 (Book VI, p. 401)

A carpet "with the pattern on both sides" could either be a flat-woven, or pile-woven carpet.Whether "purple" refers to the colour of the fabric or to the dyestuff (either Tyrian purple or madder red could have been used) remains unknown.The town of Sardis lies in Western Anatolia, thus, this may be the earliest reference to carpet production in the region of Asia minor.