of small rectangles arranged as diamonds with a mosaic effect.
Chamtos border
Ch’ang. The Chinese endless knot and the Buddhist symbol for destiny, eternity, or longevity. This knot is used as a motif in some Chinese rugs.
Ch’ang
Chan-Karabagh. A Caucasian rug type, identified by Schürmann, with a design consisting of large botehs. See “Karabagh.”
chanteh (Persian). A small bag or satchel.
Qashga’i chanteh Simon Knight
chapan. A Turkmen or Uzbeki long-sleeved robe, often of silk and embroidered or of silk ikat. See “chirpy” and “khalat.”
Chapan Grogan and Company
Chardjou (Persian Châr-juy, “four streams”). A town in Turkmenistan on the Amu Darya inhabited by Ersaris. Contemporary rugs from this area are woven with the Tekke gul and variations. Pile rugs are woven in two knot densities: one of about 55 knots per square inch and the other of about 120 knots per square inch.
Charshango, Charchangu, Charchangi. A town of northern Afghanistan. A term for rugs thought to be woven by a subtribe of the Salor or Ersari. The tribe inhabits an area on either side of the Amu Darya in Turkestan and Afghanistan.
chatma. See “çatma.”
Chaudor, Chodor. A Turkmen tribe inhabiting the Khiva area of Turkestan. The ertman and tauk noska guls are used in their rugs, as well as a variety of other designs. The field color is often a distinctive purple-brown. These rugs have asymmetric knots, open to the right. Wefts are two-ply, sometimes wool and sometimes cotton. See “ertman gul” and “Turkmen.”
Chaudor main carpet (detail) Sothebys
chavadan, shabadan, shavadan. A Kirghiz long kit bag.
Chavadan face Carpet Collection
Chechens, Tchetchens, Krists. A people of northwest Daghestan (now the Chechniya Region) in the Caucasus. They are Sunni Muslims, fiercely independent and egalitarian. The term, “Chichi,” applied to certain rug designs, is thought to derive from the name of this ethnic group. Whether rugs ascribed to this group were actually woven by them is problematic. See “Chichi.”
check border. A very common minor border, especially in Kazak and Kurdish rugs
Check border
Chehel Shotur. See “Chahal Shotur.”
Chelaberd, Eagle Kazak, Sunburst Kazak, Adler Kazak. Nineteenth-century rugs of Karabagh in the Caucasus with a medallion consisting of a lozenge with parallel radiating arms. Hooked brackets, facing outwards, are above and below the medallion. The design is thought to derive from Dragon carpets. Chelabi is a town of southern Karabagh. Chelaberd is a corruption of that name. There are seventeenth-century Caucasian carpets with this medallion. These rugs are published most frequently as representative of the Caucasus. Their average knot density is about 60 symmetric knots per square inch and the average rug area is about 35 square feet. They have an all-wool foundation. See “Caucasus,” “Dragon car pet,” and “Karabagh.”
Chelaberd Karabagh Jason Nazmiyal
Chelsea Carpet. A sixteenth-century rug in the Victoria and Albert Museum, thought to have been woven in India or Herat. It has a cloud band border and multiple medallions. Birds and animals are represented in the field. It is 17 feet 9 inches by 10 feet 4 inches.
Chelsea carpet (detail)
Chemche gul. Chemche means “spoon” or “scoop.” A common minor or secondary gul in Turkmen rugs. It consists of a quartered diamond and may have eight radiating arms, alternately terminating in the ram’s horn motif.
Chemche gul
chemche torba (Turk). Spoon bag. See “spoon bag.”
chemical wash. The application of chemicals (sometimes lime, chlorine compounds, or wood ash) to a rug to soften colors, soften the wool, and increase the sheen of the pile. Harsh chemical washes are cited as the cause of weakened or embrittled fibers in some old rugs. See “burning.”
Chenâr, Çinar (Turk.). A town of Hamadan in Iran. It is a source of rugs and runners with vertically arranged, large diamond medallions. Also the name of the Asian plane tree (sycamore) and the name of a Turkmen design derived from the shape of the leaf, chenâr gul.
chenille rug. A fabric of warps holding cut wefts is slit, warp-wise, into strips. These strips of warp with cut weft are then woven into the rug to form cut pile.
Chenille panel Grogan and Company
Cherkess, Circassian, Tcherkess. A Caucasian ethnic group including the Kabardians and Abkhazians. They inhabit the north western Caucasus. They are Sunni Muslims. These people may have been a minor source of rugs in the nineteenth century.
cherlyk (Turk.). Saddle cover. See “saddle cover.”
chessboard. Any design of offset rows of adjacent rectangles, each rectangle alternating in color with vertical columns of rectangles, also alternating in color. This design is found in Chinese and Tibetan rugs. Usually, such Tibetan rugs are without borders. See “sadranji.”
Chessboard Qashga’i kilim (detail) Southebys
Chessboard rugs, Damascus carpets. A group of 16th and 17th-century rugs. The field design is usually rows of hexagons, each containing small fish-like shapes radiating from a complex central star. The hexagons are in square compartments which are outlined by red bands. Chessboard rugs have asymmetric knots open to the left with Z-spun yarns. These rugs have been attributed to Cairo, Damascus, and Anatolia. They have been termed “Damascus rugs.” See “Cairene rugs,” “compartment rug,” “Egypt,” “Mamluk,” and “para-Mamluk.”
Chessboard rug (detail)
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