English: Shadda (detail), Karabagh region, southwest Caucasus, early 19th century. Wool with cotton highlights, supplementary weft weave on plainwoven foundation, 1.65 x 2.83 m (5′ 5″ x 9′ 3″ ). Wincor collection. Of the two shaddas in the exhibition, one had recently been seen at Christie’s, London where it had been the subject of close scrutiny (detail above). This time the piece had received the additional blessing of Eberhart Herrmann, who had included it in 1995 in his Asiatische Teppich- und Textilkunst 5, and had sent the collector an indepth cosmological appreciation of its design. Its remarkable condition is one of the many surprises of this cover, which is a rare addition to this group of iconic flatweaves by virtue of its single-colour ground, sparsely decorated rows of camels and riders, as well as a prominent depiction of the camel riding saddle referred to as asidda in Arabic, a corruption of which allegedly gave us the term shadda. It is interesting that the riders are in this case more prominent than the camel train and that each rider has a hawk, a dog and another quadruped.