really tie a room together.
  • I forgot to say [this is good].
  • Thank you languagehat - this is simply wonderful.
  • Oy loike it too, but you'll never catch me saying it. Not while I'm too busy looking at the carpets... Hey, why don't you post something w/r/t DFW? I hear he wrote something about Grammar Snoots...
  • Intricate threads, designed to be informative -- thanks, languagehat!
  • I want a carpet like this, but I have no money : ( (Actually, I've been end of school year dumpster diving looking for good stuff undergrad throw out - but every single one has beige carpets. What's with beige? It's so useless. No offense meant to beige people - I am beige myself. I just wouldn't want a carpet the same colour as me on the floor.)