Arthur Upham Pope and his “research methods in Muhammadan art”: Persian carpets

This paper looks at the emergence of Persian carpet scholarship in the early twentieth century, and the formative role played by Arthur Upham Pope, one of the American pioneers of Iranian art studies and collecting. By examining the background to his article published in the Art Bulletin in 1925, the paper considers how Persian carpets were incorporated into Islamic art-historical discourse in the early twentieth century.