Detail: The 27 carpets on view were made at the end of the 18th century by Sephardi merchants in the Uighur textile workshops situated in the oases of Khotan, Yarkand and Kashgar at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert in East Turkestan. Created to suit the taste of the wealthy clientele of the time - the Mughal court in India and the Qing emperors at the Forbidden City - they became known by the name Samarkand in the West. They were conceived as botanical plates with depictions of pomegranate, the beloved fruit and symbol of fertility for the people living along the Silk Road. This motif was the source of inspiration for generations of Sephardi Jews - merchants, travellers and mystics, scholars of botany and astronomy - who created works of art that concealed a symbol of their identity and led them in a journey from Sefarad to the Ottoman Empire and to East Asia. A catalogue accompanies the show, providing an indepth study of the history of this collection.