Page 66 - Azərbaycan xalçaları

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Nadir shah’s (1688-1774) portrait appears along the light brown middle field.
Nadir shah’s portrait is depicted on a background, among the trees in the garden of paradise.
The main image includes blossoms and singing birds connected with the arrival of spring. The trees depicted on the car-
pet are images derived from Tabriz miniatures.
On the left side of the middle field, there is a view of Nadir shah’s throne. Nadir shah holds the throne with his right hand
and in his left hand he holds a sword decorated with jewels and made in the Eastern style. On the hem of his garments,
there are elements known as “kusulu buta” (ruptured buta).
Nadir shah’s thick beard, frowning brow, and pithy look are clearly recognizable. His tasseled crown is ornamented
with jewels and “buta” motifs. The general view of his garments resembles the style of Ghizilbashlar popularized by Shah
Ismail Khatai. On the top left and right, two men’s portraits are depicted. On the main dark red background border there
are twelve elongated ketebes. The backgrounds of the ketebes are the same as the backgrounds of the middle field, which
makes the general view more spectacular. On the ketebes are given some excerpts of poems devoted to Nadir shah in “sul”
and “sunbulu” handwriting. These excerpts in Persian are taken from the “medhiye-qeside” (poem of praise) devoted to
Nadir shah. In general, in addition to the works of art devoted to Nadir shah, the historical works reflecting his reign were
also full of these kind of poems written in prose.
The ode is written in the bottom of the main border strating clockwise form the left. The interlinear translation of the poem
is as it follows:
Above the shah’s heads
is written in Arabic
“Nadir shah.”
In the lower main
border the ketebe on the
left reads: “As if destiny’s
eyes are still surprised.”
“Turned the enemies’ days
into dark nights.”
On the left border, the
lower ketebe reads:
“If there had not been
rescue from fate’s
sword.”
“The things that his
sharp sword did.”
“You will have to separate
the enemy’s head from his
body.”
“With God’s hands, that
is, with Imam Ali’s two
-headed sword.”
On the top of the main
border, the ketebe on the
left read:
“The painter of fate
made life’s drawings on
a curtain of time.”
“Inside those pictures
there are thousands of
meanings.”