Plate 54. Turkoman Prayer Rug, which according to A. Bogolubow has the Typical Pindé Pattern
Their raids, however, were not viewed with complacence by the Russians, who had been steadily advancing on the land lying between the Caspian and the Amu Daria, and whose armies the Tekkes harassed. At length in January, 1881, came the final death struggle in the memorable attack on the fortress of Geok Teppe, where thirty-three thousand tribesmen and seven thousand women and children had taken refuge. With the fall of that stronghold and the terrible punishment that followed, the power of the Tekkes was completely crushed; and a people whose ancestors for countless centuries had roamed the desert, recognising no master, yielded finally to the advance of civilisation.
These were the people whose wives and daughters wove the rugs generally known as Tekke Bokharas, of which large numbers with excellent weave and sterling dyes can still be found. As few of them were designed for mosques or palaces, it is very unusual to find pieces over one hundred years old, and even these are rare. Indeed, any that are now forty years old should possess great interest, as they were woven at a time when the Tekkes were still a fierce race. Very many have the Katchli pattern. The prayer arch, which is similar to that of Princess Bokharas, is in a panel exterior to the field and within the border. Not infrequently there are three arches in the same horizontal panel, which, as a rule, is above the field, but occasionally below it. In a great many of these rugs the three-leaf clover is found in some part of the field; and in the band of pile that extends beyond the border at one end are usually small conventionalised bushes with white and yellow flowers. The pattern shown in Plate [L], Fig. 4 (opp. Page 250), appears almost invariably in the outer stripe.
There are other types, into one of which it would seem as if the very spirit of the desert had crept. Their dark ground colours are brightened by lighter tones that give an effect of strange yet not inharmonious beauty. A few would seem to speak of the early Zoroastrian faith, for in their fields are designs like stars with effulgent rays that suggest the burning altars of fire worshippers.
The shape or some peculiarity of the rug indicates the purpose for which it was intended. For instance, the rugs which were made for doors of the khibitkas have at the upper end a selvage with the web turned back and hemmed, and at each corner a heavy braided cord of about two feet in length, by which they were suspended. Other pieces have webs at both ends. Many beautiful pieces are made for use on horses or camels. Those intended for camels are of oblong shape with a field usually containing large octagons, between which are smaller octagons similar to those in Royal Bokharas.
Tekkes may be distinguished from the Princess Bokharas, which they resemble, by their goat’s hair selvage at the sides, by one thread of warp to each knot being slightly depressed at the back, and by their coarser character. There is, however, a great similarity in the colours, though in the Tekkes tones of deep plum and rich red are not uncommon.
Type Characteristics. Colours, principally dark red, brown, or plum, with minor quantities of dark blue and ivory. Knot, Sehna. Knots to inch horizontally seven to twelve; perpendicularly, nine to fourteen. The rows of knots are slightly pressed down, but the warp shows at back. Warp, wool or goat’s hair; one of the two threads encircled by a knot is depressed below the other at back. Weft, wool of fine or medium diameter. A thread of weft crosses twice between every two rows of knots. Pile, wool, or occasionally goat’s hair of short or medium length. Border, three stripes, separated by coloured lines. Sides, a three-cord double goat’s hair selvage. Lower end, a wide coloured web and long warp fringe. Upper end, a braided selvage turned back and hemmed, or occasionally a wide coloured web and long warp fringe. Texture, firm. Weave at back of moderately fine grain. Length, five to eight feet. Usual width, three fifths to four fifths length.
Khivas.—On the west bank of the Amu Daria, and stretching for two hundred miles above its mouth, is the plain of the Khanate of Khiva. Most of the people live in khibitkas, and either follow a nomad’s life or raise from the alluvial soil, that is watered by innumerable canals, crops of cotton, corn, and rice, as well as melons, peaches, and pomegranates. A large population, also, inhabits the city of Khiva, which before the building of the Siberian railway, was on one of the direct highways between east and west. Caravans of nearly two thousand camels regularly passed through it en route to Orenburg in spring and to Astrakan in fall, carrying wares from districts farther to the east as well as its own rugs and manufactured articles.