The Ma’dan people of Iraq and the Wedding blankets from southern Iraq

The Ma’dan used to live in the marshes in southern Iraq, where the rivers Euphrates and Tigris meet. Among other things, the Ma’dan are known for their elaborately embroidered blankets, known as Izar in Arabic.  

The Museum of Cultural History’s ethnographic collection includes twenty-one embroidered wedding blankets from the Ma’dan community in southern Iraq. The selection of the twenty-one blankets in the museums ethnographic collection was made with reference to the quality and condition of the carpets as well as on variation in colors and designs. The museum purchased the wedding blankets from Reza Maktabi in Fredrikstad, Norway in 2014. Maktabi had purchased his comprehensive collection of Ma’dan embroidered carpets from Iraqi carpet dealers in the 1960s, at a time when he worked as a carpet trader in Beirut, Lebanon.