I think this is one of the rarest rugs in the world. Why? The inscription in old Armenian has elements of CAUCASIAN ALBANIAN, an alphabet that resembled Armenian but disappeared in the 12th century.

It’s existence completely debunks the belief that Armenians didn’t weave or use Shirvan prayer rugs. Actually they wove many. I own three. The inscription is in an old Armenian script that possesses unusual ligatures based on pre-modern handwriting that resembles CAUCASIAN ALBANIAN, an alphabet which disappeared in the 12th century.

Mesrob Mashtots, an Armenian priest created the Armenian alphabet in 405 AD and later created both the Georgian and Caucasian alphabets.

The Armenian inscription was confirmed by both Thomas Wier, Linguist, Caucasologist and Assistant Professor at Free University of Tbilisi and Arsen Harutyunyan, Epigraphist at the Madenataran, the world's largest repository of Armenian Illuminated manuscripts. Arsen was able to translate the text that reads “Deren, servant of God, asks to be remembered”. 133 cm x 96 cm