It was the Muslims of North Africa who brought the craft of rug weaving to Spain, where it became an important industry in the twelfth century. This rug is one of the most distinctive early Spanish types: long narrow carpets with coats of arms woven into the design. It belongs to the famous group known as the admiral" carpets because they bear the arms of Don Fadrique Enríquez de Mendoza (c. 1390-1473), twenty-sixth admiral of Castille. The Enríquez family donated this and other "admiral" rugs to the convent of Santa Clara in Palencia, which had been founded by Don Fadrique's father and was to be the burial place of the admirals of Castille. In this well preserved carpet the shields with the Enríquez arms stand out clearly against the shimmering patterned background. The top and bottom borders show illegible Arabic script in the angular Kufic style. Delightful secondary elements are provided by the unexplained designs in the long side borders that include birds, bears, wildmen combating animals, and women wearing enormously wide skirts. Dean Walker, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 117.