Persian Carpets/Tribal Carpets

Written by Siawosch Azadi. An earlier version of this article was originally published as Siawosch Azadi. "CARPETS xiv. Tribal Carpets". Encyclopædia Iranica. IV/8, pp. 893-896.

The term “tribal carpets” includes both floor coverings and other objects woven by nomads and semi-nomads for their own needs. Although the terms “Persian carpet” and “Oriental carpet” theoretically cover all carpets produced in the Iranian world, as a rule they are taken to refer only to the finely knotted floral carpets manufactured in cities like Mašhad, Kermān, Kāšān, Isfahan, Tabrīz, and so on.

xiv. Tribal Carpets

The term “tribal carpets” includes both floor coverings and other objects woven by nomads and semi-nomads for their own needs. Although the terms “Persian carpet” and “Oriental carpet” theoretically cover all carpets produced in the Iranian world, as a rule they are taken to refer only to the finely knotted floral carpets manufactured in cities like Mašhad, Kermān, Kāšān, Isfahan, Tabrīz, and so on. Knowledge of rural carpets, especially nomadic carpets, is still very limited because specialists in carpet studies have generally interested themselves only in court carpets from the 10th/16th and 11th/17th centuries, often going so far as to dismiss other weavings as peripheral local products of no scholarly interest. For example, the noted early authority Wilhelm von Bode stressed the necessity of distinguishing “mainstream Persian from provincial work and the typical from what is only of historical or local interest”. Half a century later Kurt Erdmann expressed the same fundamental notion in an only slightly modified form. The European assumption that an art form is generally developed in an ecclesiastical or courtly environment and then is imitated with varying degrees of simplification and misunderstanding in more popular settings cannot, however, be applied to study of Persian carpets. In fact, the carpet was not introduced as a courtly art but was evolved among nomadic peoples at an early date. During the approximately 150 years when Safavid power was at its height perhaps 2,000-3,000 court carpets were produced; connoisseurs are familiar with most of those that survive. In the same period, however, approximately 2 million carpets were made by nomads, peasants, and city dwellers on the Iranian plateau. These weavings should not automatically be labeled Safavid carpets, however, for they cannot be viewed as such.
In Persia rural carpets have been made in nearly every possible technical variation and for a wide range of uses. Yet there are many nomadic groups whose works are absolutely unknown, and the weavings of other groups have been only very imperfectly studied and described. For that reason there are still many objects of which the function is obscure; in this connection it must be acknowledged that at present the nomads of Iran, as elsewhere, are experiencing a sudden and irreversible change in their way of life, owing to the impact of modern communications media. Tribal weavings can thus already be said to belong to an earlier cultural phase.
Almost all nomadic weavers work on horizontal looms, in contrast to village and urban weavers, who usually work on vertical looms. For warps, wefts, and pile they normally use wool from sheep that they shear themselves. The wool used for warps is two-plied with an S twist and Z spin; usually the wefts are also of wool, two-plied and Z spun but with an S twist so slight that they cannot properly be said to be twisted. The Baḵtīārī almost always used undyed cotton for warps and wefts, though wool was the primary material for knotting. The Šāhsevan and Afšār used cotton for wefts and the former occasionally for warps as well. Both warps and wefts of Qaragözlü works from the turn of this century and earlier were of cotton, the main feature that distinguishes these works from carpets produced by the Šāhsevan from around Sarāb. The latter are identical or very similar in color and design and in the extensive use of undyed camel hair; usually, however, there are two weft shoots after each row of knots, whereas in Qaragözlü pieces from the Hamadān area there is only one. Among other groups camel hair is seldom used for warps, though occasionally it is used for pile, usually undyed. Goat hair is not often used in Persia, though it is more common in Afghanistan. The use of silk for wefts is attested in the finest objects produced by the Qašqāʾī, the Ḵamsa confederation, and the Göklan Turkmen. Whereas it was the custom in the first two tribes to introduce pairs of ruby-red silk wefts only in pieces of exceptional quality, the Göklan normally used undyed silk wefts, a practice that distinguished their work from that of all other Turkman tribes in Iran and elsewhere; they were able to do so because they cultivated silk. It is rare for silk to be used for knotting in nomad works; when it is used, it is limited to small areas and is a sign of the highest luxury.
Nomads traditionally obtained most of their dyes from natural sources. The most common red was madder. Yellow was obtained from weld and turmeric, as well as from grape leaves, pomegranate rinds, walnut shells, and many other vegetal sources. Indigo usually had to be purchased or obtained through barter. Although the plant was cultivated in Kermān and Ḵūzestān, the best kinds came from India. Most nomads dyed their wool themselves, but for certain shades, like blue, the yarn had to be sent to professional dyers.
Tribal carpets are known to have been produced in the following regions.
Azerbaijan. The Šāhsevan in particular have been making carpets, mainly gelīms and sumaks but also knotted carpets, since the 11th/17th century. In contrast to the floral carpets from urban workshops in Azerbaijan, the Šāhsevan carpets have geometric designs. Such carpets were first comprehensively exhibited in 1971 at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg and the Museum für Kunsthandwerk in Frankfurt. In addition to the Šāhsevan, the Kurdish tribes of Azerbaijan, especially in the Qarādāḡ region, weave carpets that are very similar to those of the Šāhsevan and of Kurdish groups in the neighboring districts of Iraq, Turkey, and the southern Caucasus.
Kurdistan. Aside from the urban products of this western Persian province there are also Kurdish nomadic carpets, the best known of which are those of the Sanjābī and Kolyāʾī, though until the recent publication of two monographs little research had been done on Kurdish weaving at all. On the other hand, there are Afšār in Kurdistan, mainly settled north of Bījār, whose works have hardly been studied; their early production in this province had red wool wefts, as did the carpets of the main body of this tribe, which is located primarily in the province of Kermān. There are also several Šāhsevan groups in Kurdistan; they produce work similar to that of their fellow tribesmen in Azerbaijan, though naturally with some differences. For example, their mafrašes are ornamented only on the front sides, whereas in Azerbaijan all four sides are decorated. Until the turn of this century members of the Qaragözlü tribe, who may already have been half-settled, wove carpets; most so-called “Hamadān carpets,” which incorporate undyed camel’s hair, are products of the Qaragözlü.
Isfahan. The following nomadic tribes in this province have traditions of rug weaving: the Lorī; the Baḵtīārī, the largest tribal group in Iran; the Kurds, probably Lak, whose works are unknown; and the settled Qašqāʾī, Lorī, and other groups, who presumably play a significant role as weavers of so-called Hinegun carpets.
Fārs. The Qašqāʾī, with their numerous subtribes and clans, form the largest weaving group. Other tribal weavers in the province include the Boir Aḥmad; the Mamasanī; and the Ḵamsa confederation, which consists of the Nafar, ʿArab, Bāṣerī, Bahārlū, and Aynallū tribes, on whose work no research seems to have been conducted. It is not known whether the Afšār and Kurds of this province produced carpets.
Kermān. The main tribal carpet weavers are Afšār, whose works have been treated only superficially in general works. Although the majority of the Baluch tribes live in Kermān and Baluchistan, they produce very few carpets. Whether or not the Kurds of the province of Kermān weave carpets is entirely unknown.
Khorasan. This province has the most varied population of tribal weavers in Iran. Beside the Baluch the Tīmūrī, the Brahui, the ʿArab, and the Barbarī all work in the Baluch tradition, as do the Jamšīdī, whose carpets are somewhat cruder. The Kurds produce several types of carpet; as they have mingled with neighboring tribes, some of these types show the influence of other traditions. There are a purely Kurdish type, the Qūčān carpets, which are knotted and have polychrome geometric designs; knotted carpets that are somewhat darker than the Qūčān, though still lighter than the monochromatic Baluch carpets; and quasi-monochromatic geometric carpets in the Baluch tradition. Among the Turkmen three main tribes have woven carpets in northern Khorasan for a very long time. The largest is the Yomūt, with numerous subtribes and clans. The range of objects produced, in both knotted and flat-woven techniques, is more varied than that of almost any other Turkman tribe. The works are generally characterized by geometric ornament and monochromatic color schemes. The work of a second Turkman tribe, the Göklan, which has lived in the area of Gorgān and Atrak for at least 700 years, is almost always incorrectly ascribed to the Yomūt. The third tribe is the Tekke, small groups of which live with the Awlīād tribes. The Afšār of Khorasan weave and knot carpets, but their work is largely unknown. Although other tribal groups have long been established in Khorasan, for instance, the Lak, Qājār, Jalāyer, Bayāt, Qelīčī, and Gārīlī, it is not known whether or not they produced carpets, either in flat-woven or knotted technique.
Māzandarān and Gīlān. There are also tribes in this province whose works are unknown. The Kurdish work of Kalārdašt has been known only since the beginning of the 1340s Š./1960s. In addition, there is no information on whether the Qājār made knotted carpets.
Tehran. Knowledge of tribal weaving in this province is limited to the works of the Šāhsevan, Hadāvandī Lor, Borbor, Afšār, and other tribes from the vicinity of Varāmīn and some groups at Garmsīr.
As mentioned above the nomads produce many objects in both flat-woven and knotted techniques for their own use. Originally they were only simple pieces designed to fulfill daily needs, but at some point objects began to be made for functions that had been elaborated beyond daily needs. It seems, for example, that such objects as horse blankets, the trappings of the marriage camel, knee decorations, and double bags constitute a separate tradition, one that is still partly observed and followed, for example, among the Yomūt Turkman tribes in Iran, as can be seen in the drawings of specific items in Figure 102, Figure 103. In addition to the illustrated objects, the following are included in the common Yomūt repertoire: the germeč, a threshold carpet between a gap and a torba in size but ornamented in the same way as the added lower border of an ensi; the ojaqbāš, a U-shaped hearth carpet, measuring 250-350 by 150-80 cm, in the opening of which the fire is placed; the at čeki, the saddle girth, which in exceptional cases can also be made in knotted technique; and the hali, or qali, measuring 170-350 by 120-230cm, a Turkman domestic carpet that has taken on cultic significance and must be understood as a highly precious object. The terms and explanations for all these objects have been drawn both from the literature and from research in the field.

Bibliography

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Source

1. Siawosch Azadi. "CARPETS xiv. Tribal Carpets". Encyclopædia Iranica. IV/8, pp. 893-896.

External links

Encyclopædia Iranica