Turkmen Rug

Turkmen Rug
Design of Turkmen Rug (Rugman)
General information
Name	Turkmen Rug
Original name	قالی ترکمن
Alternative name(s)	Turkmen Carpet
Origin	Iran: Golestan, Khorasan
Category	Village
Technical information
Common designs	Vagireh, Geometric, Tribal
Common colors	Crimson, Navy Blue, White, Green, Red, Brown, Yellow, Blue, Camel
Dyeing method	Natural, Synthetic
Pile material	Wool, Silk
Foundation material	Wool, Cotton
Knot type	Symmetrical (Turkish), Asymmetrical (Persian)

Turkmen rugs are handmade in northwestern Iran, parts of Turkey, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Syria, and parts of the former Soviet Union. They are usually very similar to one another and very distinguishable from Persian rugs. The patterns that they normally incorporate are all over geometric patterns with the main color being a rich burgundy, which is exclusive to the Turkmens. Often prayer rugs are made in these regions with the same color scheme. They are sometimes referred to as Caucasian carpets. These beautiful articles are genuine and authentic and will add some exotic flavor to a room.

History

Turkmen are a large ethnic Turkic tribal group living in the independent republic of Turkmenistan, and in neighboring countries of Central Asia. Turkmenistan was once part of the historical region of Turkestan. Today it is bordered by Uzbekistan to the north and west, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran in the southwest, the Caspian Sea in the west, and Kazakhstan to the northwest. An estimated to percent of the Turkmen population is settled in northeastern Iran, and another to percent live in northwestern Afghanistan. The Turkmen people live as seminomads, migrating seasonally to work in agriculture, raise livestock, and raise sheep. The women weave traditional tribal items along with rugs and carpets.
Over the centuries, Turkmen tribes migrated from the mountain ranges of Central Asia to Anatolia (Turkey) and Persia (Iran). Influences of Turk-men styles are clearly seen in Anatolian, Caucasian, and most Persian tribal weavings. In Anatolia, villages from western and Central Anatolia include the popular Turkmen Gul (flower) motif in their rug designs. In addition, the Yoruk and Kurd tribes of Anatolia widely apply Turkmen motifs. In the Caucasus region, weaving districts such as Gendje, Kazak, Kuba, and Shirvan have also incorporated the Turkmen gul in their weavings. In Persia, the Afshar, Baluch, Kurd, Lori, Qashqai, and Shahsavan tribes have incorporated Turkmen gul motifs into their designs ever since they started weaving tribal items. Some of these Persian tribes can trace their heritage back to the Turkestan region.
The Turkmen population is divided into several tribes, each of which has its own identifiable designs, coloration, and weaving technique. Notable Turkmen weaving tribes are the Tekke and Yomut living largely in the central and western regions of Turkmenistan. The Arabatchi, Chodor, Ersari, Salor, and Saryk, among other groups, are also known for weaving Turkmen carpets throughout Turkmenistan. Each tribe has its own gul motif style, and they incorporate neighboring tribal gul designs into their weavings. Inside the Turkmen gul motifs can be found Hook motifs, Star motifs, flowers, leaves, E, S, or C shapes, animals, and other tribal devices, which make the guls emblematic and intriguing. Most Turkmen gul motifs have names; for example, the Temirchin, Dyrnak, Gabsa, Turret, Tauk Nuska, Ertmen, Kurbaghe, Chuval, and Gulli Gul (also called "Gushly Gun. Some of these guls are minor (smaller) flower motifs in the overall carpet design. In addition, guls are at times given names within the antique market, such as Octagon, C, Eagle, and Compartment Guls.
Turkmen rugs are known in the antique market from the eighteenth century. The rugs have a wool foundation with a wool pile. Cotton was also used for the weft. At times, silk or cotton is woven to high-light the design elements. Either the Turkish (symmetric) or Persian (asymmetric) knot is employed in weaving.
Early Turkmen rugs were produced for daily family necessities and decorations. Woven items include Engsi Rugs (tent doors), Kapunuk (tent door decorations), animal trappings, Asmalyk Rugs (bridal trappings), tent bands, Juval (storage or transport bags), grain bags, Namakdan (salt) bags, Paneer (cheese) bags, Mafrash (pillows or small bags), Torba (tent storage bags), and Okbash (decorative tent pole coverings). Turkmen weavers also produced Namazlyk (prayer rugs). Most Namazlyk rugs that appear in the market date from the turn of the twentieth century, but Ersari examples can be as early as the eighteenth century.
Turkmen rugs are mostly geometric in design, but can also have floral styles. Traditional designs have two different gul motifs repeated vertically and horizontally woven throughout the field. The gul sizes are interpreted as major and minor motifs in alternating rows in a balanced arrangement. Some designs have thin woven lines crisscrossing through the center of the major gul motifs and throughout the background. These lines create a subtle compartment-box pattern that frames the minor gul in the center. Turkmen design motifs include gull, Shrub motifs, flowers, curled leaves, birds, animals, and other tribal ornaments. Most Turkmen main (room-size) carpets have extended horizontal panels on the upper and lower portions featuring Turkmen motifs. Some small tribal weavings also have an extended plain color field on the lower portion. Many earlier Turkmen main carpets have a long woven kilim finish on the upper and lower parts of the carpet. At times, this kilim is decorated with horizontal stripes in different coloration.
Turkmen weavings of Iran are from Tekke and Yomut tribes. The designs have traditional major and minor gul motifs similar to the gul styles of Turkmenistan. From the early twentieth century, these Iranian weavings were commercialized and produced in large quantities for export to the West. These Turkmen tribal items are marketed in the cities of Gurgan and Gunbadeh Kavus, the center of the Turkmen tribal location in northeastern Iran. These weavings eventually reach wholesalers in the Meshad and Tehran bazaars.
The Turkmen production in Afghanistan is primarily from Ersari subtribes that use their traditional designs and coloration. The famous Ersari (Beshir) weavings use mostly Persian designs. Other Ersari subtribes weave the Turkmen gul in large octagonal shapes called "Filpa", meaning "elephant footprint" in Farsi. By the early twentieth century, these woven products reached the towns of Balkh and Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, and were finally marketed for wholesale in the capital city of Kabul.
The Ersari tribe has borrowed different design patterns from other tribes of Turkmenistan. Along with the Turkmen gul, the weavers also adopted famous Persian semigeometric and floral designs such as the Boteh (paisley), Herati (fish), and Minakhani (rosette-linked trellis) motifs and the Lattice pattern. These designs were made for small tribal weavings and oversize carpets, which was uncommon among Turkmen weavers. The Ersari adopted popular eastern Turkestan fruit motifs, such as pomegranates, and they are occasionally used in Prayer Rugs. Today these prayer designs are famous in Turkmenistan tribal weavings. In the antique market, Ersari rugs are also known as Beshir rugs, named for the town at the center of the Ersari tribal area.
A famous Turkmen rug is a tent door called Engsi. Engsi Rugs are only woven among the Turkmen tribes and are primarily made as a tent flap, but are also used as tent decorations and for prayer purposes. The rug features one or several small arch designs in the top portion of the rug. The back-ground has four rectangular shapes divided by stylized beam motifs. These beautiful tent doors have several borders and extended horizontal panels featuring shrubs, flowers, and tribal designs. On rare occasions, one of these panels has an arrangement of animal or bird motifs.
Bridal camel trappings are one of the Turkmen items that are popular among collectors. These weavings are called Asmalyk Rugs and can have between five and seven sides to cover a camel during a bridal procession. Asmalyk designs are quite beautiful, with various guls repeated with ornaments, birds, flower bouquets, shrubs, and other decorative motifs. Occasionally, an animal caravan carrying a bridal dowry is woven on the top portion of the rug. At times, they have a partial-silk pile in the design elements. In the antique market, bridal camel trap-pings are in demand, and some have reached as high as six figures in price.
Turkmen tribal weavers made tent bands to decorate the inside of their circular dome-shaped tents. Tent bands are woven in a brocaded flatwoven technique with knotted pile ornamental motifs. The designs feature beautifully woven shrubs, trees, animals, birds, and several tribal patterns.
It should be noted that Turkmens in all areas make flatwoven rugs out of necessity for their day-to-day livelihood. They weave Palas floor coverings, bags, tribal items, and backings for all pile bags. Turkmen Shadda rugs are made for decorations and bridal dowries ("Wedding Curtains"). An important eighteenth-century Shadda Wedding Curtain is preserved in the Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg; this curtain type is very rare worldwide. Other popular Turkmen woven items are embroidered dresses, robes, and overcoats. These garments have a cheerful coloration and are enjoyed by collectors.
Turkmen weavers also make tribal items with a mixed technique of knotted pile and flatwoven stripes throughout the rug. The flatwoven parts of the rug are plain colored, and the pile areas have horizontal stylized stripes that create a compartment/panel style appearance of different sizes throughout the rug. The compartments feature flowers, guls, shrubs, stars, and S motifs, as well as other tribal design elements.
In the early nineteenth century, visitors and diplomats from the West purchased Turkmen weavings on a limited basis, since the roads in the region were outdated and the tribes had difficulty exporting their products. By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, road and railroad improvements helped Turkmen weavers transport their products to meet demand. The tribal simplicity of Turkmen designs and coloration became very popular in the Western market, and weaving production expanded remarkably. During this period, many households in Turkmenistan, Iran, and Afghanistan had looms for rug and main-carpet weaving.
In the Western markets, early Turkmen rugs were named after the famous city of Bukhara in Turkestan. Although the Bukharan population is not Turkmen in ethnicity, the city was a vibrant trade center for tribal weavings in the region, and Turkmen rugs were associated with the city name. By the early twentieth century, with the recognition of tribal art weavings by the Turkmens, the Western markets began to identify Turkmen rugs by tribal origin instead of Bukhara. Dealers from around the world replaced the Bukhara name with the Turkmen tribe name.
In the twentieth century, the Turkmen gul design was used in Pakistani weaving productions for an extended period of time. These rugs were introduced as Bukhara rugs to the West for better marketing. Turkmen tribes who migrated to Pakistan began this production.
Early Turkmen rug coloration generally ranges from brick-red to dark reddish brown for the field. In addition, different shades of brown, ivory, beige, dark blue, dark green, coral, and orange were utilized for the borders, guls, and other design motifs. After World War II, market demand for additional colors began to impact Turkmen fields and borders. The ancillary colors included ivory, blues, greens, and gold.
The formats mainly range from bag faces and tribal items to small room-size rugs. Only Ersari weavers are known to weave oversize carpets. Kilims are woven in formats ranging from tribal items to small room-size rugs.
Turkmen weavings range from good to fine in grade quality. It is important to note that after World War II some silk foundation and silk pile rugs woven by Iranian Turkmens have appeared in the Tehran wholesale markets.
In the antique market, Turkmen tribal weavings are considered an art form. Around the world, museums and collectors actively acquire these beautiful nomadic woven creations.

See also

Search for Turkmen Rug on Wikipedia.

Bibliography

• Abraham Levi Moheban. 2015. The Encyclopedia of Antique Carpets: Twenty-Five Centuries of Weaving. NewYork: Princeton Architectural Press.