Figures in the Carpet presents a stellar roster of first-rate historians dealing seriously with a perennially important subject. The case studies and more theoretical accounts in this book amount to an unusually perceptive assessment of how "the person' has been viewed in American history.

Five British children discover in their new carpet an egg, which hatches into a phoenix that takes them on a series of fantastic adventures around the world.

Tomie dePaola matches his storytelling talent with the richly patterned artwork of Claire Ewart to provide a tale that brings magnificent detail and feeling to this Middle Eastern fable of loss overcome by art. Full color.

Afghanistan, 1977. Kanishka Nurzada, the son of a leading carpet seller, falls in love with his friend Maihan, with whom he shares his first kiss at the age of sixteen. Their romance must be kept secret in a nation where the death penalty is meted out to those deemed to be kuni, a derogatory term for gay men. And when war comes to Afghanistan, it brings even greater challenges-and danger-for the two lovers. From the cultural melting pot of Kabul to the horrors of an internment camp in Pakistan, Kanishka's arduous journey finally takes him to the USA in the desperate search for a place to call home-and the fervent hope of reuniting with his beloved Maihan. But destiny seems to have different plans in store for him. Intimate and powerful, The Carpet Weaver is a sweeping tale of a young gay man's struggle to come of age and find love in the face of brutal persecution.

Between 1400 and 1500 a design revolution in Persia swept away a 2000-year-old tradition of carpet design, replacing abstract geometric patterns with complex floral scrolls dominated by a central medallion derived from the Chinese cloud-collar shape. This revolution represents a major event in world art history, comparable to that which occurred at the same time in Renaissance Italy. It was followed over the next four centuries by a second revolution, during which the principal design elements of the first permeated carpet production at every level throughout Persia and continue to dominate it to this day. AUTHOR: Jim Ford worked for many years for the world-famous international oriental carpet import/export company OCM. In his career he followed in the illustrious footsteps of A. Cecil Edwards (author of The Persian Carpet, Duckworth 1953), as the company's rug-buying agent in Iran, before setting up his own business after the Iranian Revolution with his wife Barbara Lindsay Ford, designing and producing their own contemporary carpets in Nepal. He is the author of one of the best-selling oriental rug books of all time, Oriental Carpet Design: A Guide to Traditional Motifs, Patterns and Symbols, which has been subsequently reprinted on both sides of the Atlantic and translated into German and other languages. SELLING POINT: * Miniature paintings unlock the door to a thorough re-examination of the ubiquitous 'classical' medallion design in Persian carpets, revealing an artistic revolution comparable to that which occurred at the same time in Renaissance Italy 380 colour and 20 b/w photographs