The main aim of this blog is to share the passion for carpet weaving arts around the world. The articles published in this blog have a very generic character with no claims to academic authority.
Their artistry continues to fascinate collectors around the world. Their sense of colour, their intricate and dynamic designs in addition to unparalleled skills make the Shahsavans of the northern plateaus of Iran a league on their own. Here is a rare view into their life and home
A rare insight into the life of the Sahara Berbers …
(Article’s author’s original translation)
Digital article submitted to the VIII International Conference of the Spanish Society for Iranian Studies. University of Tehran, 4-5 November 2018
Safavid Woven Dreams: carpet workshops achievements
ARMEN TOKATLIAN Art Historian, Paris
During the Safavid period the royal houses, boyūtāt-e saltanatī, supply the court with all kinds of required items including fabrics and weavings, under the supervision of an appointed superintendent, nāzer-e boyūtat. During Shah Abbas I reign those workshops were further structured.
Artisans employed in those royal workshops were organized more like a working force rather than a structured guild, asnāf, they had higher skills and qualification than the self-employed and therefore enjoyed a better social status. In so doing the crown escape from dependence on individual craftsmen and also makes profits.
Amongst those craftsmen the brocade weavers, zarbāfān, earned better incomes than others, but all of them were designated as darbasta, meaning “solely tied “, because they worked for the court and seldom privately for their own profit, as the 17th century French Huguenot jeweler and traveler Chardin accounted 1 . Sometimes the external to the court workshops tawhīl-e asnāf and the state ones, dīvān-i mamālik, were solicited to manufacture carpets and textiles.
According again to Chardin those latter were weaved with raw materials provided by the crown, and wages were not paid, instead were given free rent lands to weavers, occasionally the state supervisor of guilds, malek al-tojjār played this role on behalf of the crown. From which royal workshop Safavid carpets originate is an open question.
Several Persian as well as European sources designate the districts of Tabriz, Isfahan, Kashan, Kerman, Jowshaqan, Qazvin and Yazd as principals for carpet and textiles manufacture.
In the few instances in which a carpet bears the weaver attributive name, nesbāh, such as Kāshānī , Yazdī, Kermānī or Jōshaqānī, except this in itself doesn’t indicate the place where it was made.
In the absence of reliable period registers of craftsmen including weavers in Iran, glances at historiography works and dynastic chronicles will provide some hints.
At least three textile weavers in the Ottoman court’s ehl-hiref defter 2 are mentioned amongst the craftsmen brought back forcibly to Istanbul by Sultan Selim I after his brief seizure of Tabriz in September 1514.
The Venetian traveler Michele Membré who sojourns between 1539 and 1542 at Shah Tahmasp’s court in Tabriz mentions that brocades, silk hangings and carpets are displayed at the royal palaces and military campaign tents 3 .
While in a letter from Mahin Banu, one of Shah Tahmasp sisters, in 1561, to Hurrem Sultana, wife of Sultan Soleyman, she asks to provide the suitable sizes for the carpets Shah Tahmasp planned to include as presents to Ottoman court 4 .
Anthony Jenkinson, the English Muscovy Company’s commercial agent, reported to London in 1569 that while in Qazvin he could not get any luxury commodities made there , because Shah Tahmasp would buy all such commodities; except cloths and fabrics which were neglected to purchase by this king 5 .
The Portuguese traveler Pedro Teixeira mentions at the end of 16th century that the finest carpets were from Yazd 6 ; a city where the inhabitants were engaged principally in producing silk and all kind of its derivates.
In 1604 a plea letter by Mirza Mohammad Hassan, the vizier of Yazd, was addressed to Shah Abbas for benevolence towards town’s silk weavers.
Sefer Muratowicz, an Armenian merchant and supplier of the polish king Sigismund III arrives in 1601 at the court of Shah Abbas , who presented him with a friendship declaration addressed to the Polish monarch.
Muratowicz who speaks Persian fluently acquired amongst other items carpets and silk tapestries, kelim, ordered in Kashan, which he brings back in 1602 to Poland 7 .
The Spaniard priest Florencio del Niño mentioned that in Qazvin there was numerous silk carpets in the early 17th century 8 .
In 1602 the royal workshops as well as the atelier-library, ketābkhāna, were removed from Qazvin to Isfahan, the new capital of the kingdom, maqarr-e dawlat, since 1597, counting between 30 and 50 departments, including gold lace makers, gulābatundūzān, weavers, nassājān,9 brocade weaver zarbāfān, and less considered the dyers sabbāghān.
Curiously we don’t found 17th century records with specific mention of carpets weavers, qālī-bāf, names in registers, except in a few Armenian’s tombstones in Isfahan, this profession is engraved as being the deceased 10 .
Paul Simon who visited in 1608 Kashan, describes it as a city where carpets made on looms owned by the crown were numerous 11. It is also attested by other authors that the inhabitants of the villages surrounding Kashan and small towns along the caravan route between Yazd and Mashhad were similarly engaged in the making of carpets and textiles, especially of expensive fabrics such as brocade and cut velvets.
Carpet making as well as raw silk production are recorded by East India Company agents in 1616 as the main activity in Yazd region. Jowshaqan produced a bulk of carpets for the court of Shah Abbas and was among the towns mentioned by Abu-l Fazl Allami in the Ākbarnāma 12.
Sending carpets to Mughal India was for a time more reliable and profitable for Persians than exports to Europe.
After the death in 1629 of Shah Abbas, several changes took place in the royal workshops, having repercussions in woven patterns and their quality. The sought-after single large motif fashion makes room to a variegated patterns schema.
During Shah Soleyman’s reign (1666-1694) the dyes and silk factories were closed and thereafter under new arrangements the Isfahan court was externally provided with wool and dyed silk yarns.
Another material concealed with accurate and specific description of crafts, artist and artisans including textile and carpet is the guild literature corpus named shahr āshāb, literally “town boys”, it was coined by poet Hafez (d. 1387) who in this way portrayed beautiful young or young singers whose presence mesmerized villagers.
A sample of verse in those poems reads: “My heart is captive to the brocade weaver, in whose hand every thread is a noose. Like a pièce of brocade, I made his shop my abode, and since that time my kilt of course being filled with roses”.13
This poetry and prose material refers specifically to gilds and craftsmanship practiced in Iran. Sayfi Bukhari (d. 1541) was one of the earliest to indulge on this particular literature. Also the renowned Safavid textile weaver Giyath al-Din Ali-ye Naqshbandi Shirazi (d.1595), who was the leader, muqqadam, of the royal looms in Yazd, wrote this kind of poetry too, with detailing circumstances of the life and technicalities of weavers.
All those developments treated with caution doesn’t prevent from the fact that there is no extant carpets known to have been commissioned specifically for the Safavid court, except the multiple niche carpet, sāf, offered by Shah Abbas to the Najaf sanctuary, during his pilgrimage, zīarāt there in 1623, bearing the motto: “Endowed by the dog of the threshold, Abbas” 14.
Various Safavid sovereigns employed this same allusive variable motto except in this unusual case is nominal. On a mausoleum veil housed at the treasury of Imam Reza at Mashhad is written it was endowed in 1699 by Shah Soleyman 15. While a multiple niche flat-woven zīlū 16 was donated in 1556 by Khanesh Begom, a half-sister of Shah Tahmasp, to Shāh Valī Neʿmatollah dervishes’ residence, khānaqā, in Taft mosque compound and now housed at the Carpet Museum of Iran (n° 976).
The Palace of the Dukes of Bragança stores a medallion carpet (n°PD76) with a woven poem mentioning Soleyman twice, an allusion to the biblical king Salomon and nor referring to a Safavid king
The word pādishā or sovereign written in a circa 1600 silk kelim from a pair, kept in Berlin Museum für Islamische Kunst (n°12577) is too all-embracing to be attached to a particular king.
The expanded praise of Safavid sovereigns to invoke allegiance to their faith by means of pilgrimage, zīarāt, and charitable endowments, āwaqf, to Shia holy shrines atabāt-e ‘alīyāt, including carpets and textiles entertained a power issue17, magnified by ambassadorial gifts to European and the Islamic world sovereigns.
Shah Tahmasp offered carpets to Prince Bayazid, the fugitive son of Sultan Soleyman 18, whilst Shah Abbas endowed āwqaf, carpets to Imam Reza shrine and to Ardebil threshold in the same year of 1608 while the Najaf sanctuary endowment took place in 162319 .
Whereas in ottoman sources Safavid ambassadorial gifts implying carpets are recorded during the reception, in 1567, by Sultan Selim II of the Safavid ambassador, Shah Quli khan, depicted in Nūzhet al-Akhbār des sefer-i Sigetvar by Ahmed Feridun Pasha20 and also in Shānname-i Selim Khān by Seyyid Lokman 21 .
The latter also described Toqmaq Khan embassy arrival in 1574 after the ascension of Sultan Murad III in his works Züb-detu’tevārīkh and Shāh-inshāh nāma22 as well as Ibrahim Khan embassy on the occasion of circumcision ceremony of prince Mehmet in another copy of Shāh-en Shāhnāma 23.
Not forgetting the Kitāb-i Ganjina-i Fath-i Ganja by Ibrahim Çavush coverage of Safavid peace delegation headed by Mehdi Quli Khan and Prince Haydar Mirza sent in 1590 as hostage for peace by Shah Abbas 24.
Depictions of those diplomatic receptions showing pageants carrying what seem to be carpets are illustrated in some of those above manuscripts.
It worth to be mentioned the early interest in carpets by Europeans, as witnessed by several Persian valuable carpets recorded in European inventories, for example in 1549 and 1553 with Cosimo I of Florence or in 1557 with Queen Catherina of Portugal, those carpets were either purchased or obtained as diplomatic presents.
The chronology of all those different carpets remains speculative due to the scarcity of carpets including dates; only five are recorded bearing the dates of 1523, 1529 1540 twice and 1671.
Another datable carpet is the so called “Coronation carpet” housed at Rosenborg Castle in Denmark (inv.31 rulle 1).
This Isfahan silk with brocaded silver threads carpet comes from a Dutch ship previously laden in Iran and after a failed British piracy attempt at the port of Bergen in 1665, where the ship was forced to seek shelter, during the Anglo-Dutch war, was later given as a token of gratitude to Queen Sophia Amalie in 1666 by the Dutch East India Company.
The current trend of those carpets in the wider background of fine arts under the Safavids was sustained by resourceful iconic spectrum. In practice designers, naqshekhvān, to weaving a carpet are crucial and paramount, judging by the created critical mass of sophisticated patterns.
Probably the artists at the royal ketābkhāna producing patterned bindings, sahhāfī, were entwined with carpet design models, naqshah, except behind each carpet we find a master weaver ostād, acting on its own.
Most of those Safavid carpets were woven, with an outstanding quality of materials and dyes, displaying complex compositions with combined sophisticate patterns and since the Safavid period onwards emerge a prominent presence of inscriptions on textiles and carpets with Persian poetry, quranic excerpt or Shia eulogy.
A noticeable carpets group of epigraphic significance is the niche prayer rugs with arch-shape compositions 25. The inscriptions on those carpets implement Shia eulogy and selected Quran verses sometimes identical to mosque’s mehrāb, as come into view at congregational mosque in Yazd, Goharshad mosque in Herat or the Masjid-i Jāme in Isfahan.
A fine example due to his archetypal Shia epigraphy is the prayer niche carpet with overall akin nasta ‘liq script (ill.1). Once beyond the embedded visual impact, the reading of those inscriptions conveys toward ruling dynasty creed devotion, witnessed by the inscriptions inside the spandrel with the nād-i Alī-ye saghīr or call upon Ali, in the outer border with the chahārdah ma’ sūm or fourteen immaculate, and in top left corner of the main border with “Face the judge who supplies all needs”.
This latter is usually seen in metallic strap work banner’s crests in Shiite rituals. The main border is filled with a ğazāl poem of Hafez alluring infatuation toward mehrāb and qibla that goes along with a quatrain sited vertically in the niche sides within cusped cartouches, calling for God’s grace grant and Prophet Mohammad intercede.
At the end of the outer border is written “the work of Qutb [al-D]in Kermani”, while the inscriptions within the roundel at the top of the niche and vertical cartouche reads “Glory to my most high Lord and to his praise”.
Another niche prayer carpet 26 with predominant quranic verses (ill.2) displays a sophisticated garden setting pattern with the following inscriptions in fine vocalized thuluth and nasta liq scripts: in outer border Quran. II, 285-86, in inner border Quran, VII, 204-6, in the main border Quran, II, 255-56 with a pair of squares and pair of rosettes in banāi script reads respectively: “The Prophet, peace be upon him said: Revered the command of Allah and compassion upon the creatures of Allah, Glory and praise to Allah, there is no other God than Allah, and Allah is most Great”.
In the arch casing is written Quran XVII. 78, IV.103 and LXVIII. 51-52, while the cartouche in the niche is inscribed with the takbir call “Allah is most Great, the Greatest” , while the spandrel is made of patched pieces27 within Quran.LIX, 23-24 and theonyms or al-Asma al-Husna 28 .
A distinctive feature of this rug is the presence of an added hand written poem on both ends flat weaved strips, quite illegible.
Conspicuously the ultimately employ of those niche pattern rugs departs from the daily canonical prayers to become a praised and instrumental visual metaphor, embodied through selected epigraphy combined with explicit patterns.
Deeply entrenched in Persian carpets is the garden, bāğ, representation, which has ancient roots. By way of example when the Arabs conquerors entered in Tīsfūn or Ctesiphon,the Sasanian capital, they found a monumental flat weave in the royal palace, bearing a garden pattern with water channels and fauna, made of silk, silver- gold threads and bejeweled, which they cut up and shared among them.
This flat-weave is still referred as Bahār-e Kasrā or The Spring of Khosrow in hagiographical literature such as Khwandamir’s Habīb al-Syar.
Safavid carpets display a wide range of decorative significant elements of Persian art.
Amongst them the most successful one is the shining central lobed medallion, naqsh-e toranj, laid down in a field showing a paradisiacal garden, conceivably a reminiscence of pairidaēza, the Avestan walled garden, containing various flora and fauna, the whole symptomatic of the downhill of universe on earth.
One representative sample of this sumptuous iconography is the epitome carpet reportedly displayed in 1902 at Westminster Abbey during King Edward VII coronation29.
This luxurious large carpet made most likely during the early rule of Shah Tahmasp (ill.3), offer us an excellent standpoint of the high quality of design, color and execution of imperial carpets.
On a creamy field decorated with a fourfold symmetry landscape of cypresses, blossoming trees and shrubs enlivened with animals is sited a bold red ground central lobed medallion filled with ducks and cranes flying amid undulating clouds bands with parī, fairy or nymph, holding flasks in attendance at four corners. The cerulean ground border has a most stately pattern of floral scrolls bearing palmettes and lotus blossoms. The refined shapes with shining colors of lions, gazelles, goats, bulls, fabulous deer-like mythical creature, qilīn, and dragons provides an interface with the extant decorative panorama adorning other Persian work of art . A companion carpet from the same loom but actually damaged is housed at Berlin Museum of Islamic Art (n° I.1).
Finally we include an undersized silk piece, with a damaged woven date, read by some 933 H/1529, except we consider it as from Timurid period. The pattern composition mingles calligraphy and figurative elements, suggesting the mythical theme of the talking-tree, derakht-i gūyā. This latter is Referred in the Shāhnāma and also in the Wonders of Creation of Qazvini as wāq-wāq tree, with four impressive angels at corners and a ğazal inscribed in central oblong and corner spandrels with red cursive script.
The first hemistich reads: “O thou the leader of all communities, who guides all those in quest of wisdom” and open the path for a spiritual dimension of leadership, while the fabulous creatures heads among coiling floral stems must be seen as echoing this ğazal. In all probability this rug was woven for a sanctuary, as suggested by one of his owners in Tehran, the scholar A.U. Pope, who acknowledged that it comes from Mashhad shrine before 1939.
Safavid carpets production, partially inherited from Turkmen-Timurid looms, produced either in royal, state or private workshops at different locations, with selected wool, cotton, silk and metallic threads, designed and woven by masters, sometimes under the crown patronage, khāssa-ye sharīfa, was transformed into a flourishing traditional art form and a source of income for next generations.
In the past several art historians concerned with oriental carpets provide us with multifarious contentions based mainly on design and customary aesthetic grounds. A modern approach about carpets knowledge consist to focus into structural analyze, close comparative examination and taking in account the historical framework.
Conceivably the result might be more reliable to associate a particular carpet with a production center and to determinate what facts are beyond hypothesis. Arguable this method to study carpets will perceptibly open the door for further discoveries. In the meantime, we are able admire the Safavid carpets housed in public collections around the world as prized visual metaphors.[1]
[1] 1 J. Chardin, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en Perse, III vol., Amsterdam, 1711.
2 Topkapi Palace archives n° D 5738.
3 M. Membré, Relazione di Persia (1542), Naples 1969. 4 M. Parsadust, Shāh Tahmāsb-i Awā, Tehran, 1981, pp 234-244.
5 Early voyages and travels to Russia and Persi (eds.) E. D. Morgan & C.H. Coote, London 1886.
6 P. Teixeira, The Travels, Kings of Hormuz and Persia, (tr.) W.F Sinclair, London 1902, p. 252.
7 S. Muratowicz, Relacya Sefera Muratowicz, in Kazimierz Niesiolowski, Otia Domestica, Warsaw, 1743.
8 F.del Niño Jesús, A Persia (1604-9, peripeciasde una embajada pontificia, Pamplona, 1929.
9 Derivates from nasij a Mongol patterned gold cloth, hence in Arabic language designates a weaver.
10 Recorded by Yerevan’s scholars A. Gurginian & A. Haniyan, from New Julfa ‘s cemetery, before 1960.
11 A.U. Pope, Survey of Persian art, London, 1930, p. 2432.
12 Abu-l Fazl, The Akbarnama,(tr.) H. Beveridge, Calcutta, III vol., 1897-1939.
13 Mirza Tahir Vahid, Dīvān-i Rizvān, Central Library of Tehran University, manuscript n°4344.
14 Reproduced in M. Aga-Oglu, Savafid Rugs & Textiles, the collection of the shrine of Imām ‘Alī at al-Najaf, New York, 1941, pl.III, V. The referred “āstān” or threshold is justly the Imam Ali sanctuary.
15 Op.cit, A.U. Pope London, 1930, vol.VI, pl. 1084.
16 N.H. Beattie, A Note on Zilu, in C. Cootner, The Jenkins Collection I: Flat-Woven Textiles, Washington, 1981, pp. 169-74; also a Timurid zīlū is housed at the State Hermitage Museum ( IR-2253) .
17 M. Mostowfi Yazdi, Moqtasar-e mofid,(ed.) Najmahandi, Tehran, (n.d.).
18 F.Ahmed, Münşeatül- i Selalatin, Istanbul, II Vol., 1858
19 Eskandar Beg Monshi’s Tārīkh ālām-ārā-ye ‘abassī, 1629.With description of those endowments in detail.
20 Topkapi Palace Library manuscript H 1339 f° 247 v. See also Hasan Rumlu Ahasan al-Tawarīkh , (ed.) Navai, Tehran, 1978, p. 567
21 Topkapi Palace Library manuscript A 3595 f° 53v-54r.
22 Respectively Turk and Islamic Arts Museum 1973 f°91V and Istanbul University Library F 1404 f°41v-42r See also a description of this embassy in Ahmed-i Qumi Khūlāsat al-tawarīkh , (ed.) Ishraq, Tehran, 1980, vol. II; p. 893.
23 Topkapi Palace Library B 200 f° 36v-37r.
24 Topkapi Palace Library manuscript R 1296 f° 46r-53r. See also a miniature from Mahmoud Baqi’s Dīvān showing the arrival of this embassy, kept at the Metropolitan Museum N.Y. (accession 45.174.5).
25 The Salting Carpets , (eds.) M. Eiland & R. Pinner, Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies Volume 5, Part 2 , Danville, 1999. An exhaustive study of most of those inscribed niche prayer carpets.
26 Idem supra. Catalogue n° 47. Sold lately at auction, catalogue Sotheby’s, London, October 6, 2010, lot 394
27 Recalling the mosaic-tiles decoration of Harun-e Velayat’s mehrāb .
28 Walid b. Muslim al-Dimashqi (d. 810) was one of the first to provide a compilation of God’s names and attributes, sifāt, commonly named Asma-Allah .
29 L. Komaroff, The Coronation carpet, in Hali magazine, issue 162, 2009, pp. 46-49.
Sheik Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi is home to the indisputably largest carpet in the world to this day. It took over a year, and 1000 weavers and a year to complete this magnificent work of art.
See details of this this significant work of art below:
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Photos copy right Ayaan Gallery
The patterns of these unique hardwood floors replicate the most iconic rugs from most recognized weaving schools in the World: Shirvan, Kazak, Baku, Kuba schools etc.
You may request the entire the catalog info@ayaangallery.com
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Nagshe Khani (Pattern Singing) is a mechanism of singing the patterns of the carpet to the other co-weavers. This highly endangered cultural heritage had been a widespread tradition in Iran, having its own complex lexical and diverse musical structure depending on the region it is being carried out.
To this date, no documents, studies or presentations on this topic could be found and the upcoming documentary is the first attempt to document this rapidly vanishing intangible heritage.
Watch Mehdi Aminian’s documentary “The Woven Sounds”
THE WOVEN SOUNDS
THE ROLE OF SINGING CULTURES AROUND CARPET WEAVING IN IRAN
By Mehdi Aminian
The mention of Persian carpets conjures images of realms of colorful woven materials as well as perhaps the materialistic and tangible value they hold. The proposed study, however, aims at investigating the intangible dimensions of carpet weaving in Iran, focusing in particular on the singing cultures surrounding carpet weaving. The focus is represented by the yet to be investigated phenomena of Naqshe Khani (Pattern Singing).
Just like other types of works songs, such as those sung when fishing, during crop cultivation or during the winnowing of grain, which exist in traditional societies around the world – the singing culture around carpet weaving has evolved and shaped the craftsmanship and artisanship of weaving itself. Persian carpets, as the foremost heavy textile art craft of Iran, have been emerging within the traditional process for millennia; peak production was attained around the 2000s when statistics show that there were around 2.2 million weavers living in Iran. Since then, however, the number of weavers has been falling drastically (reaching the estimated number of 750,000) as a result of a multitude of social and political factors (e.g. sanctions on carpet, consumerist culture, etc.).
Carpet weaving in Iran, which has formed throughout history synergic exchanges between labor and artistic creation, has developed its own unique style of work melodies intertwined with the weaving process. Despite the widespread culture and variety of traditions in carpet weaving across Iran, no studies on the intangible cultural heritage around carpet weaving could be found. Many of these traditions, along with the accompanying craftsmanship, are vanishing rapidly, which in turn has highlighted the urgency of conducting the present research.
In a pilot project I carried out in the provinces of Isfahan, Kerman and Fars (2018/2019), I identified two categories of work music traditions that accompany carpet weaving. The first one, known as Naqshe Khani (Pattern Singing), consists of recitals and tunes which serve as a guide of patterns for the weavers while they are weaving. The second one, manifested in the form of storytelling, singing, poetry and prayer recital, is not directly connected to the weaving process but accompanies it and, I argue, influences the labor process.
Studies of antique Caucasian rugs of the recent years, combined with ethnographic and historical research, led to a detailed classification of these unique artifacts of great importance.
Based of the study of materials, weaving techniques, patters and motifs, several schools of rugs have been distinguished :
1. Kuba school
2. Baku or Absheron school
3. Shirvan school
4. Genje school
5. Kazak school
6. Karabakh school
(you can ‘click’ on a selected school to find out more)
These schools of Caucasian rugs are defined by geography, weaving techniques, material including wool and dyes, design, pattern and principal features
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Karabakh carpet school are rugs produced in Karabagh, a great center of wool and cotton processing since ancient times, and neighbouring villages in south-west of modern Azerbaijan
Shusha played formerly the main role in carpet weaving in the region. Founded in the 18th century by the khan of Karabakh Panahali
Shusha was a dynamic multicultural center with both Christians and Muslims artisans developing new carpets designs; “Chini-cheshni”, “Bagchadaguller”, “Sakhsidaguller” and “Bulud” ‘ ..,the decorations of which were taken from packing papers of aromatic soaps, prints and other every-day life items brought from Russia and Europe.” (source: https://en.azvision.az/news/9409/the-develpoment-of-carpet-weaving-in-azerbaijan–photos.html)
‘Marko Polo stressed the beauty of the silk wares of Shemakha and Barda in the 13th century. English traveler -merchant Antoni Djenkinson wrote depicting the magnificence of the summer residence (the 16th century): “the king was sitting in the rich tent worked with silk and golden thread; his clothes were all in pearls and precious stones”.’ (source: http://files.preslib.az/projects/azerbaijan/eng/gl5.pdf).
The most collectible Karabagh rugs are those coming from the villages of Chondoresk and Chelaberd.
Chondoresk is home of the so-called ‘Cloudband’ Kazaks; Chelaberd is renowned for the Eagle or Sunburst kazaks
Both the Cloudband and the Aegle (Sunburst) kazaks cannot be attributed to the Kazak school ; they were referred to as Kazaks by many merchants in the past, however they belong distinctly the Karabagh school of rugs.
Many Karabagh carpets bear characteristics of other iconic Caucasian and non Caucasian rugs, they are identified however by the unique use of dark brown weft.
Below, see a rare antique rendition of e Eagle (Sunburst) Karabagh rug heavily influenced by the Borchalou pattern and motifs in our collection.
Below, a two-lozenge pole medallion set in brilliant sunset red featuring the so-called ‘gul frange’ – French or simply foreign rose very popular in the region from 1880s onwards (in our collection).
‘ A special group of patterns is represented, appearing in the first half of the nineteenth century, by those carpets from Karabagh, Kuba, and Derbend which were knotted for the French-style furnishings of Russian and rich native patrons, with rows of little bunches of roses – often in medallion or rocaillerie frames.’ (-) Reinhard G.Hubel The Book of Carpets (Praeger Publishers, New York 1970)
to be continued …
