Oriental Rugs, Antique and Modern

by W. A. Hawley

At the request of a purchaser the vendor is ever ready to classify a rug, but his statements are not always reliable. This is partly due to the fact that even the great importing houses are often deceived. Throughout Asia Minor, Persia, Turkestan, even farther east, great fairs are regularly held. Here gather the representatives of tribes from far distant quarters to enjoy for a few days or weeks the gay life and abandon of the East while bartering the products of their different crafts. Here come the purchasing agents looking for rugs; and the pieces that may be brought from afar are bought and shipped by camel and rail to such great marts as Tabriz, Tiflis, and Constantinople, where the bales are unpacked and the rugs assorted, classified and labelled, before they are resold to the importing houses of Europe and America. Thus both in the buying from the itinerant agent of rugs assembled from different quarters and in the reassortment at the exporting cities there is frequent opportunity for errors of classification.

The characteristics of the different groups and classes of rugs are given in later chapters, but it should not be presumed that these are infallible guides to the locality where they were made. Often a ruler, by fostering art, has drawn to his capital artists and artisans from other districts. Thus designs and quality of workmanship characteristic of one district would be adopted in another. So, too, the great caravans that pass along regular routes eastward and westward, and the annual pilgrimages to Meshed and Mecca, have been most potent influences for the dissemination of designs. Yet taking into consideration the general pattern and smaller designs; the material of warp, weft, and pile; the knot; the dyes; the finish of sides and ends, and the peculiarities of the weave, it is possible with a reasonable amount of certainty to determine in what districts almost all Oriental rugs are woven.

It should be borne in mind, however, that the names by which some of the rugs are known in America are not the same as those by which they are known in Asia. For instance, the rugs made by some of the tribes of the Tekke Khanate are known in the Orient as “Tekkes;” but as the great depot for Turkestan carpets was formerly the city of Bokhara, they are generally known in this country as “Bokharas.” On the other hand, there are local distinctions in the eastern countries not known in the western. The accompanying classification, therefore, is slightly arbitrary, but should be convenient for reference; since the classes represent the cities or districts where are woven the several different kinds, excepting the Chinese, which are divided chronologically. The names of the groups are not in each instance entirely satisfactory, but are probably the best that can be chosen. The fourth group, for example, has frequently been called the “Turkoman;” but as it includes some of the rugs of Afghanistan, and also those of Beluchistan, which is remote from Turkestan, that name is not sufficiently comprehensive. The district where these rugs are made is, strictly speaking, the western and southwestern part of Central Asia; but the term here employed has the authority of some German writers of note. So, too, the rugs of Herat, though it is now a city of Afghanistan, are included with the Persian group; but it should be remembered that Herat, as well as the districts of Mosul and Kurdistan, was once part of the old Persian Empire.

GROUP I. PERSIAN.

(a) Khorassan district:
	Herat, Khorassan, Meshed.
(b) Shiraz district:
	Ispahan, Kirman, Yezd, Shiraz, Niris.
(c) Feraghan district:
	Feraghan, Hamadan, Kara-Geuz, Bibikabad, Iran, Sarouk, Kashan, Sarabend, Burujird, Sultanabad, Muskabad, Mahal, Joshaghan, Gulistan, Teheran.
(d) Sehna district, or Adelan province:
	Sehna, Bijar, Kermanshah, Persian Kurdistan, Karaje.
(e) Tabriz district:
	Tabriz, Gorevan, Bakshis, Serapi, Herez, Suj-Bulak, Karadagh, Afshar.
(f) Kurdistan district:
	Western Kurdistan, Mosul, Gozene.

GROUP II. ASIA MINOR OR TURKISH.

(a) West Asia Minor district:
	Bergamo, Ghiordes, Kulah, Oushak, Ak-Hissar, Demirdji, Kutayah, Smyrna, Melez, Isbarta, Rhodian, Broussa, Hereke.
(b) Central Asia Minor district:
	Konieh, Ladik, Kir-Shehr, Anatolian, Karaman, Sivas, Mudjar, Nigde, Tuzla, Kaisariyeh, Zile, Yuruk.

GROUP III. CAUCASIAN.

(a) North Caucasian:
	Daghestan, Kabistan, Kuba, Derbend, Lesghian, Chichi, Tcherkess.
(b) Trans Caucasian:
	Baku, Shirvan, Soumak, Shemakha, Tiflis, Kutais, Kazak, Karabagh, Shusha, Gengha.