A HISTORY OF PERSIAN CARPET
To look at a Persian carpet is to gaze into a world
of artistic magnificence nurtured for more than 2,500 years. The
Iranians were among the first carpet weavers of the ancient
civilisations and, through centuries of creativity and ingenuity
building upon the talents of the past, achieved a unique degree of
excellence. The carpet is the finest and most exquisite form of
expression an Iranian can find and the best specimens available today
rank amongst the highest level of art ever attained by mankind. Even
today, with Iranians increasingly being swallowed up in the whirlpool of
a fast expanding industrial, urban society, the Persian association with
the carpet is as strong as ever. An Iranian\'s home is bare and soulless
without it, a reflection on the deep rooted bond between the people and
their national art. To trace the history of the Persian carpet is to
follow a path of cultural growth of one of the greatest civilisations
the world has ever known. From being simply articles of need, as pure
and simple floor and entrance coverings to protect the nomadic tribesmen
from the cold and damp, the increasing beauty of the carpets found them
new owners - kings and noblemen, those who looked for signs of wealth or
adornment for fine buildings. Many people in Iran have invested their
whole wealth in Persian carpels - often referred to as an Iranian\'s
stocks and shares - and there are underground storage areas in Tehran\'s
bazaar that are full of fine specimens, kept as investments by shrewd
businessmen. And for many centuries, of course, the Persian carpet has
received international acknowledgment for its artistic splendour. In
palaces, famous buildings, rich homes and museums throughout the world a
Persian carpel is amongst the most treasured possessions. Thus, today
Iran produces more carpels than all the other carpel making centres of
the world put together. The element of luxury with which the Persian
carpet is associated today provides a marked contrast with its humble
beginnings among the nomadic tribes that at one lime wandered ihe great
expanse of Persia in search of their livelihood. Then, it was an article
of necessity to protect the tribes from the bitterly cold winters of the
country. But out of necessity was born art. Through their bright colours
and magical designs, the floor and entrance coverings that protected the
tribesmen from the ravages of the weather also brought gay relief to
their dour and hardy lives. In those early days the size of the carpet
was often small, dependant upon the size of the tent or room in which
the people lived. Besides being an article of furniture, the carpet was
also a form of writing for the illiterate tribesmen, setting down their
fortunes and setbacks, their aspirations and joys. It also came to be
used as a prayer mat by thousands of Muslim believers. Thus began a
process of fatheres handing down their skills to their sons, who built
on those skills and in turn handed down the closely guarded family
secrets to their offsprings. To make a carpet in those days required
tremendous perseverance. Even when carpet making developed to the stage
of workshops, with several employees working on the same carpet, it was
a question of months and often years of painstaking work. The leader
would dictate throuth a series of / chants to the other workers the
colour of the individual strands of wool to be knotted. When the time
came for the tribe to move on, the loom had to be dismantled and the
unfinished carpet folded as best they could. The following season it had
to be put again at some new oasis. Althoulh cotton came to be used for
the warp and the weft of the carpet, the herds of sheep that surrounded
the tribes in their wanderings provided the basic material, wool. The
cold mountain climate provided an added advantage in that the wool was
finer and had longer fibres than wool from sheep in warmer climes. A key
feature in making the carpets was the bright colours used to form the
instricate designs. The manufacture of dyes involved well kept secrets
handed down throuth the generations. Insects, plants, roots, barks and
other substances found outside the tents and in their wanderings were
all used by the ingenious tribesmen. Before the dyeing process could
begin, however, the wool had to be washed and dried in the sun to bleach
it. The clean wool was then spun by hand. Since the tribes were
constantly on the move and had only small vessels in which to hold the
dyes, the dyers were unable to achieve a uniformity in shades, with yarn
displaying varying tones of the same colour. The wool was loosely dipped
into dyeing vats and left for a time thai could be judged only by the
expert craftsmen. Then the wool was left to hang without being sqeezcd,
which would have left an uneven colouring. Later the wool was dried in
the sun. Because the wool and cotton and silk used in marking the
carpels arc perishable, very few of the earliest carpets arc now in
cxistancc. The earliest knowen Persian carpet was dicovered by Russian
Professor Rudcnko in 1949 during excavations of burial mounds in the
Altai Mountains in Siberia. The carpet had been preserved purely by
chance. Soon after it had been placed in the burial mound, grave robbers
raided the mound. They ignored the carpet but, throulh the opening they
left, water poured into the mound and froze, thus protecting the carpet
from decay. Called the Paxyryk rug, the carpet has a woolen pile knotted
with Chiordes knot. Its central field is a deep red colour and it has
two wide borders, one depicting deer and the other Persian horseman. It
dates from the fifth century B.C. and is now kept in the Hermitage
Museum of Leningrad. Another rug found in the same area, this time with
a Senneh knot, dates to the first century B.C. But, long before that,
historical records show that the court of Cyrus the Great, who founded
the Persian monarchy over 2,500 years ago, was bedecked by magnificent
carpets. Classical tales recount how Alexander the Great found carpets
of a very fine fabric in Cyrus tomp. The next great period in the
history of Persian carpets came during the sassanian dynasty, from the
third to the seventh century A.D. By the 6th century Persian carpels had
won international prestige and were being exported to distant lands. And
in this time was created one great carpet which was a spectacle of
overwhelming splendour. The spring or winter carpet of Khosrow was made
for the huge audience hall of the palace at Ctesiphon and depicted a
formal garden. It held a political significance as an indication of the
power and the resources of the king and its beauty signified the divine
role of the king. When the Arabs defeated the Persians and took
Ctesiphon, they caricd off the carpet as part of thier fabulous booty
and it was eventually cut up into small fragments and divided among the
victorious soldiers. Yet its magnificance lived on, inspiring subsequent
history, poetry and art and helping to sustain Persian morale for
centuries. It also provided a source of inspiration for subsequent
carpets but, althouth many have tried, not even the most skilled have
been able to equal its spellbinding design. After the fall of the
Sassanian dynasty, from the seventh to the twelfth centuries, Persian
carpet weaving become a rather spasmodic industry in many parts,
althoulh there is evidence of a large industry surviving on the South
Caspian coast in Gilan and Mazandaran in the eighth and ninth centuries
with a sizeable export of prayer rugs. Organized production was also
reported in the northwest towns of Bargari, Mukhan, Arjig, Nachshirvan
and Khoy and in the south, in Khuzestan and Pars. Certainly when the
Mongols invaded the country in the 13th century they found many Persian
homes and tents boasting local carpets. But for the next two centuries,
the artistic life of the country, including carpet weaving, declined
under the influence of the devastation wreaked by the Mongols. But,
among his few graces, the conqueror Tamerlane spared artisans from his
bloody havoc and had them sent to his palaces in Turkistan. Under his
successor art began to flourish once more. His son Shah Rokh put a great
emphasis on Persian carpets and outstanding specimens began to appear
once more from court subsidized looms. The lavish royal support
guaranteed the highest skills and the finest materials money could buy.
Once more the art was for a great climax. The climax came with the
Safavid dynasty in the 16th century. When Shah Ismail occupied the
throne in 1499 he began laying the foundation for what was to become a
national industry that was the envy of surrounding countries. The most
famous of the kings of this era. Shah Abbas, more than any one
transformed the industry, bringing it from the tents of the wandering
nomads into the towns and cities. In Isfahan, which he made his capital,
he established a royal carpet factory and hired artisans to prepare
designs to be made by master craftsmen. He charged officers of the crown
to ensure that the integrity of the industry was maintained and in this
period the art of carpet weaving once again achieved monumental
proportions. The best knowen carpets of the period, dated 1539, come
from the mosque of Ardebil and, in the opinion many experts, represent
the summit of achievement in carpet design. A complex star medallion
dominates a rich system of stems and blossoms on a vivid indigo field.
The larger of the two is now kept in London\'s Victoria and Albert
Museum while the other can be seen at the Los Angeles Country Museum.
Excellent silk animal rugs were woven in Kashan while, to the north of
Isfahan, weavers turned out the distinctive vase carpets. Rugs of great
beauty were also woven in Kerman, Yazd, Pars and khuzcstan. Shah Abbas
also developed the use of gold and silver thread carpet, culminating in
the great coronatio carpet now held in the Rosenburg Castle, Copenhagen,
which has a perfect velvet-like pile and gleaming gold background. These
carpets, of course, were made for the court and the great nobles, and
were protected as well as any golden treasure. They had special
custodians and, even when they were brought out for state and other
special occasions, were usually covered with another light fabric to
protect them from wear. Growing demand from the great royal courts of
Europe for these gold and silver threaded carpets led to a great export
industry. A large number went to Poland aftre King Sigmund specially
sent merchants to Persia to acquire them. King Louis XIV of France even
sent his own craftsmen to Persia to learn the trade. As the 17th century
wore on there was an increasing demand for luxury and refinement. A set
of silk carpets woven to surround the sacrophagus of Shah Abbas II
achieved such a rare quality that many mistook them for velvet. But they
were the last really high achievement in carpet making from that era in
Persian history. Somehow, inspiration steadily began to slacken and, as
the court became increasingly impoverished, the quality of the
craftsmanship began to fall away. When Shah Abbas\' capital city of
Isfahan was sacked in 1722 a magnificent period in the history not only
of carpet weaving but of art itself came dramatically to an end. The
great carpet weaving fell back into the hands of the wandering nomads
who had maintained their centuries-old traditions and skills, apart from
a few centres, principally Josheghan, Kerman, Mashad and Azarbaijan.
Even the low school rugs these centres produced were in danger of being
ruined as an art by the growing demand from the West in the mid 19th
century for quantity at the expense of quality. Cheap dyes, low quality
wool, chemical washing and even meaningless designs supplied by the
European importers brought theindustry almost to its knees. After
sporadic and largely an successful efforts to stop the rot, the
gavcrnement took drastic action and confiscated the carpets in which
cheap days and low quality wool had been used. The dye Masters soon came
to their senses, with it began a new era of revival for the carpet
crafts. The Iran Carpet Company and a school of design were stablished
in Tehran to restore the integrity of Art and to study and buid the
great works of the 15th and 16th centuries.
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TECHNIQUES ,...
A special characteristic of all Persian carpets is that they
are hand-knotted. The fabric is composed of three parts: the warp, the
pile, and the weft. The warp is the combination of threads, usually of
cotton, which are arranged vertically in parallel lines between the two
ends of the loom. The pile is the visible surface of the carpet; it is
made up of short threads, usually of wool knotted on to the warp. The
knots are placed in rows across the width of the carpet, never along the
length. The weft consists of one or more threads, nearly always of
cotton, woven between one row of knots and the next.
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LOOMS AND TOOLS
As we have said. Oriental carpets are made entirely by hand.
Apart from the great skill and patience of the craftsman, all that their
manufacture requires is a loom and a few rudimentary tools. The looms
may be divided into four types: horizontal, fixed vertical, Tabriz type
vertical, and vertical with roller beam. The horizontal loom, the most
primitive of the four, is very similar to the looms used by nomads to
make the first carpets which were intended to take the place of animals
skins on the floor of their tents. Carpets, in fact, answered both the
aesthetic and functional needs of these tribes better than skins. The
horizontal loom consists of just two wooden beams between which the warp
threads are stretched lengthwise. During manufacture, these warp threads
are held in tension between the two beams by means of two posts tied to
the ends of each beam and fixed into the ground. When the tribe wished
to move on, all that was needed was to remove the two posts and roll up
the made-up part of the carpel and the warp threads around the two beams
of the loom. The horizontal loom was used solely by nomadic tribes. The
fixed vertical loom is also known as the village loom because it is used
almost exclusively in small communities. It consists of two parallel
round beams held up by two vertical supports. The warp threads are
stretched between the two beamd and the knotting of the carpet is always
begun from the bottom. The craftsman works seated on a board hooked on
to the rungs of a ladder fixed to the vertical supports of the loom. As
the work proceeds, the board is raised from rung to rung so that the
worker is always at the same height as the knots. Carpets made on this
type of loom are at most the same length as the loom itself, that is, no
more than about nine feet. It is possible to make longer carpets by
rolling the completed work around the lower beam and stretching a second
set of warp threads above on the upper beam. This method, however, does
not give good rusults and the two parts of the carpet often do not
match. One development of the fixed vertical loom is the so-called
Tabriz loom invented by the craftsmen of that town, which is now very
widely used, particularly in the large carpet-making centres of Iran. In
this type of loom the warp threads run from the upper beam to the lower,
passing below it and going back to the upper beam. This forms two
parallel planes of warp, one in front and one behind. The carpet made on
the front warp threads is passed under the low beam and up the back of
the loom; at the same time, from the back the warp threads pass around
to the front of the loom. This system enables a carpet to be made twice
the length of the height of the loom. The fourth type of loom with
roller beams is a further development of the vertical loom. All the warp
threads needed to make the carpet are rolled on to the upper beam, and
the carpet is rolled on to the lower beam as it is completed. With this
type of loom it is possible to make carpets of any length. The tools
used in the making of carpets are few and simple. They are a knife, a
beater, and shears. The knife is used to cut the threads of the knot. It
is entirely of metal and may have a hook at the end of the blade to
assist in the formation of the knot. (This type of knife is used
particularly by the craftsmen of Tabriz.) The beater consists of a
series of metal blades, the points of which are splayed to form a set of
teeth. It is used to tighten the threads of the weft against a line of
knots. The wide-bladed flat shears are used to clip the pile of the
carpet.
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THE RAW MATERIALS
There are three materials used in the manufacture of
carpets-wool, silk, and cotton. Wool and silk are primarily used for the
knots which form the pile, and are more rarely employed as warp or weft
threads, for which cotton is mostly used. Chiefly sheep\'s wool is used,
but there is also a fairly widespread use of camelhair, used for the
most part in its natural colour. The employment of goat\'s hair is,
however, much rarer. As far as sheep\'s wool or possibly lamb\'s wool is
concerned, the long-staple kinds are, of course, preferred. Wool from
the shoulder and flank of the animal is best, while the poorer quality
wool comes from the legs and belly. The quality varies from place to
place, the wool from mountain sheep living at low temperatures being
considered to be the best. Khorassan wool is also much appreciated. Woll
obtained by combing the sheep\'s fleece in the winter and shearing it in
spring is known as kurk, and is of the highest quality. Poorer quality
wool is called tabechi and is obtained from the fleece of dead animals.
Lime is used in this operation, the wool is stiff, dull and rough, and
becomes lifeless when dyed. Before being used, the wool must be
carefully scoured in order to remove all traces of grease. The more it
is washed, the purer and more vivid are the colours when it is dyed.
Among the most widely used qualities of wool are those spun by the
nomadic Luri and Kurd tribes and used not only for carpets emanating
from these two provinces but also for many carpets from western Persia.
In some specimens with a wool pile, particularly those currently being
produced at Qum and Nain, silk is also used to heighten the effect of
the decoration. Some rare carpets of a particularly sophisticated kind
have a silk pile. These are usually carpets made to order. The
best-known centre for this type of work is Kashan. Cotton is used
exclusively for warp and weft threads, although an exception to this
must be made in reference to some Turkish specimens, in particular those
from kayseri where white cotton is used in the pile for the decoration
of some motifs with a similar result to that achieved with silk. Cotton
is grown and spun in most of the places where the carpets come from. In
antique carpets the warp and weft threads were nearly always in wool, or
in silk in the specimens where the pile was silk also. Sometimes, for
decorative reasons, silver, or silver-gilt thread was also used. In
present-day manufacture, with the exception of nomad carpets which are
entirely of wool, the warp and weft are in cotton and the results
justify its use. In fact, cotton has less tendency to give and slacken
than wool, and consequently when cotton is used, one does not find the
unevenness typical of all-wool carpets. Besides, as cotton is stiffer
than wool, the carpet lies better on the floor.
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COLOURANTS
Next comes the matter of colours, that amazing artist\'s palette
so typical of Persian carpet production. Dyeing is a very delicate
process and is preceded by and alum bath which acts as a mordant. The
thread is then immersed in a dye bath where it remains for a period
ranging from a few hours to a few days according to the results
required. Finally, it is put out to dry in the sun. Aniline was
discovered in 1856, and its range of colours only reached Persia at the
very end of the last century. Until the advent of these artificial
colourants, dyers used nothing but natural ones, nearly all of them
vegetable dyes. The exception to this among the most widely used
colourants was the red obtained from the cochineal bug, an insect
prevalent in India. Persian dyers become very famous over the centuries
for their success in obtaining a seemingly inexhaustible range of
colours from vegetable sources. Red, for example, was obtained not only
from the cochineal bug but also from the root of the madder, a plant
which grows wild in many parts of Persia. Other shades of red were
obtained from other insects, while the pinkish-red and reddish-brown
shades were the result of mixing whey with the normal red to produce a
variety of shades of the same colour according to the amounts added.
Blue was obtained from the indigo plant, or more precisely, from the
leaves of that plant. A very dark shade of blue, almost black, resulted
from the use of the indigo which became encrusted on the inside of the
fermentation vats. Yellow was obtained either from vine leaves or from a
plant indigenous to the desert regions, or from weld which gives a
beautiful saffron colour. Today, however, yellow obtained from weld is
only rarely used, partly because it has become very expensive and partly
because the more delicate tints arc not perfectly fast. Green was
obtained by mixing yellow and light blue which came from copper sulphate.
Black came cither from using the natural wool of black sheep or camels,
or by dyeing grey wool with ferrous oxide found in the galls on oak
trees. Finally, the greys browns were derived either from the natural
colour of the wool or from dyeing carried out with ingredients taken
from walnut shells. The use of ferrous oxide had the inconvenience of
weakening the pile. In several old carpets, one can see where the black
areas have become very worn and this creates a curious relief effect.
This defect can also be seen in the green areas because of the use of
copper sulphate. The creation of the colours by means of natural dyes is
therefore very dependent upon the competence and skill of the dyers. The
type of mordant and the hardness of the water used also have their
effect. The water at Tabriz, for example, gives a certain dullness to
the dyed wool. When, however, between Ihc last decade of the nineteenth
century and the beginning of the twentieth century, artificial
colourants (the whole range of aniline colours) made their appearance in
Persia, dyers abandoned the old traditions in favour of the much less
costly new colours. Quality suffered and for a long time the fame of
Persian carpets declined also, because the aniline colours gave tints
which did not match and moreover had a tendency to discolour. The
government itself had to intervene to preserve the quality by imposing
very severe penalties against the importing and use of aniline
dyes.Persian dyers have been able to profit from the later progress in
the chemical field and today, while the nomads lend still to use the
natural colours exclusively for their dyes, town craftsmen and lagrc
workshops use many synthetic chromcbascd colours which do not have the
defects encountered in the aniline dyes. Chemistry also serves the
creators of Persian carpets by providing the means of toning down the
colours. This is called a reduction wash and is a chemical process which
blends and softens the colours, making them more like the colours of
antique carpets. It is a delicate operation which does not affect the
durability and strength of the carpet, and this is all the more reason
for purchasing carpets of a particular kind from a source where the
processes used have been perfected from all points of view. Often one
finds a Persian carpet which at first sight appears to have a defector a
rare effect according to one\'s point of view-but which is, however, a
characteristic peculiarity. Certain designs or backgrounds begun in one
shade of colour arc continued in the same colour but in a slightly
different shade, or simply with another colour. These discrepancies in
colour arc called abrash. Abrash are, in fact, those variations of
colour or shade which are particularly to be found in antique carpets.
The presence of abrash is proof that the carpet was dyed with vegetable
colourants. Indeed, with vegetable dyes it is very difficult to achieve
two identical shades of the same colour.
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KNOTS
As was pointed out at the beginning of the chapter, hand-knotting
is the essential characteristic of all Oriental carpets. The knots used
arc of two different kinds: the Turkish or Ghiordes, and the Persian or
Senneh. The use of Turkish or Persian to distinguish the two different
types of knot avoids confusion because these terms refer to the areas
where the type of knot is mostly used. The Turkish knot is prevalent in
Turkey and the Caucasus. The Persian knot is used mainly in Persia
(although oddly enough, in the town of Scnnch which gave its name to the
Persian knot, it is the Turkish knot which is mainly used for
carpet-making). In the Turkish knot the yarn is taken twice around two
adjacent warp threads and the ends are drawn out between these two
threads, (see sketch on opposite page). In the Persian knot the wool
thread forms a single turn about the warp thread. One end comes out over
this thread and the other over the next warp thread. By parting the pile
of the carpet, it is possible to sec a line of knots and determine
whether Turkish or Persian knots were used. With Turkish knots two ends
come out on lop of the knot, while in Persian knots one comes out at the
top and the other is at the side.
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THE WARP
As explained at the beginning of the chapter, the warp is the
combination of threads stretched between the two extremities of the
loom, around which the knots which form the pile are lied. Warp threads
are usually of cotton. In nomad carpets the warp is of wood. The warp
can be of silk in those rare carpets which arc made solely of this
material. The fringes of the carpel arc the ends of the warp threads.
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THE WEFT
The weft is formed by the thread or group of threads situated
between one line of knots and the next. The weft is of cotton, wool or
silk according to the material used for the warp. The function of the
weft is to hold the knots in parallel lines and to strengthen the fabric
of the carpet. In most carpets the weft consists of two threads, one
loose and one tight, which are woven across the warp after each line of
knots. The weft threads are beaten in against each row of knots with a
comb beater.
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THE TECHNIQUE OF WEAVING CARPETS
A carpet is always begun at the lower edge with the selvedge. A
certain number of weft threads are woven across the vertical warp
threads so as to form a stout edging which will keep the carpet intact,
prevent fraying and keep the knots tight. When the selvedge (which
contains no knots) is finished, the knotting of the woollen pile threads
on to the warp begins. Each piece of wool is fixed on to two adjoining
warp threads in accordance with one of the two main techniques, Turkish
or Persian. It is obvious that the price of a carpet depends on the time
it takes to make, and, basically, upon the number of knots it contains.
It is for this reason that over-hasty and at times cunning craftsmen use
an unorthodox knotting technique. The practice of double-knotting called
jufti is, for example, common.This double-knotting means that the piece
of wool which should be knotted across two warp threads is knotted
across four. This technique diminishes the value of the carpet by
reducing the density of the pile, thus making the decorative motifs less
clear. All the work of knotting is done by hand by a trained and swift
craftsman. On average, a good craftsman can make from 10,000 to 14,000
knots in a day. This is a tremendous amount of work, even though the
resulting piece of carpel may seem modest in si/c. Consider, however,
that to make a medium quality carpel (at about 160 knots per square
inch) and measuring about six feet by nine feet at a rate of 10,000
knots per day takes a good five months, and that in a whole day\'s hard
work the carpet grows by less than an inch across the whole width. If
the same carpet had a knot density of only 32 knots to the square inch,
however, it could be finished in a month. After each knot is lied, the
carpet-maker pulls about 2.75 inches of the wool he has used away from
the knot in a downward direction. This not only tightens the knot but
also determines the direction of the pile. It is, in fact, a
characteristic of Persian carpets that they appear different from
different points of view and according to the way the light falls on the
pile. Thus, when one wants to lay a Persian carpel in a room, it is
important to try it out in different positions. Often a change of
position can achieve a truly astonishing change of effect. When he has
finished a row of knots across the whole width of the warp, the weaver
passes the weft thread in and out of each of the warp threads. Generally
there arc two weft threads between each row of knots, one light and the
other loose. The pile is given its first cropping after four or six
rowsof knots have been made. (Sometimes, however, each row is cut
individually.) The ends of the knots are kept fairly long (about 2.75
in) whilst knotting is in progress. The final cropping will not take
place until the carpet is finished. Specialized craftsmen are used for
this work as it is a very delicate operation and one which gives the
final touch to the work. As a rule, very fine carpels arc cropped very
close, while a deeper pile is left on carpets with a lower knot density
because if these carpets were close-cropped the poor quality of the
fabric would be revealed. The kinds of cropping differ according to
custom and the demands of the market. Nomads, for example, tend to
retain a thich pile: the town craftsmen to crop it while the American
market, which has a powerful influence on present-day Persian
production, demands carpels with a fairly deep pile. The miracle which
attends the birth of every Persian carpet begins therefore at the
knotting stage. Millions of differently coloured knots arc patiently
aligned one against the other to form the patterns and motifs -sometimes
geometric, sometimes floral- but always full of imagination and style.
Among the nomads, colours and designs often grow instinctively out of
the basic tradition. There is no prc-ordaincd plan -just a general idea
which lakes into account the shape of the carpet to be made, the symbols
which are to appear on il, and the colours available. All the rest is
imagination, whim, skill and the innate creativity of the nomad. In the
cities, however, both in family workshops and larger concerns, the
carpet is born of a precise project by specialized artists who create
the design on a squared cartoon on which each square represents a knot.
When the carpet is to be made by one person on his own, the cartoon is
fixed to the loom at the worker\'s eye level. When two or more people
are concerned in the task, one of them reads aloud the number of knots
of each colour. If you visit a Persian village, it is not at all unusual
to hear an endless, monotonous chant coming from a house, ... one red
knot, two blue knots, three red knots.... This is the voice of the
head of the family working at the loom with his son, one beside the
other, with half a carpet each. At a rate of a few seconds per knot, the
carpet grows like a great mosaic in which each knot corresponds to a tessera. In workshops where there are many workers, the weaving is led
by the ustad (master) who superintends the entire manufacture of the
carpet and is personally responsible for the most important parts of il.
The carpet is finished as il was begun, with a selvedge. When the last
line of knots is finished, weft threads are interwoven with the warp
threads so as to form a firm finish. The surplus warp threads on each
end of the carpet arc used for the fringe which can be twisted or more
often knotted. When the carpel is removed from the loom, il is given a
final cropping and is then washed. The point of the washing process is
to remove the stiffness from the carpel and to restore the wool and
colours to their full purity. The carpet is then spread out to dry in
the sun and this is the last test of colour fastness.
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DESIGNS
Persian carpet can be divided so far as design is concerned into two
main groups. Carpets with a geometric design and carpet with a
curvilinear, known as floral carpets.
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GEOMETRIC DESIGN CARPETS
All the carpets in this group decorated with linear elements
composed of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines or formed by a
repetition of the same motifs. Carpets with geometric designs are woven
by nomadic tribes, with particular motives and designs. These motives
facilitates the attribution of a carpet to a particular tribe or place
of origin.
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PERSIAN CARPET DESIGN
The great feature of Persian design has always been its
intricate, symbolic patterns, which have fascinated experts and art
lovers throughout the world for centuries. Yet it is asserted by many
that the designs reflect not so much symbolism as the Persian\'s close
affinity with nature and a pure love of patterns as works of art. Nature
supplies the greatest inspiration to the carpet designer, although other
designs are adapted from such foreign sources as China and Arabia. In
all probability designs began hundreds of years ago with faithful
representations of trees, flowers, birds and clouds which, through the
creative and innovative genius of Persian art, became more and more
stylised with each succeeding generation. The most common motif for all
Persian rugs, especially the larger ones, is a large central medallion.
Yet, even if they are basically the same design, no two medallions are
ever exactly the same. Some experts believe that the medallion design
stems from the very religious nature of the weavers and that their
inspiration probably came from the domes of the mosques. In thinking of
patterns, the great Shah Abbas invariably springs to mind as the
inspiration for various patterns, all of which are inspired by the lily
often in an isolated central position linked only by delicate tendrils.
Another favourite is the pine or leaf pattern, a very graceful stem with
a slightly bent head, which proved the inspiration for the paisley
pattern, rather stereotyped and meaningless compared with its
instigator. The Herati pattern is also in rugs from all over Iran. It
derives from the town of Herat, now in Afghanistan but once part of the
Persian empire. A central diamond shaped figure framed by four slightly
curling leaves, is repeated several times. The Kurds use a similar
pattern known as Mina Khani. Weavers in Kerman sometimes include
portraits in their designs, including such European celebrities as
Napoleon and, of course, the Shahs and wealthy people of Iran. The Iran
Carpet Company has attempted to classify Persian carpet designs and to
this end it has carried out studies of thousands of carpets. The results
have shown that alterations were introduced into almost all original
designs. In its classification, the company has called the original
design the "main pattern" and the derivatives the "sub-patterns". There
are 19 groups of main patterns together with their sub-patterns.
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GROUP 1 - Patterns of Historic
Monuments and Islamic Buildings
In creating these patterns, the designers have been inspired by the
tilcwork, structure and geometric
shapes of ancient buildings. From the original patterns in this group,
artists have made many
sub-patterns, some of which are called Sheikh Loifollah, Mehrabi Kufi,
Kabood Mosque, Sheikh Safi
Shrine, Entrance to Mahroug Shrine, Gonbad Gaboos, Esfahan Shah Mosque,
Takhte Jamshid
(Perscpolis), Taghe Bostan, Taghe Kasra (Eyvane Madacn) and Zire Khaki.
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GROUP 2 - Shah Abbassi Patterns
In this group, the principal motif - a special flower known in Iran as
Shah Abbassi - is set off by other
florals and leaves in the background and border. Sub-patterns include:
Allover, Medallion, Tree,
Animal, Sheikh Safi, Embellished Shah Abbassi, Medallion, Bush and Plain
Ground.
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GROUP 3 - Spiral Patterns
The original of this group is composed of spiraling branches surrounded
by leaves. The end of each
branch splits to resemble the jaws of a dragon. The branches are
ornamented with foliate spurs known
as Eslimis. Among the sub-patterns of this group are Allover Spiral,
Interconnected Spiral, Broken
Spiral, and Medallion Spiral.
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GROUP 4 - Allover Patterns
All parts of Allover designs arc usually related and connected. In the
drawing of such designs, the
designer's pen is never lifted but continues from beginning to end, with
the exception of a pattern in
which brandies and leaves are scattered in the background. For this
reason, the name Afshan - Allover
- has been given to this group. Among the numerous variations are
Allover Spiral, Allover Khatai,
Allover Interconnected, Allover Broken, Allover Pomegranate Flower,
Allover Twisted Branch, Allover
Floral Bouquet, Allover Animal, Allover Medallion.
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GROUP 5 - Derivative Patterns
Some of these patterns resemble designs woven in the border areas of
Iran. Careful study shows that
some of them were originally Persian and borrowed by our neighbors.
Well-known patterns in this
group are Afghani, Caucasian and Gobelin.
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GROUP 6 - Interconnected Patterns
When a small piece of design is repeated and connected throughout the
length and breadth of a carpet,
the resulting pattern is called Bandi (interconnected). Subpatterns of
this group are many: Interconnected
Spiral, Interconnected Ivy, Interconnected Broken, Interconnected
Katibeh, Interconnected Mostowfi,
Interconnected Varamin, Interconnected Minakhani, Interconnected
Mud-brick Mold or Diamond,
Interconnected Panel, Interconnected Tree, Interconnected Milk and
Sugar, Interconnected Armlet,
Interconnected Cedar or Mulla Nasreddin, Interconnected Bakhtiari,
Interconnected Majlessi,
Interconnected Rope, Interconnected Bunch of Grapes, Interconnected Deer
Horn, Interconnected Shiraz Inlay, and Interconnected Floral Bouquet.
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GROUP 7 - Paisley Patterns
The basis of these designs is the head-bent paisley motif common in both
Indian and Iranian patterns
from olden times. In Persian carpets, the design takes different shapes
and sizes, some of the
best-known sub-patterns being Tufted Paisley, Deer Horn Paisley, Tcrmeh
Paisley, Saraband Paisley,
Kherghei Paisley, Esfahan Pcncasc Paisley, Kordcstani Paisley, Eightbush
Paisley, Broken Mir Paisley,
Sanandaj Paisley, Afshari Paisley and Armlet Paisley.
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GROUP 8 - Tree Patterns
Although stylized branches are a common motif in Persian carpel designs,
the socalled Tree patterns are
distinctive for their close resemblance to natural forms. Among the
sub-patterns are Animal Tree,
Green Field Tree, Panel Tree, Cedar Tree and Vase Tree.
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GROUP 9 - Turkoman Patterns (Bokharas)
Incorporating geometrical shapes and broken lines, Turkoman patterns are
of the nomadic tribal
type-products of the weaver's imagination rather than reproductions of
drawn designs. Sub-patterns of
this group are known as Turkoman Ghabc Yamouti, Comb Turkoman, Ghazel
Goz Turkoman, Akhal
Turkoman, Four-Panel Turkoman, Saddlebag Turkoman and Spoon Turkoman.
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GROUP 10 - Hunting Ground Patterns
As with the tree patterns, the animals depicted in these carpets are
lifelike. Sub-patterns include Tree
Hunting Ground, Panel Hunting Ground, Medallion Hunting Ground and
Allover Hunting Ground.
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GROUP 11 - Panel Patterns
The basis of this design is a multi-sided panel motif. Sub-patterns are
Spiral Panel, Koran Panel and
Column Panel.
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GROUP 12 - European Flower Patterns
These patterns are compositions of original Persian designs with roses
in light and dark colours.
Sub-patterns include Rose, Bijar Flower, Mostowfi Flower, Panel Flower,
Flower Bouqet, and Rose and
Nightingale.
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GROUP 13 - Vase Patterns
In these patterns, vases are used in different sizes: a large vase may
cover the whole carpet or a small
vase may be repeated throughout the ground. Among the many sub-patterns
are Khatai Vase, Two-Way
Vase, Mehrabi Vase, Allover Vase, Chain Vase, Haji Khanom Vase, Repeated
Vase, Scarf Medallion
and Vase, and One-way Vase.
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GROUP 14 - Intertwined Fish Patterns
Although varied and enriched by modern designers, this pattern,
originally a product of the nomadic
imagination, retains its tribal character. First woven in Birjand in the
province of Khorassan, the design
spread to become common as far away as Hamadan and Azerbaijan, where
each area made its own
distinctive alterations. Hence, we have Herat Fish, Farahan and Beehive
Fish, Sennch (Sanadaj) or
Kurdestan Fish, Tiny Fish, Fragmented Fish and Interconnected Fish.
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GROUP 15 - Mehrab Patterns
The original pattern represents the place in a mosque where the prayer
leader stands and is
ornamented with pillars, chandeliers and florals. Among the sub-patterns
are Tree Mehrab,
Vase-Column Mehrab, Chandelier Mehrab, Vase Mehrab and Landscape Mehrab.
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GROUP 16 - Striped (Moharramat) Patterns
This name is applied to designs which are repeated in stripes running
the length of a carpet, each stripe
having its own special motifs and colours. Some places in Iran, this
pattern is called Ghalamdani
(Pencase). Sub-patterns include Overall Pencase, Tiny Flower (with one
background colour) and Paisley
(with different background colours).
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GROUP 17 - Geometrical Patterns
These patterns have lines and geometrical shapes such as polygons, in
contrast to the majority of
Persian designs which have lines moving in curves and circles.
Sub-patterns are Geometrical Connected
Panel, Geometrical Medallion, Striped Geometrical, Geometrical Scarf
Medallion Plain Ground
Geometrical, Khatai Geometrical, Star or Mosaic Geometrical, Shiraz
Khatam Geometrical, and
Josheghan Geometrical.
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GROUP 18 - Tribal Patterns
The oldest and most original of Persian carpet-patterns, these elegantly
simple creations of the tribal
imagination were inspired by their natural surroundings. Transferred by
designers from one region to
another all over Iran, most of the patterns are named for the places
they were first woven or for the
influential individuals who ordered the weaving done. The oldest and
most famous sub-patterns in the
group are Heibatloo (associated with Abadeh and Fars Province),
Ghashghai Paisley, Afshari, Khatouni,
Ardebil, Mazlaghan, Khamseh, Saveh, Tafresh, Heris, Mehraban, Goravan,
Zanjan, Mcshkin, Bakhliari,
Sari, Koravi, Yalmaz, Gonabad, Sistan, Ferdows, Salarkhani, Yaghub
Khani, Sangchubi, Ali Mirzai,
Janbcggy, Prayer Rug, Javin, Musaabad, Veece, Gharachch, Senneh, Floral
Bouqcl and Baluchcstan.
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GROUP 19 - Composites
In addition to the 18 original patterns, each of which has a special
name and history, with the passage
of time new patterns have been created by combining two more of the
original patterns. Sub-patterns of
these composities are called Twisted Branch Medallion, Chain Medallion,
Interconnected Vase and
Spiral, Landscape Floral Bouquet, Green Field, Plain Ground and
Interconnected Floral Bouquet.
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CARPET CENTERS OF IRAN
ABADEH
About twenty years ago large Sedjades from Abadeh began to find their
way into the market. As to
their wool and the style of weaving, they are not unlike fine Afshari
carpets; while in their small,
rather realistic floral patterns they closely resemble certain Saidabad-
and Niris- Afsharis. The ground
is usually blue or off-white (ivory). Where red is employed it is a
rust-red.
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AFSHARI
The Afsharis are a nomadic tribe from the Dschesireh (the region between
the Trigris and the
Euphrates). But when they disputed with the Turkish Sultan over their
taxation. Shah Abbas the Great
invited them to move into Persia, where they have since been domiciled,
either as a nomadic or a
semi-nomadic population, especially in the region between Shiraz and
Kerman.
The Afshari rugs are brightly coloured. The predominant hues are
commonly blue, red, or ivory, in
a number of small patterns with infinite variations between stylized and
naturalistic floral motives.
Besides rugs of coarse texture, for which the so-called Tabachi (The
wool of the fleece removed
from dead sheep with lime) is employed, there are specimens of the very
finest quality, for which a
silky, glossy wool has been used. The finest are made in Saidabad, a
largish town of the semi-sedentary
Afshars.
The backs of the Afshari rugs often have a ribbed appearance, and
sometimes (for example, in
many of the carpels coming from saidabad) a coarsely woven foundation.
The Afshari rugs arc mostly of Scdjade size; that is, from 3 feet 4
inches to 4 feet 8 inches wide
and from 6 to 8 feet long, but there arc isolated specimens of about 6
feet 8 inches by 13 feet.
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ARAK
(SULTANA BAD)
Coming from Hamadan, the ancient Ecbalana, to Sullanabad, one is greatly
struk by the difference
between the two cities. Whilst in Hamadan traces of the past arc seen at
every step, Sultanabad, in its
neo-Pcrsian style, seems almost modern. Though a very old sclllcmcnt,
its antiquity is disguised by the
houses and other buildings which date from the last three decades of the
nineteenth century.
This city of Central Persia, owes its importance mainly to the carpet
industry. As the largest town
in the Mahallat, in all parts of which carpets arc made, it is the
function of Sultanabad to supply the
surrounding countryside with yarn requirements and very often to produce
the dyes; also to distribute
the orders which come from far and wide to the various individual
weaving establishments. Since
Sultanabad, as a city, offers many facilities beyond the reach of the
surrounding villages, the region's
1. Ribbed Back, or corded back. Fine weft-threads are threaded between
comparatively stout
warp-threads. This makes the warplhreads conspicuous on the back of the
carpet. The back of the
carpet has a ribbed or corrugated appearance .
best and finest carpets are woven in the city itself. These are the most
carefully worked Saruk-Mahals, a quality of carpet whose name is intended to convey the fact that one
is referring to Mahals, but
Mahals which are like Saruks; and also the so-called Saruks, those
closely knotted and closely clipped
products of the Sultanabad countryside, made exclusively with vegetable
dyes, which, despite their short
depth of pile, are, on account of the great excellence of their wool,
practically indestructible. Recently
Sultanabad has also been making a greet many Mahadshirans-a kind of
Saruk, very finely knotted, and
with a thick pile-for export to America.
In the 1860's the prominent and well-established Manchester firm of
Ziegler, in addition to its
many other activities in Persia, began to collect and export rugs and
carpets; finally, the firm decided
to organize a carpet-making industry of its own. As its centre
Sultanabad was selected. Beyond dispute,
the Ziegler concern brought new life into the city, though one may
perhaps fairly reproach it for setting
a bad example by introducing artificial dyes into the carpet-weaving
industry.
During the first world war Sultanabad suffered a certain decline. This
was mainly because many of
the merchant firms-(mostly Armenians) with one partner working in
Sultanabad and the other (perhaps
a brother) living in London or New York, were much too accommodating to
the prevalent taste for
chemical washing, making carpets alien to the traditional Persian idiom.
In 1920 several Europen firms set themselves the task of reviving the
pre-war traditions. To do
this, they had to buy old type rugs and carpets in other Persian cities,
and give them to the weavers so
that they might see at first hand specimens worthy to be reproduced.
They had also to search
throughout Persia for craftsmen, happily still to be found in country
districts, who were acquainted with
the art of vegetable dyeing and they established dye-plants of their own
where yarn could again be
dyed with natural colours. In Sultanabad they were thus able to effect a
genuine renaissance, that is of
the Saruks and Mahals, so that up to the outbreak of the last war it was
possible once more to obtain
from this neighbourhood, in addition to the long-piled rugs and carpets
manufactured for the American
market, the comparatively close-cut carpets made with genuine vegetable
dyes characteristic of this
important centre, and which were again produced in the native patterns
and designs, including the
Mahi, the palmettes of various dimensions, the little Scrabend pattern,
the Gul-Hcnna, etc.
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BAGSHAISH
The Bagshaish district runs from west to east, from Lake Urmia to the
neighbourhood of the city of
Heriz. Two kinds of carpets bear this name. The older carpets arc
distinguished by their glossy wool
and their rich vegetable dyes; they often display variants of the
different Fcrahan designs, and are
usually about 6 feet 8 inches by 13 feet 4 inches. The more recent
specimens arc like Gravan carpels,
with more or less geometrical patterns, but distinguishable by their
glossier wool. They arc coarsely
knotted.
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BAKTIARI
Baktiari rugs are large rugs made by a tribe of that name living to the
south of Mahallat, between
Hamadan and Ispahan. They are dyed almost exclusively with vegetable
colours, and are of medium
quality. In the poorest quality Tabachi is used a rather dry wool, which
is seldom glossy.
During the last twenty years there has been a revival of this industry,
which may be attributed to
the foresight of the wife of a tribal chief, who was the victim of a
political intrigue. She had realized
that the tribe's welfare could be promoted by the production of good
rugs or carpets and did her utmost
to encourage the industry by the adoption of such measures as, for
example, finding for copying
good-specimen rugs produced in the past. There are really only two sizes
in Baktiari rugs: the Sedjade,
and a larger size, about 6 feet 6 inches by 9 feet 9 inches.
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BALUCHI
Baluchi carpets are dark and often dull in colour. They are not made in
Baluchistan, but produced by
the Baluchi nomads of the eastern parts of Khorassan, who sometimes even
cross into Russian Central
Asia and Afghanistan.
Of Baluchi carpets there are the Meshed-Baluchi, the finest quality from
the neighbourhood of the
city of Meshed, the Kudouanis, and the Arabs, etc. The Arabs are the
coarsest, though occasional
specimens are remarkable for their fine wool and their pleasing design.
Naturally, nomads do not find
it possible to produce large carpets like those made in workshops. The
dimensions of their rugs range
from 2 feet 3 inches to 2 feet 7 inches wide by 3 feet 11 inches to 4
feet 3 inches long, and up to 3
feet 11 inches by 7 feet 6 inches. Single specimens may be as much as 6
feet 6 inches wide and 10 feet
or even 11 feet long. Their colours are always dark red and deep indigo,
and vegetable dyes are used
almost without exception. Occasional specimens may include white or
cream, but more frequently light
fawn or camel-hair brown. For the latter colour undyed camel's wool is
often, though not invariably,
employed.
Kuduani is a well-known kind of carpet, dark in colour, produced by the
Baluchi tribes. In
contrast to another kind of carpet knotted by Baluchis-namely, the
"Arab," which has a ribbed
appearance on the reverse side-the backs of the Kuduanis are smooth and
they are generally so
smoothly shorn that they are almost velvety. In pattern and colouring
they resemble the other so-called
Baluchi carpets, and like these are made in saddle-bags, square and
oblong in size, as well as in small
and large Sedjade size. Individual specimens are larger still.
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BIDJAR
Bidjar describes those Persian carpets which are immediately
distinguishable from others by the
thickness of their pile. They have long been manufactured in the city of
Bidjar and its environs. To
some extent the term is applied also to carpets produced in the
surrounding district of Gerus, but
whereas the genuine Gerus carpets almost always display the same pattern
(the so-called Do-Gule, a
design of rosettes and palmettes, endlessly repeated) the pattern of the
Bidjars is hardly ever
geometrical, but marked by great diversity, ranging from the smallest
Herati pattern to very large
palmettes, like those in the "vase carpets." The background may be
uniform, or covered with a design
of corners and medallions; or without medallions.
Bidjar, a large city to the north-west of Hamadan, has long been
important as a carpet-making
centre. It also keeps Gerus supplied with patterns and orders.
The characteristic of the Bidjar carpet is a comparatively long pile on
a twofold warp. The lengths
of yarn so protrude from the foundation that a Bidjar carpet can
scarcely be folded in the usual
manner, with the back outside. To do so might easily break the warp and
weft threads. Bidjar carpets
should therefore be folded face outwards.
The weft threads are comparatively numerous, and strong; the carpets are
indeed often so made
that in addition to the weft threads which run in and out of the warp
there is at intervals a thicker and
more loosely twisted intermediate weft which does not run in and out of
the warp.
Bidjars are made in Sedjade sizes, and also in bigger sizes, up to 13
feet by 20 feet or even larger,
while the old Gerus carpets are almost always Keleis.
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BORCHALOU
Borchalou is a small district of only a couple of dozen village.
Sittuated east of Hamadan. The carpet
woven there are the only products in great Hamadan area to display the
curvilinear pattern of more
cultivated carpet.
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DJOSHEGAN
Especially beautiful carpets were once produced in Djoshegan. Those
dating from the eighteenth and the
beginning of the nineteenth century were so like the Herat carpets that
it is natural to assume that
Nadir Shah, after the conquest of Afghanistan, may have transferred some
of its carpet-makers to the
city of Djoshegan, which lies not very far from Ferahan. The prevailing
patterns of the old Djoshegan
carpets have as their motifs the different varieties of the palmette:
the wreathed palmette, the
fanpalmette, and the flowering palmetto. These are worked in detail,
with an extremely pleasing effect,
but in the Djoshegan carpets they are never connected by tendrils, as in
the "vase carpets." The
Djoshegan carpets often have Herati borders of exceptional beauty.
According to older authors, the city
of Djoshegan is supposed to have been destroyed by the earthquakes of
1848, while others say it was
deserted by its inhabitants on account of a famine (or lack of water?)
which may have been caused by
an earthquake. At all events, no Djoshegan carpets are known to have
been produced in the second half
of the nineteenth century.
In examining one Djoshegan carpet a method of knotting not found in any
other Persian carpet has
been detected: the yarn embraces not two warp threads, as usual, but
four.
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FERAHAN
Two sorts of carpets are known as Ferahans. The district of Ferahan lies
between the cities of Kum and
Kashan, extending westwards almost as far as the township of Sultanabad,
while in the south-west it
meets the Mahallat. To the south-west lies the city of Djoshegan, famed
for the beauty of its carpets.
While Keleis of exceptional quality, and occasional Sedjades, were
formerly made in Ferahan, to-day
many carpets come from the Ferahan district which in Europe and America
arc known as Mahals.
Apparently, after the conquest of Afghanistan by Nadir Shah,
carpet-makers from the conquered
city of Herat were moved to Persia, where they settled; for after the
decline of carpet-weaving in
Herat the Herati design (known also as the Mahi design) and the Herati
borders were reproduced in
Ferahan and the neighbouring city of Djoshegan. The earlier Ferahan
carpets found their way more
especially to England, where the type was greatly esteemed as a
"gentleman's carpel". The peculiarity of
the Herati design as produced in the Ferahan district-a small pattern,
endlessly repeated, consisting of a
rosette with two lanceolate leaves, which point in various directions-is
that on account of the disposition
of the pattern distinct though not unduly obtrusive lines appear,
vertical, horizontal, and even diagonal.
The Herati border which usually surrounds this design-in contrast to the
carpets formerly produced in
Herat itself, in which the ground was dyed with surmey (that is, a dark
indigo blue)-is almost always a
Stone-green in colour. The Persians call this green Ab-i-sangaer. The
greenish tone was formerly
obtained with Isperek (Persian "wolf's milk" = spurge) and sulphate of
copper. This, however, produced
a tone so light and misty that the Herati border contrasted strongly
with it, while a mixture of indigo
and a yellow dye gave too crude and heavy a tone. Sulphate of copper has
the disadvantage that it
gradually attacks the wool, though its action does not penetrate so
deeply as to result in the
disintegration of the knots; it does, however, attack the pile rising
from the warp and weft. The result
is that in many of the older Ferahan carpets the palmettes, and the two
lanceolate leaves depending
from each of the tendrils proceeding from these palmettes, stand out in
relief from the green
background, which produces a very beautiful plastic effect.
The first Ferahans date from the second half of the eighteenth century.
Excellent examples have
survived from the first half of the nineteenth century, and some are
even more recent.
The industry which was revived in Sultanabad and the Mahallat in the
'eighties produced
extensively for export, in contrast to the old Ferahan workshops, which
were primarily employed in
satisfying home requirements. The revived industry owed its existence to
the old carpet-factories and
has much in common with the old product as regards the type of knot, the
material, the dyes, and the
depth of pile. The thick carpets more recently made in Sultanabad for
the U.S.A. in particular, with a
pile sometimes as much as 2.2 cm deep, first came into fashion about
1910, after the Americans had
begun to wash their Oriental carpets chemically, which is more easily
done when they have a deep pile.
With the very short pile of earlier Ferahan carpets there was some
danger in chemical washing to the
wool forming the knots. The American quality of Sultanabad carpets is
called Mahadshiran.
The carpets produced to-day in the Ferahan district, the Mahallat and
Sultanabad are of all sizes.
Fortunately, they are coloured almost exclusively with vegetable dyes.
Only the Mahadshirans are
occasionally coloured with synthetic dyes. Why this should be so is
obvious: these dye-stuffs are more
easily bleached.
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GHAIN
An important city of Khorassan, lying between Biredchend and Meshed,
which produced great numbers
of carpets at the close of the eighteenth century and especially during
the first half of the nineteenth
century. The Namase or Sedjade sizes are comparatively rare; most of the
Ghain carpets are Keleis,
from 6 feet 6 inches to 10 feet wide and 13 feet to 20 feet long. The
Ghain carpets have a very short
pile and are rarely of more than medium-fine quality. Since they are
made entirely of the very lustrous
but unfortunately very soft wool of Khorassan, which would not wear well
under local conditions
though trodden only by unshod feet, these carpets are often found worn
out, though only a few decades
old. Our hard footwear would have played havoc with them.
Cream, dark blue, medium blue, and occasionally madder-red are the most
usual colours of the
ground. A comparatively large number of carpets occur with medallions
and corners, in which the
ground between the medallion and the corners is plain. In addition to
these widespread designs the
Herati design is also found, and very often rows of more or less
stylized palm-leaves run across the
carpet or its diagonals; animals, too, usually in almost natural but
often also in stylized form are not
uncommon. In the older Ghain-Kelei's a pattern is found in which the
branching tendrils forming the
corners take the form of a bird's neck with head and bill. (A swan's
neck?)
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GHARADAGH
To the south of the Caucasian province of Gharabagh (black garden) and
south of the River Aras lies
the Persian district of Gharadagh (Black Mountain). In all these
mountain valleys between Tabriz and
the Caspian Sea carpels of varying quality are made. Almost every
village has its own pattern,
composed generally of ornaments representing flowers or plants, often in
geometric forms and
frequently combined with stylized animals. The sizes are nearly always,
but not exclusively, Kenares,
which range between 3 feet 4 inches by 10 feet and 3 feet 4 inches by 18
feet to 20 feet.
In the trade the finer qualities are usually described as Gharadjas,
which is merely a dialect form
of Gharadaghs, just as the city of Tabriz is often called Tarbiz by the
inhabitants. Among traders, too,
these carpets also pass by the name of "Ardebils," because the city of
Ardebil is the centre where most
of the Gharadaghs are collected for the Tabriz bazaar.
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GHARADJA
(see Gharadagh). Recently the name Karadja has been applied to a variety
of Gravan and Heris
carpets-two places which lie in this locality. With typical rectilinear
designs, Karadjas occur as Namases
and also as comparatively wide Sed jades. They are also made in sizes
ranging from 6 feet 3 inches by
10 feet to 13 feet by 20 feet.
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GHASHGHAI
The Ghashghais, one of the largest Persian tribes, partly nomadic and
partly sedentary or
semi-sedentary inhabit the region north-west of Shiraz extending to the
border of the Mahallat province.
Their immediate neighbours on the north-west are the Baktiaris, another
important tribe. Together with
certain neigh-bouring tribes known as Arabs or Torkis, the Ghashghais
are the principal manufacturers
of the carpets known to the trade as "Shiraz carpets." The Ghashghai
carpets are sometimes even called
"Meccas," though not in Persia. They exhibit the features typical of
nomad carpets: that is, they consist
entirely of wool, which is of the highest quality, very springy and with
a silky lustre. Vegetable dyes
are used exclusively, and even among the most recent productions it is
rare to find one in which
artificial dyes have been used. The sizes in which these carpets are
made are: Pushtis, Namases,
comparatively wide Sed jades, carpets of from 3 feet 4 inches by 10 feet
to 8 feet by 11 feet and, of
course, Kelei's. In many the ground is dark blue, probably so that the
dark wool of the sheep can be
used in their manufacture; a reddish-brown is also used. As to the
patterns, a somewhat compressed
form of the Ferahan design is often seen, while floral ornaments and
representations of plants or shrubs
are frequent. In former times the ornaments often included the Indian
leaf, and small stylized domestic
animals, apparently dogs, sheep, fowls, etc. Some decades ago a design
not infrequently used was the
so-called Ashkali pattern. While the basis of the main Ashkali design
consists largely of geometric
rosettes, the border often has a pattern of rosettes separated one from
another by a sloping line.
Between each pair or rosettes lie two comb-like formations in a slanting
position. In the author's
opinion the Ashkali border is merely a very primitive and geometric form
of the Herati border. In the
Ashkali border also one often finds small stylized animals.
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GRAVAN
Gravan carpets are the coarse or medium-fine carpets woven in the
Bagsheich district; they are made
mostly with vegetable dyes, madder-red, dark or medium blue, and cream
predominating. Not all the
Gravans are produced in the village of that name which is near the city
of Heris. In the trade the
coarser qualities of this type of carpet are described in general as
Gravans. Their design is in most
cases the medallion with corners, though individual specimens have a
repeating pattern.
They are made as wide Sed jades and in all sizes between 6 feet 8 inches
by 10 feet and 13 feet by
20 feet and even 16 feet by 25 feet.
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HAMADAN
A Persian city, lying at an altitude of 6,500 feet, and an important
centre of the carpet industry. Since
carpets are woven in the whole of the surrounding region, it is not
surprising that in the city itself a
great number of accessory industries are established. The wool is often
spun in the city, and is then sent
into the country, where weaving is carried on as in Hamadan itself.
Hamadan is also a centre for the
dyeing of yarn. Though carpets have been produced there for centuries,
not all those described as
Hamadans come from the city itself, but from the surrounding districts.
The older Hamadan carpets
were coloured exclusively with vegetable dyes, but in the city itself,
since the 1880's, the industry has
gradually adopted the use of aniline colours. It is principally the red
which is an aniline colour,
vegetable dyes being employed for the other colours. Formerly madder was
used for all tones of red,
and also a dye which is very seldom met with elsewhere in Persia (its
use is known only in certain of
the older Shiraz carpets, or saddle-bags), namely, Laqi or Shellac,
which comes from India.
The stuff is produced by an insect that lives under the bark of the
banyan tree. The insect makes
the tree exude a gum-shellac. This is used in the manufacture of
varnishes and lacquers. The residue
yields a dyestuff from which a red like cochineal can be obtained. In
India it is often used for the
finest carpets. The Indians call the colour "laq" and the Persians
"laqi."
Most of the smaller sizes of carpets or rugs described as Hamadan-that
is, the carpets of Namase
and Sedjade size-are produced not in the city itself, but in the
surrounding district. This is quite
understandable, for even the nomads would experience little difficulty
in dismantling and transporting
the small looms required. Formerly, Hamadan carpets seem to have been
made chiefly in Ghalidshe and
Kelei sizes-that is, in widths varying from 7 feet 6 inches to 8 feet
and lengths of from 20 to 25 feet,
and the usual pattern in proportion to the size consisting of a long
diamond, often with a plain red
ground. The knotting of the Hamadans is not very fine, and Tabachi is
often used. Of recent years
large carpets of from 6 feet 8 inches to 10 feet wide and 13 feet to 20
feet long have been made in
Hamadan, mostly with a deep pile. The older Hamadans are characterized
by patterns in different
shades of the same colo
