Persian "Mizrahi" carpet with paintings of holy places – after Shaul Hornstein from Vienna, early 20th ...

Persian "Mizrahi" carpet with paintings of holy places – after Shaul Hornstein from Vienna, early 20th century

"Mizrahi" carpet made by Eliyahu Chaim Levi. Kashan (Persia), (early 20th century).

Carpet after "Mizrahi" by Rabbi Shaul ben Pinchas Hornstein, printed in color lithography in Vienna in 1888 (Em. Joachim printing house). Rabbi Shaul Hornstein - author of the book "Givaat Shaul" (Vienna 1883), which deals with the geography and history of the cities of the Land of Israel and its holy sites from the time of the Bible to his own day.

The lower part of the carpet contains the inscription: "I listened and researched, I labored and I preached, I copied with an iron pen on a stone tablet here and in Vienna I am the late Rabbi Pinchas, the late Harenstein, to detail, may you have mercy on Zion for the sake of the people: the work of Eliyahu Chaim Levi, " which combines the text of the "Mizrahi" from 1889 (1889 Zion for the sake of the people) and the signature of the carpet maker, who copied the printed text word for word. The creator of the ancient carpet also included the inscription at the top of the "Mizrahi", indicating the number of years since the construction of the First Temple and its destruction (2,000 and 111 years since its destruction = the year 1889).

The carpet, woven with brightly colored threads, includes graphic descriptions of a variety of sites, tombs and cities in the Land of Israel: at the top are paintings of the tombs of the kings of the House of David and the tomb of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes; in the center is a large painting of the Western Wall and the houses of the city of Jerusalem, below it are paintings of sites on the Mediterranean coast ("the Great Sea"): "This is the holy city of Jaffa", (the tomb of) "Elisha the prophet (on) Mount Carmel", "The holy city of Haifa" and "This is the holy city of Sidon"; on the right-hand margins appear paintings of the tomb of Joseph the Tzadik, the Cave of the Patriarchs, the Tomb of Rachel, the Tomb of Shammai the Elder and the tomb site of the Maimonides and the Shelah; on the left-hand margins are the tomb of "Rabbi Yochanan" (the shoemaker), the tomb of the prophet Hosea, Tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, Tomb of Samuel the Prophet and the site of "Chami Tiberias".

The carpet does not appear in the book Jewish Carpets – A History and Guide, by Anton Felton (published by Antique Collectors' Club, England, 1977).

92.5X116 cm. Good condition. The edges are not original. Slight defect in the center, defects and minor tears in the edges