carpets and kilims. Most of the weavings of Balkan countries have been strongly influenced by the occupation of the Ottoman Turks. Specific descriptions of the weavings of these countries are under these entries: Albania, Bessarabia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Yugoslavia.
Balkh. A town of northern Afghanistan near Mazar-i Sharif, formerly a great city of the ancient world. The Balkh area is a major source of carpets based on Tekke designs. Colors are red, blue, and white. The asymmetric knot is tied on wool warps.
Ballard, James Franklin (1851-1931). Ballard was a pharmaceutical manufacturer who collected many eighteenth and nineteenth-century Turkish prayer rugs. At least six catalogs of his collections were published, one authored by Maurice S. Dimand. He gave valuable collections of oriental rugs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and to the St. Louis City Art Museum in 1929.
Baluchi, Baluch, Beloudge, Beluchi. The Baluch are a people inhabiting contiguous areas of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan collectively called Baluchistan. There are also groups of Baluch in northern Iran and Afghanistan and in Central Asia. They speak a language of the Iranian family. Pile rugs are woven by the Baluch of Khurasan in Iran and Afghanistan. Their pile rugs are usually small and characteristically thin and floppy. Most have asymmetric knots and a very few have symmetric knots. Baluchi rugs are double-wefted. Traditional colors are dark browns, dark blues, orange-reds, dark reds, and black. White is used in border designs and for highlights in the field. Camel colored wool and camel hair are also used, often in a tree-of-life prayer rug design. Touches of orange, light blue, and green are sometimes used. Designs are usually all-over patterns of gul-like elements, botehs, or geometricized Mina Khani patterns. Usually, there is a flatwoven strip at top and bottom of the rug. It may be striped or woven in slit-weave tapestry and include designs of weft substitution patterning.
The Baluch weave sofrehs, ru-korsi, saddle bags, salt bags, balisht, and other bags. Weavings of the Aimaq, including Timu ris, have often been confused with those of the Baluch. Rugs of the Quchân Kurds and the Ferdows Arabs have also been attributed to the Baluch. See”Bahluli,” “black Baluchi,” “Chakhansur,” “Jan Mirzai,” “Moreidari,” “Yaqub Khani,” and “Zâbol.”
Baluchi weft substitution patterning and weft twining
Baluchi rug Moe Jamali
Baluchistan. An area of southeastern Iran and western Pakistan. The inhabitants of this area produce flatwoven pieces, but very few pile rugs. Pile rugs generally attributed to the Baluch are woven in Khurasan and Afghanistan. Baluchistan is a harsh and arid area. The native Baluch are primarily nomadic. They weave a wide variety of flatwoven articles on horizontal ground looms. Many of their weavings are intricate examples of weft substitution patterning. Shells, bones, beads, and buttons are often used as accessory ornaments. Functional articles consist of bedding covers (shaffi) and floor covers (kont). Animal trap pings include camel collars (gardan-band), camel necklaces (gutti), and camel foreleg decorations (shishajel). The Baluch weave saddle bags, salt bags, flour bags (gowalag), and highly ornamented vanity bags (istrajal). See “Baluchi” and “Brahui.”
Balvardi. See “Bulvardi.”
bamboo. Bamboo is sometimes depicted in Chinese rugs. As a Taoist symbol, a bamboo tube is shown wrapped by a ribbon and containing several wands. It may be shown in full leaf as a motif in modern rugs. Generally, bamboo symbolizes endurance, the ability to bend without breaking.
Bamboo
Banat. A province of Romania and a source of kilims, usually woven with the slit-weave tapestry structure. These kilims have stripes or geometrical medallion designs. Designs and structure suggest strong Turkish influence. See “Romania.”
band. See “ghorband,” “kanat,” “mâlband,” “navâr,” “tablet weaving,” “tang,” and “tent band.”
band-e kenâreh (Persian). Heavy selvage warps in a pile rug.
bandha (Oriya, “tied”). Ikat fabrics of Orissa, a province of central eastern India.
Bandırma, Panderma. Bandırma is a town in northwest Anatolia on the Sea of Marmara. Copies of Gördes prayer rugs and Ottoman court rugs were woven there until the end of the Second World War. These rugs are mostly wool on a cotton foundation. Some silk rugs were woven and some were all cotton. Many of these rugs were artificially aged and have been mistaken for genuine antique Gördes prayer rugs or Ottoman court rugs. Rugs based on Persian floral designs were also woven in Bandırma.
Bannu. A town of northwest Pakistan and a source of commissioned rugs.
Baotou, Paotou, Pao Tao. A town of Inner Mongolia in China northeast of Ningxia. Rugs of Baotou and surrounding villages are more densely knotted than those of Ningxia and use more blue in their de signs. Early Baotou rugs have all-over repeating patterns while later rugs are more pictorial. See “China.”
Baotou rug Sothebys
Barak. A town of southeast Anatolia and a source of kilims, often with a diamond or hexagon lattice design.
Barak kilim (detail) Kazim Yildiz
barberpole, barberpole border, gyak. Diagonal stripes. These are sometimes used in the field, but more often occur in borders and selvages of rugs. A selvedge overcast to produce diagonal stripes. A warp plied of yarn of two different colors.
Barberpole
Barmazid. A village of northern Afghanistan inhabited by Tekke Turkmen. They weave all-wool, double-wefted rugs in traditional Tekke designs.
Barjid. A town of Karadagh in Persian Azerbaijan and a source of rugs woven with Chelaberd or Eagle Kazak medallions. These rugs are woven on a cotton foundation and are single-wefted.
bar, yamany. In the Caucasus, a Kurdish kilim used as a cover.
Barujird. See “Borujerd.”
Baseri, Basiri, Basseri. A Persian-speaking tribe of the Khamseh Confederacy of southwest Iran. Their rugs usually have asymmetric knots. See “Khamseh Confederacy.”
Baseri bag face R. John Howe
bashtyk. A Kirgiz rectangular storage bag with a flap and hung in the tent. The size is about 20 by 20 inches. The face may be ornamented with embroidery and the bottom hung with tassels.
basit elma (Turk. “simple apple”). A motif of an oval chain of small circles with a cross or diamond in the center, used in Makri and other rugs.
Basit elma motif
Basic dyes. Early coal tar derivative dyes developed
