Halep. A city of northwest Syria, now called Haleb. It was formerly in southeast Anatolia and an administrative center during the Ottoman period. In the last half of the nineteenth century many kilims were woven in this area. They were used as curtains and wall hangings. These kilims were woven in two pieces. Cochineal was used in many of these kilims. Borders are usually white with a repeated winged or hourglass figure. Diamonds and octagons are the primary repeated field motif. Some of the kilims are woven with the sandıklı or compartment motif.
Aleppo rug (detail) Peter Willborg
Algeria. A country of North Africa. Algerian rugs are similar to those of Morocco and Tunisia. Sétif is a town southeast of Algiers that is noted for its rug production. Pile rugs are all-wool and woven with the symmetric knot. Traditionally, pile rugs are woven by men (reggema) with women as assistants. Currently, women are designing and weaving pile rugs. There are a few pile rug types unique to Algeria. These are the Algerian qtif and tanchra with uncut looped pile and the frach and Kalâa pile carpets with large flatwoven ends. See “frach,” “Guergour carpets,” “Kalâa,” “Maadid tribe,” “metrah,” “qtif,” “reggema,” “tanchra,” and “zerbiya.”
The flatweaves of Algeria are similar to those of Tunisia. The melgout, hamel, tag, and draga are flatwoven tent dividers used in different ways. Blankets (hambel), flatwoven carpets, sacks, shawls (ddil), and saddle blankets (dokkala) are also woven.
Algeria
Ali Eli. A subtribe of the Ersari in the area of the Amu Darya river.
alınık (Turk., “place where the forehead meets the ground during prayer”). In a prayer rug, a panel above a mihrab that may contain a Koranic inscription. See “elem.”
Alınık
alizarin (from Spanish alizari, “madder,” from Arabic al-’asâra, “juice, extract”). A primary active agent in the dye derived from madder, an anthraquinone that produces shades of red in combination with metals. It provides a red component of the dye. Alizarin was produced synthetically in 1870. A variety of dyes of different colors were developed from compounds of aliza rin. See “madder.”
alloucha. A pile carpet of Tunisia in white, beige, brown, and gray. This rug was formerly woven of naturally colored wools. See “Tunisia.”
all-over pattern field repeat. A design in the field of a rug consisting of vertically and horizontally repeated geometrical or floral elements. Usually, the pattern is interrupted or cut off by the borders. Sometimes borders awkwardly interrupt the pattern. Such rugs may suggest that the weaver has a mental image of an infinitely repeated pattern with an arbitrary segment framed by the border. See “boteh,” “gul,” “Herati pattern,” “lattice,” “minâ khâni,” “mir-i boteh,” and “Lotto.”
alpaca. A domesticated South American ruminant related to the lama. It has long silky wool used in South American weaving.
alpaca
Alpan Kuba. A design of rugs from nineteenth-century Kuba in the Caucasus that may be a simplified version of either the Seishour Cross or the Kasim Ushag design. A medallion is surrounded by four elongated hexagons. See “Kuba.”
Alpan Kuba rug (detail) Richard Rothstein & Co.
Alpujarra rug Grogan & Company
Alpujarra. Alpujarra means “grassland.” The term refers to rugs first woven in Alpujarra in the province of Granada, Spain. These rugs were first woven in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries during the Moorish period and continued to be woven into the nineteenth century. They have a coarsely-woven looped pile and are very heavy. Usually, a separately produced elaborate fringe was attached to all four sides of the rug. Often, the date and name of the person for whom the rug was woven was included in the design. Designs were simple floral and animal motifs. Often, only two colors were used. Later rugs of Alpujarra include Christian symbols. See “Spain.”
Altai culture, Altay culture. Altai is an area of Inner Asia taking its name from the Altai mountains. From the second millennium B.C.E., the area has been inhabited by cattle-rearing nomads and agriculturists. Many objects employing distinctive stylized animal motifs of wood, bone, bronze, and gold have been found in burial sites. Felts, fabrics, and pile rugs have also been found at these sites. In the eastern Altai, a pile rug was discovered at Pazyryk that has been radiocarbon-dated to about 500 to 300 B.C.E. See “Pazyryk carpet.”
Altaic gold deer of the same period as the Pazyrik carpet
Alti Bolaq. A village of north central Afghanistan near the Turkmen border. The village is a source of rugs woven by Ersa ris. The rugs are double-wefted and the asymmetric knot is used.
alum mordant. Aluminum sulfate (and sometimes potassium sulfate) are both called alum. These water-soluble salts are used in dyeing as a mordant. With many dyes, they produce lighter colors than tin or chrome mordants.
Alvand. See “Qazvin.”
Amaleh. A subtribe of the Qashqa’i of southwest Iran, noted for its kilims. See “Qashqa’i.”
American Conference on Oriental Rugs. See “A.C.O.R.”
American Indian rugs. See “Navajo rugs,” “Pueblo weaving,” and “Rio Grande blankets.”
Ames Pictorial Rug. This Mughal rug, a gift of Mrs. F. L. Ames, is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It shows scenes from the hunt, domestic scenes, and mythological beasts. The border includes grotesque faces. This rug is thought to be a copy of a painting. It was woven in the first half of the seventeenth century and is eight feet by five feet.
Ames Pictorial Rug (detail)
Amo Oghli, Amoghli, Emoghli. An early 20th-century rug workshop owner, rug weaver, and rug designer of Mashhad, Iran. “See Mashhad.”
Amritsar (Sanskrit, “lake of immortality”). A city of the Punjab in northwest India, the major Sikh center. Rug manufacturing began in Amritsar in about 1860, using unemployed shawl weavers. Early production copied Turkmen designs. Production in Amritsar declined during the depression in the 1920s and during the partition of India, but has since recovered. Currently, floral designs are woven based on Persian models. The asymmetric knot is used. Contemporary rugs have a knot density of about 200 to 400 knots per square inch. See “India.”
Amritsar rug Jason Nazmiyal
AMTORG. Acronym for American Trading Organization,
