Egypt & Near East
Solar Barque of Ra
Solar Barque of Ra
Crossing the sky by day and the underworld by night, it makes the sun rise again.
MountFirst recorded c. 2400 BCE
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Photograph: The Seley Carpet from late sixteenth-century Iran, a long carpet with a round medallion at the center of a red ground, surrounded by flowers and vines.
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1,314 × 3,000 PX1314×3000
ArchiveEgypt & Near East · Mount
Flying Carpet
Flying Carpet
Sit on it, think of a place, and it takes you there in an instant.
- Owner
- Prince Husain
- Maker
- Unknown
- First record
- Galland, French Thousand and One Nights1717
- Gallery
- Egypt & Near East
Notes on the photograph 3
Story
An Indian sultan had three sons, all of whom wished to marry their cousin. The sultan declared he would give her to whichever son brought back the most marvelous thing after a year of traveling the world.
The eldest, Husain, bought in the market of Bisnagar a carpet that carried whoever sat on it to any place they imagined in an instant. The second obtained an ivory spyglass showing faraway things, and the youngest, Ahmed, an apple that cured any disease.
Seeing through the glass that their cousin was dying, the brothers flew home on the carpet and saved her with the apple. Antoine Galland heard this story from the Syrian Hanna Diyab early in the eighteenth century and put it in his French Thousand and One Nights.
The object in the photo
The photograph shows The Seley Carpet(Iran, late 16th century), a real museum object that evokes the legendary artifact.
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