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Shirvan is a historically significant, industrially and agriculturally developed region in the eastern Caucasus stretching between the western shores of the Caspian Sea and the Kura River and the shores of the Caspian Sea. The Shirvan school centers on the production of rugs in Shirvan.  neighboring villages

Rich composition and complex designs of Shirvan carpets are well known since the middle ages; they are praised in diaries of German, English merchants and ambassadors of VI-VIII centuries.

Arguably some Shirvan carpets were used in paintings by the XIV-XV century European painters:  Hans Memling, Lorenzo Lotto, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Andrea del Verrocchio and many others.

At the peak of the Caucasian carpet popularity in Europe and America; the name Shirvan indicated finer, better quality rugs in a diverse range of designs and color schemes.

Until recently, most better quality Caucasian rugs, unless evidently those belonging to the Kazak school, were referred o as ‘Shirvan’ or ‘Kuba Shirvan’.

Recent scholarship in the matter of the Caucasian weaving arts enabled however a clearer and more accurate classification.

to be continued …

The Baku school of Caucasian rugs  embraces the villages of Absheron- Goradil Novkhani, Nardaran, Bulbule, Fatmayi, Mardakan, Gala, Khila and others, as well as the region Khizi, outside Absheron and its carpet centers- Gadi, Hil, Kesh, Findigan.

Baku carpets are characterized by softness, intensity of the colours with a predominance of ocher (a family of earth-tone pigments); original designs incorporating geometric elements.

Here are some remarkable examples of Baku school:

More often than not, Baku rugs are categorized in more general terms as Kuba rugs; they share similar materials and techniques. Baku rugs, however, feature their distinct array of patterns and colours.

to be continued

Kuba school rugs originate in the north-east of Azerbaijan. Kuba rugs are divided into three groups: the high Caucasus rugs (e.g. Konakend, etc.) the lower Caucasus rugs (e.g. Perepedil , Zeyva, etc.), and the lowlands rugs (e.g. Karagashli, Chichi, etc.)

The carpets originating in Derbend may also be added to the Kuba school.

Kuba rugs are composed of ornaments of geometrical designs including motives representing plants and sometimes animals. Depressed foundation is a characteristic element of Kuba rugs.

‘Depressed floor occurs when the wefts are pulled tightly from either side rather than put in with minimal tension. This will displace the warps into two levels. This structure (an upper warp and a lower or ‘depressed’ warp) will be more evident on the back of the rug.’

to be continued

This is an English Translation of an article by Ali Hassouri in Ghereh – Rivista Tappetti e Tessili N° 8 April 1996

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Louise Broadhurst, Head of Oriental Rugs and Carpets, explains how a once-mighty carpet has come to be dispersed across the globe, from Paris to Boston to Berlin. This stunningly well-preserved section is offered in London on 19 April

The rug with which specialist Louise Broadhurst is pictured above, 2.5 metres long and 1.5 metres wide, is just a fragment of what was once a huge carpet almost 15 metres long. 

It was woven during the reign of Shah Abbas the Great (1521-1629), the fifth Shah of Iran and ruler of the Safavid Empire. As a great patron of Islamic arts, he established weaving workshops that produced carpets for his owns courts and palaces, as well as to send to the West as ambassadorial gifts.

The fragment belongs to a group known as ‘Vase’ carpets, a term coined by the art historian Dr. May Beattie because of the mosaic-patterned Chinese-style vases that appear in their design. On this fragment, there are two partial vases on the lower left and upper right-hand edges woven in green, orange, yellow and pink.

Broadhurst, the head of Christie’s Oriental Rugs & Carpets department, explains that the design of this carpet would have been complex to create, with multiple, intertwined flowering vines woven in 17 different colours and an average of 36 knots per square centimetre.

It is one of a dozen known pieces of the original carpet, which was most likely divided up during the 19th century. ‘Many Vase carpets were salvaged and preserved as fragments,’ she says. In fact, no complete examples on a comparable scale have survived.

‘The top left-hand corner connects to a fragment that’s in the Louvre… in the lower part an ivory palmette connects to a fragment in the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin’ 

The apricot-coloured palmette in the upper right-hand corner of this section of the carpet aligns perfectly with another fragment that once belonged to Baroness Alice de Rothschild, a member of one of history’s most prolific collecting dynasties. That part was sold at Christie’s in 2016 for £542,500.

‘In the top left-hand corner it also connects to a fragment that’s in the Louvre, and in the lower part we have a partial ivory palmette, which connects to a fragment in the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin,’ Broadhurst explains.

It is also the mirror portion of a fragment in the Musée Historique des Tissus in Lyon, while other pieces of the original carpet can be found in the V&A in London; the Design Museum in Copenhagen; Glasgow’s Burrell Collection; the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg; Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha

‘ …  rugs had traveled along the ancient Silk Road since Roman times: (/) The caravan routes of the Silk Road also passed the Buddhist monasteries of Greater Tibet (/)emperors and dignitaries would visit and take retreat in the Himalayan monasteries, and travelers would bring as gifts a wealth of silk and textiles (/) Thus, these monasteries became some of the greatest treasure houses of the world.’

During the 1980s and 1990s, two sources provided a continuous stream of fascinating carpets, both piled  and  flat-woven, which  in  some  instances  have  necessitated  the rewriting of the history of early weaving.
The first source was old Turkish collections (Balpinar and Hirsch 1988; Alexander 1993; Kirchheim et al. 1993; Ölçer and Denny 1999); the second was Tibetan monasteries.

Mandala of Yamantaka-Vajrabhairava ca. 1330–32 Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) Lila Acheson Wallace Gift Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1992)

It is well known that rugs had traveled along the ancient Silk Road since Roman times: in the early twentieth century Sir Aurel Stein discovered pile carpet fragments preserved in the deserts of Central Asia (http://ipd.bl.uk). The caravan routes of the Silk Road also passed the Buddhist monasteries of Greater Tibet, whose culture spread far beyond the present-day boundaries of the Tibet administrative region of China.

Chinese emperors and dignitaries would visit and take retreat in the Himalayan monasteries, and travelers would bring as gifts a wealth of silk and textiles, the currency of the Silk Road (Watt and Wardwell 1997). Thus, over a period of 2,000  years, these monasteries became some of the greatest treasure houses of the world.

After the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959, and particularly during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s, most of the physical evidence of the culture of ancient Tibet was deliberately and systematically destroyed.

The monasteries were torn down or put to secular uses. The art objects that they had preserved for centuries were largely burnt, defaced, or stolen, although the monks did manage to hide some. Others survived because a practical purpose was found for them: the enormous Yuan period tapestry-woven mandala in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1992.54), for example, was reportedly being used in the 1970s as a ceiling canopy in a grain mill, in what was originally a small monastery.

A number of monastic treasures were also publicly distributed to local residents, with the admonition that these were their possessions, in essence stolen from them by the monks during centuries of predation. Some of the recipients chopped up the textiles they were given and put them to use, while others stored them away.

The dealer Jeremy Pine related an account of an incident that took place in the 1970s at the Potala Palace in Lhasa. A large group of old carpets, which had been folded up for centuries and in some cases were worn or damaged, were gathered together from a storeroom by Chinese troops. They were loaded onto three lorries (one carpet alone is said to have required eight men to lift it) and dumped into a nearby river.

A Tibetan fisherman managed by chance to catch one fragment and took it home. Some years later he moved to Kathmandu and discovered that it was part of an extremely rare twelfth- or thirteenth-century carpet from Anatolia.

Between 1959 and 1990, many thousands of Tibetans left their country in fear of persecution. Often reliant on aid from international organizations to support themselves, these refugees consequently sold off the treasures they had acquired or saved from the monasteries. These included several carpets and textiles, among them masterpieces of textile art from Spain in the west to China in the east, some dating back more than 2,000 years. The Dalai Lama, writing about works of art from Tibet in a western

collection (1998), said: “When so much of the Tibetan cultural heritage has been destroyed in its own land, I am very happy to know that so many fine works of art from Tibet have been preserved [in collections throughout the world]  We Tibetans would regard most of these artifacts as sacred  All of them are a source of inspiration.”

This is a fragment from

This is a fragment from Michael Franses article An Early Anatolian Animal Carpetand Related Examples

CAUCASIAN CARPET “SHIRVAN ORIGIN OF DESIGN AND HISTORY OF TRANSFORMATION”ROMAN STARS” IN “ LEZGHI STAR ”

Telman Ibrahimov

The widely known Shirvan carpet with a cross shaped of eight-pointed star, is generally recognized as Caucasian. This opinion is based on numerous carpets dating from the 19th – early 20th centuries.

Earlier carpets of this design belonging to the Safavid era were not found. But there are their images in the paintings of the Italian Renaissance, the Netherlands painting of the 17th century, as well as the oriental painting of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.

In English sources of the mid-20th century, these carpets are classified as “Caucasian Shirvan” (Ulrich Shurmann). In the Russian-language sources of this time, there is a clarification of “Shirvan-Kuba”.

From the middle of the 20th century, local studies and classification appear, in which the names of the villages in which they traditionally woven are specified.

As a result of this clarification, the names “Jamjamli” (the name of the village of Shirvan. Maraza District) and “Zeyva” (the name of the village of Shabran District.

‘… “Lezgi Star” design and motif dates back to ancient Greek Roman mosaics preserved in the interiors and floors of rich antique villas. ‘

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the village was part of the Kuba County) Before joining Russia, the Jamjamli and Zeyva villages was located in the historic territory of Shirvan. At the beginning of the 19th century both villages: “Jamjamli” and 2 “Zeyva” became part of the Shirvan province of the Russian Empire. Then this province was renamed to Shemakha and later – to Baku Province.

The name of the village “Zeyva” comes from the Arabic word “zaviyyya” (Sufi monastery). The remains of the Sufi monastery in the village were destroyed by the Bolsheviks during the Soviet era, but remained in the name of the village. In the village of “Jamjamly”, an underground Sufi monastery “Khalvat” also functioned (the place of prayers for the Sufi sect “Halvatiya” (concealers), which by chance has survived to the present day. In both villages, historically weaving carpets with the same design and the socalled motif “Lezghi Star”.

Many names of the same carpet… The widespread carpets of these villages and their main motive are known by several names: “Caucasus”, “Shirvan,“ Kuba ”,“ Shirvan Star ”,“ Star Kazak ”,“ Caucasus Star ”,“ Shirvan Lezghi Star ”,“ Lezghi Star ” , “Lezghi design”, “Seljuk Star” and others.

The same carpet has many geographical names: “Caucasian ”,“ Anatolian ”,“ Dagestanian ”,“ Morroccan ”,“ Persian ”. There are also replicas of this carpet: “Yagchi Bedir rug” (Turkiye), “Sultanabad rug” (Persia) and others.

The basic design… The design of the carpet has a carefully designed structure. The main motif in the form of a cruciform octagonal star, consistently and mirrored in the central field. On the four sides of the star, arrow-shaped elements that form the square background of the star base diverge. The number of stars varies depending on the size of the stars. The basic design principle is the “docking” of the angles of the stars to the subsequent star along the vertical or horizontal axis.

In fact, we are seeing a mosaic design principle based on a mesh geometric design. The mesh design of the design of Oriental carpets has an ancient name that has come down to our days – “Bandy-Rumi” (Roman mesh, bundle, compound). The basis of this design is vertical, horizontal or diagonal repetition of the motive in a strict sequence of geometric design.

This ancient geometrical-mathematical principle was brilliantly implemented in the 20th century in the work of the Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher.

The mesh design of the design is formed by two or three complementary and interconnected with each other complex geometric shapes. The principle of development of such a design is “tiled” buildup of the components of the motive.

The same principle underlies carpet weaving. Here the nodes play the role of micro-modules of the motive (geometric shape). “Tiled distribution of a micro-module (knot pitch) along a grid of warp and weft threads leads to the completion of the motive and its conjugation with neighboring motifs. Most clearly, this principle is visible in flat woven carpets. The basic design of the Caucasian carpet design “Shirvan is based on this principle.

The prevalence of design … The geographical distribution of carpet design is extensive: Spain, Morocco, Anatolia, Iran, Caucasus, Central Asia, Afghanistan and even Pakistan (Banjara embroideries). The geographic factor, in one way or another, influences the ethnic definition. Therefore, with equal success, this design can be called Spanish, Moroccan, Turkic, Afshar, Kashkai, Shahseven, Tat, Lezgin, Farsi, Turkmen, etc. All these ethnic groups today can claim the authorship of the design and the main motive of the carpet. Design Genesis …

The so-called Lezghi Star design originates in the ancient Greek culture of “geometric style. Emerged in the era of the Archaic (900-700 BC), the “geometric style” is distributed in the Mosaic floors and the vase painting of ancient Greece. Monuments Isthmia, Pella (Greece), Paphos, Naxos (Cyprus), Efesus, Zeugma, Gordion (Turkey) and many others, keep the earliest examples of this design in mosaic decorations of ancient temples and villas. The direct heir of the ancient Greek civilization was the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium).

Here we again meet the same principles of design and motif familiar to us from the Caucasian carpet. The decor of the mosaic floors of rich Roman villas with geometric patterns continued the traditions established by the ancient Greek culture. Cultural and historical contacts of the Muslim civilization with the Roman heritage in the territory of the former Eastern Roman Empire – lead to the development and processing of this heritage in the architectural decor of Muslim palace interiors and decorative art objects (including – textiles and carpets).

The direct continuation of the Greco-Roman geometric style in the tissues of the Western part of the Caliphate (Maghreb), Al-Andalus (Cordoba. Spain) and the Sultanate of Rum, was the starting point of the medieval migration of this design to the eastern carpets. The area of direct contact between the early Islamic civilization and the Roman heritage was the Muslim al-Maghrib (literally “where sunset is.” West), stretching to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain).

Cordoban emirate and al-Andalus were the focus where the synthesis of ancient Roman, Christian and Islamic principles of decorative art took place. A special synthetic style “Mudejar” is formed here, in which Roman, Islamic and Gothic traditions are closely intertwined. From architecture and its mosaic decors, the design was originally “transferred” to fabric. Geometric style flourishes in the decoration of fabrics, which later will be called “Nasirid style”. The further development of this Islamized style in Spain was stopped by the Reconquista movement. But the facts show that this design and its motives have not been lost.

They continued their existence in the fabrics and carpets of Mamluks Egypt. Mamluk period in the development of design … In the 13th and 15th centuries, Egyptian Cairo became the scene of 4 collision and interpenetration of ancient, Islamic and Turkic nomadic cultural traditions. The main and most numerous contingent of the military-political class of the Sultanate of Mamluk – were the Kipchak Turks and Caucasians, famous for their military craft (16. 115-116).

It is “here and now” that the first direct contact of representatives of the Caucasian ethnic groups with the already rather “romanized” Maghreb culture of the Western Islamic world takes place. The gradual integration of Caucasian ethnic groups into the local socio-cultural environment could can’t happen without the mastering of local cultural traditions, among which were the basic principles of geometric design in the craft of architectural mosaics, textiles and carpet. This factor undoubtedly deserves attention when analyzing the nature and methods of the “migration” of the so-called “Lezghi design” to the Caucasian Shirvan.

A convincing argument in favor of the migration of this design from the Maghreb – through Anatolia – to the Caucasus, is the fact of the subsequent Ottoman conquest of the Maghreb by Sultan Selim Yavuz (1517). The entire Maghreb was ruled by the Ottomans and was forced to pay tribute to Ottoman Porte by craftsmen, expensive textiles and carpets.

The design of “Bandy-Rumi”, which acquired its final formation in the Ottoman environment, quickly spread in the decor of palace interiors, textiles and carpets. The geometric design of “Bandy-Rumi”, along with the floral (paradise) design, which came from the Safavid environment, is becoming one of the most sought-after at this time.

Finally, an equally important way of spreading and migrating the geometric design and motif of the Lezghi Star carpet in Anatolia and the Caucasus, which was part of the Safavid Empire, was transcontinental trade along the Great Silk Road. It was at this time that carpets with a characteristic Roman-Maghreb geometric design and the famous cruciform star are delivered by Venetian merchants to Europe and enter the paintings of artists.

Oghuz nomads factor … For 15-18 centuries, nomadic Oghuz tribes actively participate in the formation of large super-ethnoses and political associations in the territory of Anatolia, Iran, the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Having mastered this purely urban geometric design, nomads contribute to its further canonization and “cementing” in the carpet traditions of their closed communities. The nomadic past of the Shirvan villages of Jamjamli and Zeyva suggests exactly this way of forming sustainable carpet traditions and the famous Lezgi Star design in the Caucasian environment.

There is no doubt that the extremely geometrized and mathematically perfect design of this carpet could not be born in a pastoral nomadic environment. Nomads adopted this urban “palace” design and kept its simplified version in their carpets. 5 Caucasian, Shirvan carpets of former nomads, with the so-called “Lezghi Star” design, are the final product and point in the long history of the rise, flourishing and preservation of this motif in local carpet traditions.

The term “Lezghi Star” and its problems … Neighboring Turkic ethnic groups of the Caucasus named “Lezghi” called the mountain inhabitants who do not speak Turkic language. It was a conventional and collective name. In reality, in the South-Eastern Caucasus there are about 30 mountain peoples, and only one of them has the word Lezghi in the self-name. And the word “star” in the Lezgin language is pronounced “Q’yed”.

None of the sources recorded the definition of a cross-shaped eight-pointed star of the Caucasian carpet in the form – “Lezghi Q’yed”. There is only his invented English version – “Lezghi star”. It is unlikely that the design and motif designated as – Lezghin, would not have its authentic, local name. However, he has an English name !!!

Obviously, this is an artificially created, replicated, commercial name of the same Shirvan carpet. A real disappointment for fans of the English name “Lezghi Star” should be the fact that the population of the village of Zeyva was never Lezghin! Zeyva is traditionally a Tat village and its weavers would hardly have called their carpet “Lezghi Star”.

CONCLUSION

1. Occurrence of the “Lezgi Star” design and motif dates back to ancient Greek Roman mosaics preserved in the interiors and floors of rich antique villas. The earliest designs and motifs of the so-called “Lezgi Star” were found in the monuments of ancient Greek and, later, Roman civilization.

The technology of creating a mosaic decor on the basis of the geometric design could not be better, suitable for use in textile and carpet technology. In both antique mosaics and carpets, step-by-step (“tiled”) building leads to the formation of a complete motif, mirror-repeating in a geometric design. Carpet weaver performs the same technological method, but not with ceramic tiles, but with carpet nodes.

Strictly geometric construction of the elements of motive – contributes to the overall geometrization and systematization of the design of the carpet. A similar technology of complementarity in the art of mosaic and carpet weaving predetermined the similarity of the general principles of shaping, geometry and motifs in the form of regular geometric shapes. 2. Based on the history of the origin of the design and the motif “Lezghi Star”, it would be more correct and historically reasonable to call it –

“The Roman Star”. The “Lezghi Star” motif and the Roman mosaic star do not just have an external similarity. Identical and their design context. This total identity eliminates the possibility of accidental similarity. 6 At this time, the Greek heritage of the geometric design of the mosaic decor of ancient palaces, has already been buried underground. The contact of the Islamic civilization with the Roman heritage leads to the assimilation of this design and motive. The renewed “Roman design” appears in the Muslim palace mosaic panels, textiles and carpets under a new name – “Bandy-Rumi” (Roman grid, bundle).

During the period of the Cordoba and Abbasid Caliphates, the Seljuk and Mamluk Sultanate, the strict design of Roman mosaics acquired more color, brightness and decorative sophistication typical of the Muslim palace culture. The “Roman Star” motif in the Caucasian carpet is just one “replica” of this design.

The whole artistic potential of Eastern geometric carpets, contains a huge number of design designs and motifs of Greco-Roman civilization. Many of these carpets are not preserved. But they are preserved in the paintings of artists of the European Renaissance and are conventionally designated as the carpet “Memling”, “Bellini”, “Lotto”, “Holbein”, “Ghirlandaio. 3.

The name “Lezghi Star” (“Lezghi Design”) first appeared in carpet terminology at the end of the 20th century. The history of the design and motive of this carpet is much older than the appearance of this name. The name “Lezghi Star” does not take into account the cultural and historical environment of origin, the artistic and technical features of the design and its migration.

The emergence of this name is most likely dictated by the desire to give the basic motif and design of the carpet – ethnic classification. As the analysis of the marketing of Caucasian carpets shows, the name “Lezghi Star” is used by dealers for commercial purposes. And the goal is the same: to sell an old, “stale” product with a new, intriguing “brand”. Unfortunately, this “ingenious” marketing can be found even at serious dealer companies (“Claremont Rug Company”).

Authentic carpets of the late 19th century with this design, depending on the preservation, artistic value, size, materials and dyes, are estimated by experts from 2.500 to 6.500 US dollars. 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Минорский В.Ф. История Ширвана и Дербенда X- XI веков. Издательство Восточной литературы. М., 1963. 2. Kerimov latif. Folk Designs from the Caucasus. New York: Dover, 1974. 3. Muradov V. A. Les Tapis Azerbaidjanais. Groupe de Gouba.

“Elm” . Bakou. 2012 3. Ulrich Schurmann. Caucasian rugs. A detailed presentation of the art of carpet weaving in the various districts of the Caucasus during the 18th and 19th century. George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London, 1961. 4. Ulrich Schurmann. Oriental Carpets. Paul Hamlyn; 2nd ptg. Edition.1968 5. Ulrich Schurmann. Analysis of Caucasian Rugs. 1961. 6. Siawosh U., Kerimov Latif, Zollinger, Werner Azadi. Azerbaijani – Caucasian rugs. Edition 2001. 7.

Erwin Gans-Ruedin. Caucasian Carpets. Rizzoli; 1st English Edition edition (1986) 8. Richard E. Wright , John T. Wertime. Caucasian Carpets and Covers: The Weaving Culture Laurence King Pub. 1995. 9. Nicolas Fokker. Caucasian Rugs of Yesterday: an illustrated authoritative guide. Harper Collins Publishers. 1979 10. Bennet Ian Oriental Rugs. Vol.1. Caucasian. 1983 11. Gans-Ruedin, Erwin Caucasian Carpets. New York: Rizzoli. Hasson, Rachel 1986 12. Peter F Stone. Rugs of the Caucasus: Structure and Design. Chicago: Greenleaf Company. 1984 13.

Wright, Richard E. Rugs and Flatweaves of the Transcaucasus: A Commentary. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Rug Society. 1980 14. The Kustary: Home Weaving Industry in the Caucasus Textile Museum Rug Convention. (unpublished lecture) 1990 “On the Origins of Caucasian Village Rugs.

Oriental Rug Review 10/4 (April/May 1989) 15. Carpet Encyclopedia. Lezgi carpets . https://www.carpetencyclopedia.com/glossary/j-l 16. Thomas Philipp,Ulrich Haarmann. The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 115—116.

‘For (/) years, tribal symbols have been portrayed through (/) animal trappings, tents, and carpets. These motifs were the very language of the peoples who created them, bestowing fertility, warding off evil spirits, bringing joy in life or richness to the land, and carrying the soul to the afterlife …’

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