Woolen carpet with millefleurs decoration

Pashmina, a very fine fiber made from the fleece of Himalayan goats, was a material highly valued at the Mughal courts. Luxury rugs functioned in several ways, including as insulators for palatial and ceremonial spaces and as framing devices for important figures. In a biography of the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605), called the <em>Ain-i-Akbari</em>, the court historian Abu’l Fazl (1551–1602) poetically wrote that such textiles created “a beautiful flowerbed.” The description is apt, as this carpet features an impressively symmetrical floral design known as <em>millefleurs</em>, or “thousand flowers” in French. Viewing several of these carpets and other hangings at once would have been visually impressive for court attendees.