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This fragment is part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" carpet.
Through the fragment we trace the journey of the fragment owners and their collabs as they explore, experiment and creatively advance socially relevant themes. Here is the fragment as we are sending it on this three and a half-year journey.
Follow this story to observe the transformations the fragment undergoes over the course of these years...
The journey begins...
...with Natalie 'Tasha' Farouq Allaidin Arsalan
A Thread Across Continents
There is something quietly remarkable about the moment fragment #55 arrived at my door in Berlin — a piece of a Caucasian dragon carpet, woven from the same region my father's family once called home. The coincidence felt almost cinematic: a woman of German–Chechen–Jordanian roots receiving fragment #55 from the Caucasus. My cat Belle claimed it first. She seemed to know its worth.
My connection to this fragment runs deep. In 2025, I spent three months in Jordan — the first extended visit in 55 years — living alongside my father's family in Zarqa, one of the main hubs of Chechen–Jordanian life. It was there that I encountered a community of extraordinary women: a dance teacher at the Chechen Charitable Society for Women, Jordan's first female ambassador of Chechen origin, and a grassroots organizer running a charity for Chechen families. Their stories stayed with me.
A Family Road That Became a Film
My parents' honeymoon in 1966 was no ordinary trip. They drove a white Volkswagen Beetle from Cologne all the way to Zarqa — a journey across borders, cultures, and time that still echoes in our family. That road, and the routes that carried Chechen families from the Caucasus to the Levant decades before, are the invisible threads I want to weave into a film.
Fragment #55 is a documentary in development. It will tell the story of Chechen–Jordanian women whose ancestors fled Tsarist persecution in the early 20th century and were resettled by the Ottoman Empire along the historic Constantinople–Mecca railway. Many settled in Al-Sukhna, near Az-Zarqa — including my father's family, who came as part of 73 families building a new life in a new land.
The film will follow three interwoven threads: how women pioneered the founding of this community; how successive generations have navigated identity across borders; and how living culture — sewing, carpentry, music, dance, storytelling — keeps a language and its values alive, even far from the Caucasus.
An Outsider's Curiosity, an Insider's Heart
I grew up in Germany with a German mother. I came to this community with an outsider's eyes — curious, attentive, moved. But the warmth, hospitality, and resilience I found there pulled me inward. Fragment #55 — the documentary, and the carpet piece — is my way of holding on to what I witnessed: a community that has preserved something rare, something irreplaceable, while embracing the world around it.
Get involved!
Offer archive photos, recordings or contacts, or follow me on Instagram: @fragment55_docfilm
Front and Back
About the Project
The Museum for Islamic Art's project, #CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the future, celebrates the transformative power of cultural exchange and the shared threads that unite us all. All the things we love, have loved and will ever love come from cultural exchange, migration and diversity, or as we like to call it #CulturalxCollabs.
100 carpet fragments, cut from a replica of the iconic dragon carpet, will travel the world (delivered by DHL). The fragments will ignite #CulturalxCollabs with co-creators, inspiring human ingenuity, fostering community and ultimately demonstrating how cultural exchange enriches all our lives.
Follow #CulturalxCollabs on Instagram as the project unfolds...
...or learn more here
Weaving the Future
Join us on a journey with 100 carpet fragments as they travel around the world for three and a half years, finding temporary homes while bridging cultural boundaries, fostering worldwide community united by the power of human stories.
Fragment Journeys
100 carpet fragments part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project. Follow their journeys through the ever changing owners' over three and a half years.
Where is the Dragon?
The star of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project is a so-called Caucasian dragon carpet from the 17th century. A dragon carpet - all well and good - but: where is the dragon?
