Modern chemical dyes
Early in the present century much better synthetic dyes were introduced, which include the so-called alizarin and the advanced chrome dyes. In quality and fastness they are now almost equal with the vegetable dyes, with one tiny “but”: the chemical dyes do not give the same warmth and softness as the vegetable dyes; instead, the carpet has a harder almost metallic sheen. This does soften, however, after about ten of fifteen years. Moreover, the dyes are fast to sunlight and washing, and experts hold that alizarin red and alizarin blue are fully comparable to the corresponding vegetable dyes, since they contain the same chemical substances.
Characteristic colours
The various carpet districts and countries have largely the following typical colours:
Turkestan, Hamadan, Seraband and Heriz:
Madder-lake
Turkey, Meshed and Birjand: cochineal red.
The Caucasus, China and nomads: blue.
Kerman, Qum, Isfahan and Nain: cream or white.
Arak (Sultanabad): pink.
Many large districts, Tabriz among them, do not make particular use of any one colour.
Weaving
As has already been stated, carpets are today woven in the Orient in exactly the same way as they were.
(Design)
Moreover, patterns strongly influenced by European taste are being used to a considerable extent. Thus, almost the entire production of Kerman is now concentrated on making carpets with floral patterns in the European style, with decorative medallions and broken floral borders, in order to satisfy buyers from Europe and other parts of the world. Carpets with European patterns and also intended for export are made in other districts as well.
This foreign element in the traditional patterns is naturally unfortunate and the native art is being threatened by new compositions. In some places and districts, however, this danger has been recognized and efforts are being made to restore the ancient patterns and at the same time abandon the modern thickness of certain carpets.
Turkey
In turkey carpets had been manufactured both for the domestic market and for export to Europe for centuries, but in about 1860 as a result of increased trade with Europe, manufacture was arranged in a more business-like manner and consequently the traditional patterns which had been associated with definite districts began to lose their identity. Prayer rugs are characteristic products of the old order. Their pattern and colour vary according to the place where they were made. The Turkish designs consist of geometrical forms and stylized floral patterns. As already mentioned, the portrayal of people and animals is prohibited, though in Kayseri and Brusa a number of hunting carpets have been produced in recent years, i.e., carpets portraying both people and animals.
The oldest existing Turkish carpets are to be found in the city of Konya on the ancient trade route from Syria and Mesopotamia toe Europe. They are considered to be from the 13th century, when the Seljuk dynasty was still in power in Asia Minor with Konya as the capital. Several mosques and burial chambers tell of the lively pilgrim city and commercial centre of that time. Having lain for centuries in the Ala-ed-dim mosque, the carpets have now been removed to the temple of the Maulavier Order, which is now a museum foe Seljuk and Osman art.
The craftsmen of Konya and the entire province have a traditional name for their masterly skill and the district is a centre for Turkish carpet-making. The place has been known for thousands of years. Monuments with a curious pictorial writing show that it was occupied by the Hitties, who ruled over much of Asia Minor from about 2100-1300 B.C. Konya ( ancient Iconium) remained important for many centuries. Saint Paul suffered persecution there during his journeys through Asia Minor. Later it was the capital of the Roman province of Lycaonia, and from 1099 A.D. of the Seljuk sultanate of Rum.
Turkish carpet-making has been influenced to a considerable extent by the Greeks, who for centuries dominated production on the west coast of Anatolia and the islands off the mainland. It was chiefly the Greek communities that, together with the Armenians and Kurds, took care of production in Turkey. The Greeks, however, were expelled when the republic was set up in 1923, and Turkey’s population now consists of about 86 per cent of Turks. There is now no national religion but the Mohammedan creed is acknowledged by the great majority.
In the 16th and 17 th centuries the standard of Turkish carpets was very high and the pieces from those times are fully equal to the carpets of Persia. The sultans imported Persian designers as well as extremely skilful dyers and weavers who were commissioned to produce magnificent articles for court.
In the home, carpets were woven for domestic use, particular care being taken with the prayer rugs. Almost every home had one or two looms. Carpet-making was a traditional domestic craft particularly in Izmir (Smyrna), Ghiordes, Usak, Kula and Sivas. During the second part of the 19th century European trading houses started the mass production of large carpets of coarse quality with imitation Persian designs. With the introduction of aniline dyes for this commissioned work the vegetable dyes traditionally used in the East began to be abandoned. The art of carpet-making was in danger of being degraded.
Turkish carpets are very different in type from Persian. They are more coarsely woven and always with the Ghiordes knot. The patterns are different, being based more on prayer niches, and the designs are more geometrical. The Koran does not permit the portrayal of people and animals,though hunting scenes have appeared in recent years on carpets from Kayseri and Brusa. They are probably woven by Armenians.
Carpets from Asia Minor are collectively known as Anatolian. The varieties are named after their place of manufacture or the commercial centre where they are purchased for further transport. Thus a Smyrna carpet may have been woven in the interior-many come from the south-western province of Aydin. The largest producers are Ankara and the province of Konya. The older carpets from the city of Usak beyond Smyrna, an ancient seat of carpet-marking, are easily recognized by their technique and exquisite colours.
However, it is not very convenient to describe the Turkish carpets on a geographical basis and consequently they have been grouped into older and modern types. The former group includes the carpets still being made today according to ancient methods without any European influence.
The latter, with each carpet noted as “modern Production”, will describe later.
Persia
There is an enormous wealth and variety of patterns in Persian production. The geometrical patterns-cross, star and rosette designs-gave way in the 16th century to another type consisting of medallions, flowering tendrils and arabesques. There was also a tendency to allow the field to dominate the carpet’s pattern.
The details are largely based on naturalistic floral patterns; though geometrical shapes also appear. The Persian craftsmen also depicted people and animals, indicating the perspective by placing the figures above instead of behind one another.
The Caucasus
The Caucasian types of carpet comprise both prayer rugs and carpets with a medallion design and repeating patterns. When the design is based on a large motif, smaller devices are often used to fill in the space. The patterns are essentially geometrical. Even flowers and figures, when used, are highly stylized.
Turkestan
The Turk-man carpets derive their character from being produced by a nomadic people. The carpets were woven for use in the Kibitkan, the tent. Only in recent times have carpets been made for sale; these are often different in size from those made for home use. The various tribes have their characteristic patterns, though geometrical diamonds and octagons dominate.
China
The patterns of Chinese carpets differ considerably from those of Central Asia. This is because the art of carpet-making came to China relatively late, probably in the 15th-17th centuries (if one excepts the few pieces said to have been produced around the 1st century A.D.). The patterns then adopted for carpets were taken from the other arts.
There are several special types of Chinese carpet: the temple carpet consists of two or more square fields with the same pattern; the pillar carpet has a human figure or a dragon covering the entire field and was intended to be wrapped around a pillar. The design is meant to join at the sides, thus it has no borders. The picture carpet, as items name suggests, is intended to be seen from one end only.
The patterns of the carpets are often symbolic and refer to Chinese, Taoist or Buddhist traditions. The Chinese symbols include the dragon, which is the finest, and was originally the emperor’s emblem, symbolizing a positive and beneficial force, and the very common sign for happiness, show, which appears in various designs. The swastika is very common and symbolizes long life, the number ten thousand and the heart of Buddha. Taoist symbols include the crane, indicating long life, the phoenix for immortality and the deer for prosperity. Another common animal symbol, of Buddhist origin, is the lion, the guardian of the temple. Border patterns may be of a general type such as the meander and pearl borders, but they also include stylized mountains and waves.
Modern development of Oriental rug and carpet-making has involved considerable rationalization of production methods, notably in the substitution of machine-spun for hand-spun yarns and the use of synthetic colouring. There has also been a movement to establish standard grades for the depth and density of pile.
Rationalization was made necessary largely because of rising costs, especially of labour. In those countries where rapidly improving economic and social conditions are giving much wider educational and career opportunities, it has become difficult to attract recruits to carpet-making, and considerably higher wages have now to be offered.
This situation is particularly acute in Persia, traditionally one of the major carpet-producing countries, but now transformed by the vast wealth derived from its oil exports. Although the government remains determined to promote the export of carpets, and subsidizes the industry, the greatly increased wages now necessary to attract an adequate labour force will drastically affect the final cost of the product. As a result, Persian hand-knotted carpets will face increasingly severe competition from those produced in less developed countries such as India and Pakistan, where good quality carpets, made by lower paid craftsmen, can still be manufactured and sold at considerably less cost. It remains to be seen whether, in these circumstances, Persian carpets can continue to dominate the world market.
In the mid-1970s the annual value of exported Persian carpets was around $100,000,000 to $120,000,000; of this, some $21,000,000-worrh went to the United States and some ￡6,000,000-worth to the United Kingdom. During the years 1945 to 1965 exports had been mainly of cheap quality examples of Hamadan, Shiraz, Karaja, Bahktiari, Tabriz and Kerman types. However, from the mid-1960s there has been increasing demand for better quality Isfahan, Nain, Keshan, Qum and Tabriz types, made with density grades as high as 650 knots per square inch, or about one million knots per square meter. It is satisfactory to note that, although the export market is still dominated by the cheaper varieties, production of high density carpets has increased during the last 20 years.
In Turkey there seems to have been no post-war increase in carpet-making, and those manufactured are still only small in size. Caucasian output remains low, although the industry is now state-controlled and production has marginally increased. The situation in Turkestan is similar, with a significant improvement in the quality of most of the Bokhara types produced. It is impossible even approximately to assess developments in China, although it seems likely that both the quality and the quantity of production have improved.
In India and Pakistan production and export of carpets, especially to Europe and the United States, has considerably increased. This success is largely due to a vast improvement in quality, both countries now producing close, tightly-knotted carpets with densities ranging from 160 to 390 knots pet square inch or about 25 to 60 knots per square centimetre, and imitating Persian, Turkish and Turk-man design. In the mid-1970s India exported approximately $15,000,000-worth of carpets annually to the United States and ￡1.200, 000-worth to the United Kingdom; Pakistan’s receipts were around $ 5,000,000 and ￡2,400,000 respectively.
The following description of oriental carpets is divided into six major groups in accordance with the largest producer counties. These will be treated in the following order:
TURKEY, PERSIA, THE CAUCASUS, TURKESTAN, CHINA, and INDIA and PAKISTAN
This is followed by a section on woven carpets and Kelim.
The names of the many different carpets on the market indicate the place of district where they were made, or the name of the tribe which produced them.
There is always something to distinguish carpets of different districts. It may be the knot technique, the material, the colour, the pattern or the way in which the selvages are formed.
However, migration, intermarriage, and direct imitation of the techniques and patterns of other places may make it quite difficult for even a good expert to say where a carpet was produced and what its name should be. But anyone who has really become acquainted with the peculiarities of the various types should be able to do this ninety-five per cent of the time.
Another source of confusion is that the same name can be spelt in so many different ways. The English spelling used here is that which best indicates the Persian pronunciation of the different names.
The description of the major carpet districts includes some notes on historical, geographical and cultural circumstances that are of significance to the production of carpets.
