See “Daghestan” and “davaghin.”
Avar kilim (detail) Rukhazi
Avar motif
Avşar. See “Afshar.”
avshan. See “afshan.”
Avunya. See “Ezine.”
Axminster. From the mid-eighteenth century to 1835, hand-knotted rugs were woven in the town of Axminster, England, in a factory founded by Thomas Whitty. These were woven in designs compatible with Adams interiors and in imitation of Persian models. After 1835, so called “Axminster” carpets were hand-knotted in Wilton factories up to the beginning of the twentieth century.
Spool Axminster or Moquette rugs woven on power looms employ a system in which pile yarn is laid against a weft and inserted between warps by means of small tubes, through which the pile yarn passes. Wefts, locking the pile in place, are stitched by means of needles rather than interlaced by means of a shuttle. In another power loom system, termed seamless Axminster, a Jacquard system raises lengths of pile to mechanical fingers which grasp and insert pile lengths between warps and hold them in place until they are locked by wefts. See “Brussels,” “Chenille,” “England,” “Moorfields,” and “Wilton.”
Axminster carpet (detail) Haliden
ayatalak (Turk.) A funerary rug. See “landscape carpet.”
Aybak. See “Samangân.”
Aydin kilim (detail)
Aydın. A town in western Anatolia and a source of kilims and cicims. Most kilims from the area are woven in three parts, a central panel with two edge strips. A distinctive design feature is that main borders at the ends are followed by colored stripes and a single row of weft twining. See “Turkey.”
ay gul. A generally circular medallion of Eastern Turkestan rugs, especially rugs of Khotan. There are many variations, but the most common ay gul medallions contain rosettes, pomegranates, or cloud bands.
Ay guls Doris Leslie Blau
Ayvacık. A town south of Çanakkale in Anatolia, the headquarters of the DOBAG project and a source of DOBAG rugs. See “DOBAG” and “Turkey.”
Azerbaijan. A large region south of the Caucasus mountains and west of the Caspian Sea, now divided by the River Aras (Araxes) into the Republic of Azerbaijan (north) and the Iranian province of Azerbaijan (south). Tabriz is a major city and rug production center of Iranian Azerbaijan. Rug production centers in the Republic of Azerbaijan include Kuba, Karabagh, Shirvân, and Baku. Azerbaijan is inhabited by Turks who are currently (or formerly) Shi’i Muslim in religion, but the population also includes Shi’i Persians, Sunni Kurds, and Christian Armenians and Assyrians.
Carpet production was primarily for domestic use until the mid-nineteenth century. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, carpet production was a major export industry. Turkey was the largest importer of Azerbaijani an carpets throughout this period. Pile rugs of Azerbaijan are primarily Turkish knotted.
There is a group of Azerbaijan embroidery dating back to the seventeenth century, primarily from northern Azerbaijan. The foundation fabric is cotton and the embroidery is usually in silk. Often, these embroideries have a squareish format. They were usually used as kerchiefs. Most designs are similar to those of early Caucasian floral carpets. Designs of compact roundels, stars, and cartouche shapes are also common. Many nineteenth-century rug designs appear to have been developed or adopted from such embroideries (Swastika Kazak, Star Kazak, Karagashli, etc.).
A wide variety of bags, animal trappings, and flatweaves are produced in Iranian Azerbaijan. The structures used are kilim, soumak, cicim, and embroidery. See “Bakhshaish,” “Baku,” “Caucasus,” “Nakhchivan,” and “Sâliâni.”
Azerbaijan silk embroidery Sothebys
Azerbaijan rug (detail) Haliden
azo dyes. These are synthetic direct dyes introduced about 1880, including Ponceau 2R, Amaranth, and Roccelline. For the early azo dyes, particular acidity conditions were needed to fix the dye. These conditions were not always met in rug-producing areas with the result that these dyes bled and faded. See “dye, synthetic.”
B
Baba Haidar. A village of western Persia, west of Isfahan. The village is a source of both single and double-wefted medallion rugs.
Babaseqal. A clan of Ersaris in Afghanistan between Andkhoy and Aq Chah.
baby. A trade term for an oriental rug about 4 feet by 2 feet.
back. That side of a rug normally placed against the floor. The side of a weaving not intended to be exposed.
backing. Cotton, jute, synthetics, or other flexible materials used to form the back of a machine-made rug.
backstrap loom. A narrow loom in which the weight of the weaver provides tension for the warps by means of a strap attached to the breast beam that passes around the weaver’s back. The warp beam is tied to some stable object. The backstrap loom is used in Tibet, Nepal, and Central America.
Backstrap loom (schematic)
Badahoi. See “Bhadohi.”
badam border. See “gul-i badam.”
badem. See “boteh.”
badgashi (Persian). In Khurasan, “coarse wool.”
badge of Tamerlane. See “chintamani.”
badges, rank. See “rank badges.”
bâfandeh (Persian). Weaver. See “nassâj.”
baff (Persian, “weaving”). Knot or weave.
bag. See entries under these names.
| ala chuval | kif |
| at-torba | kola-i chergh |
| balisht | mafrash |
| bashtyk | namakdan |
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