Khorasan. We find them spreading the mediaeval fame
of Shiraz, Tun, Meshed, Amul, Bukhara and Merv. The secret of this
preeminence lay partly in the weaver's inherited aptitude and artistic
sense for this textile work, derived from countless generations of
shepherd ancestors; partly in their proximity to the finest raw
materials, whose quality was equalled nowhere else, because it depended
upon the character of the pasturage, probably also upon the climatic
conditions affecting directly the flocks and herds.[1159]

A map showing the geographical distribution of Eastern rug-making
reveals the relation of the industry to semi-arid or saline pastures,
and makes the mind revert at once to the blankets of artistic design and
color, woven by the Navajo Indians of our own rainless Southwest. Rug
weaving in the Old World reached its finest development in countries
like Persia, Turkestan, western Afghanistan, Baluchistan, western India
and the plateau portions of Asia Minor, countries where the rainfall
varies from 10 to 20 inches or even less, [See map page 484.] where
nomadism claims a considerable part of the population, and where the
ancestry of all traces back to some of the great shepherd races, like
Turkomans and Tartars. These peoples are hereditary specialists in the
care, classification, and preparation of wools.[1160] Weavers of rugs
form an industrial class in the cities of Persia and Asia Minor, where
they obey largely the taste of the outside world in regard to design and
color;[1161] whereas the nomads, weaving for their own use, adhere
strictly to native colors and designs. Their patterns are tribal
property, each differing from that of the other; and though less
artistic than those of the urban workers, are nevertheless interesting
and consistent, while the nomad's intuitive sense of color is fine.[1162]

[Sidenote: Architecture of nomad conquerors.]

The principles of design and color which these tent-dwellers had
developed in their weaving, they applied, after their conquest of
agricultural lands, to stone and produced the mosaic, to architecture
and produced the Alhambra and the Taj Mahal.[1163] Whether Saracens of
Spain or Turkoman conquerors of India, they were ornamentists whose
contribution to architecture was decoration. Working in marble, stone,
metals or wood, they wrought always in the spirit of color and textile
design, rather than in the spirit of form. The walls of their mosques,
palaces and tom