National Carpet and Textiles Museum

The National Carpet and Textiles Museum displays various carpets and textiles of various historical and modern weaving techniques, and materials from various periods. It has the largest collection of Abayadi carpets in the world, and catalogues the industry that once dominated a huge sector of the nation’s economy and trade.

The museum was established in 1557 AC after the city of Zil-Haryun announced its plan to partner with local textile manufacturers and fund the creation of a museum to document and exhibit the city’s rich history as a center of the textile trade. From 1557 to 1583, the museum was run wholly by the state, with admission free to any wishing to enter. After 1583, the museum began charging a small fee for entry, exempting pensioners, children, and students. In 1604, proprietorship of the museum was turned over to a government run for-profit corporation, which runs the facility today.

History
The museum was established in 1557, originally called the State Museum of Carpet and Applied Textile Arts and initially located in an old coffee house that had been used by traders to conduct business since the 10th century. Its first exhibition was held in 1562. In 1572, it was announced that the museum’s contents would be moved to a new, purpose-built venue. By 1579, the new building was finished, opened in a ceremony attended by then-Chancellor Zaid Yosef, who declared the carpets and textiles within, “a masterpiece of Abayadi heritage and culture.” It was also at this time that the museum shortened its name to its current title.

At the time of its first being established in 1557, it was the only museum in Abayad dedicated to the art of carpet weaving. Its main purpose was to store, research, and demonstrate unique examples of the art of carpet weaving, a trade intrinsically tied to Abayad’s cultural heritage. One of the heads of the process to establish the museum was Leen Kasweh, a doctor of agricultural chemistry who came from a long line of carpet weavers, and herself took up the art to help preserve it. She founded the Abayadi Carpet Art Association and published two books on the history and techniques of carpet weaving, and spent much of her free time working either as an artist or teacher.

The museum’s first permanent exhibition was presented in 1562, in the Old Mahar Coffee House that originally housed the institution. Chancellor Rayan Tayeh praised the efforts to preserve Abayad’s cultural heritage, although he did not attend the opening after being invited. However, Kasweh’s persistent campaigning for the museum allowed it to raise a great deal of funds to supplement state funding, allowing the museum to purchase crafts as well as pieces of antique Abayadi carpets to bolster its collection.

In 1572, the municipal government of Zil-Haryun announced that the museum’s popularity and increasing number of exhibits necessitated its relocation from the historical Old Mahar Coffee House, which had begun to experience wear and tear from the number of visitors. A new building tailor-made to exhibit the museum’s growing list of exhibits would be built, to serve as the pride of the city’s cultural heritage and encourage tourism to the city. Construction lasted from 1572 until 1579, under the direction of the Abayadi architect Hazmah Besan.

Legacy
Throughout its more than fifty years, the museum has been led by several directors. From 1557 to 1575, it was led by Leen Kasweh, the woman who had been the defining force in the museum’s creation. After her, Professor Roya Sadeen from the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Abayad took over the position, serving as director from 1575 to 1606. Since 1606, the museum has been headed by Ayham Fayez, who has chaired several private art foundations, published 10 books and 40 journal articles on Abayadi artists, and received his Master’s Degree from the Abayadi State Academy of the Arts in 1589.

The National Carpet and Textiles Museum has become a center for research, training, and cultural education center where many events, such as exhibitions, international symposiums, and conferences are held. In its more than fifty years of existence, the museum has organized more than thirty exhibitions in different nations throughout the world. In 1573, on the initiate of then-Director Leen Kasweh and organizational support from international cultural institutions, the International Symposium of Art and Textiles was held in the museum. Later, international symposiums such as the Abayadi Carpet Weaving Art Symposium (1578) and the Abayadi Carpet, Textiles, and Applied Arts Symposium (1593) were held within the museum. Additionally, in 1597, a symposium dedicated to Leen Kasweh’s centenary was held at the museum, displaying some of her work along the pieces she worked so hard to preserve.

The museum cooperates closely with influential international organizations in the fields of textiles and cultural heritage alike from Aurora, Tarsis, and Dihara alike. Today, the National Carpet and Textiles Museum not only stores a rich collection of artifacts and carpets, but also operates as the site for the most comprehensive research and teaching of the art of traditional weaving within Abayad. Classes are kept at as low cost as possible, to keep the art as accessible as possible to Abayadis.

Collection
The museum’s collection includes over 10,000 items of ceramics and metalworks of the 10th century; jewelry from the Abayadi Classical Era; carpets, textiles, and tools from the 12th-17th centuries, national garments and embroidery, and applied art works from the modern day. The museum organizes public lectures and study courses on carpets and other applied arts, such as ceramics. It has a bookstore that includes numerous instructional books on Abayadi crafts and carpet art. The museum also holds a permanent collection from the Alkhadim Museum of History, from the island of Alkhadim, containing artifacts looted by various waves of Abayadis over the region’s history. These artifacts, such as pottery and various trinkets, are currently displayed in an exhibition titled “Burned Culture.”