** KIRMAN, Meshehir, signé Muhammad Ibn Ja’far, circa 1900

Wool and cotton carpet decorated with famous historical figures in several registers, surmounted by a Greek temple whose pediment bears the Persian inscription "bar qarar bad zendegani konandegan-e 'alam payandeh bad mashahir-e bozorgan-e 'alam" (May those who gave light to the world live, may they always remain the great of this world). Among the figures represented, identified in the cartouches on the border to which the numbers refer, are Jesus, Moses, Solomon, Romulus, Confucius, Pericles, Cyrus, Socrates, Alexander the Great, Trajan, Constantine, Mohammed, Charlemagne, Saladin, Genghis Khan, Christopher Columbus, Tamerlan, Francis I, Julius II, Henry IV, Cromwell, Louis XIV, Frederick II, George Washington and Napoleon. 300 x 220 cm Signed in a cartouche lower center "amala (work of) Muhammad ibn Ja'far". Wear, stains Provenance : Gerard B. Lambert, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, since 1945 Related works : For carpets with similar decoration following the same cardboard, confer Christie's, London, October 7, 2010, lot 70, October 14, 2004, lot 73 and Sotheby's, November 7, 2017, lot 14. ** This lot is presented as a temporary import