Ottoman Cairene Medallion Carpet, Berlin Museum, burnt during WW II

Kurt Erdmann's Fig. 165. Inv. Nr. 1 10. Ottoman carpet (290 x 217 cm.), Cairo about 1540-5. Acquired 1905 as a gift from von Dirksen. Carpets of this sort, of course, are preserved in great numbers, but the Berlin piece was the most beautiful. Mamluk details of design which have persisted in the central medallion prove that it belonged to the earliest examples of this group, which about 1540 replaced the Mamluk carpets made in Cairo up to that time.