Caucasus Carpet

Caucasus Carpet
General information
Name	Caucasus Carpet
Original name	فرش قفقاز، قالی قفقاز
Alternative name(s)	Caucasus Rug
Technical information

Caucasus Carpet or Caucasus Rug is one of the eastern rugs that woven in Caucasus.
Formerly, southern Russia, an area bounded by the Caspian Sea on the east and the Black Sea on the west. The Caucasus mountain range, from the northwest to the southeast, diagonally divides the region. The area south of the mountain range is termed the Transcaucasus. This is the primary rug-producing area. The population is of varied ethnic origin. Rugs and carpets are woven by Azeri Turks, Kurds, and Armenians. Travelers refer to rug production in the Caucasus in the fifteenth century, and there are Dragon carpets from the seventeenth century attributed to the Caucasus. Rug production was a major cottage industry in the nineteenth century.
Rugs are brightly colored and generally have geometric designs. The symmetric knot is used with average knot densities ranging from 60 per square inch for Kazaks to 114 per square inch for Kuba rugs. Pile is wool. Warps are undyed. With few exceptions, these rugs have two or more wefts between each row of knots. Rugs with cotton foundations from the Caucasus have higher knot densities than those with wool foundations.
There is contemporary pile rug production in cooperative rug factories in Azerbaijan, Daghestan, and Armenia. The largest producer is Armenia. Designs are traditional or modern variations of traditional designs. Depending on commercial grade, knot densities vary from 78 knots per square inch to 162 knots per square inch. Export of these rugs was handled by a division of the Russian agency, Novoexport. After export, these rugs receive a chemical wash to improve their color tone and and color contrast.

Caucasian kilims and palases are usually woven as a single piece. The slit weave tapestry structure is used. Warp ends are knotted to produce a web effect. Motifs consist of adjacent or compacted large geometric medallions suggesting palmettes or rows of smaller geometric motifs. A few kilims consist of all-over patterns of small, repeated geometric elements. Colors are bright and contrasting. Regional attribution of kilims within the Caucasus is problematic, despite trade designations such as "Kuba", "Shirvân", or "Talish".
Soumak bags and mafrash are attributed to Kurdish weavers in the Caucasus and similar pieces to the Shahsavan in Iran. Large soumaks were woven throughout the Caucasus, many of them from Kuba. Common designs in the nineteenth century were a vertically repeated diamond medallion alternating with two hexagons or circular motifs, and dragon soumaks based on the pile dragon rugs. A design of large “S” shapes thought to represent drag ons was woven with the soumak structure.

History

Caucasus is a region situated southwest of Russia, northwest of Iran, west of the Caspian Sea, and east of the Black Sea and Turkey. The Caucasus region was conquered multiple times throughout the centuries: Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) occupied the region in 328 BCE; the Persian Sasanian Empire took over in 230 CE; the Arabs then occupied the region in 639 CE until the Seljuk tribes gained control in the eleventh century; the Mongols came to power by the thirteenth century; the Turkmens then conquered the region in the fourteenth century; the Persian Safavid Empire entered the region in the early sixteenth century and ruled most of or a large portion of it for three centuries up to the early nineteenth century; the Ottomans were also in parts of the region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; and in 1804 Tsarist Russia annexed the Georgian region from the Persians and then extended its dominance by taking over the Caucasus region and a part of Azerbaijan in 1828. The border along the Aras River between Persia and Russia stabilized in the 1860s.
From these foreign occupiers the Caucasus region became a melting pot for many tribes and ethnic groups that migrated through and settled in the area. In the southwestern Caucasus region live mostly Armenians, in the Karabagh and Kazak areas. Tatar and Azeri tribes settled alongside Persians in the southeastern area. In the northeastern area live mostly the Lesghi and Chechen people. Today it is said that there are as many as 350 tribes speaking more than 150 different dialects in the Caucasus region.
The constant regional wars fought by foreign invaders, such as the Turks, Armenians, Persians, Kurds, Turkmens, and Mongols, brought many new design motifs to the region. In the seventeenth century Armenian weavers created the Dragon—also called "animal combat"—design, which was made throughout the Caucasus region up to the late seventeenth century. By the late seventeenth through the eighteenth centuries, large designs of allover palmette, Boteh (paisley), Herati (fish), Shrub, Josheghan, tree, and medallion patterns were actively employed. In the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries minor borders were added around the main border to enhance the framing of the rug design. This element was employed in the Caucasus region so as to be commercially competitive in the Western market with neighboring weaving countries such as Persia and Anatolia, which used multiple minor borders.
During the nineteenth century Caucasian weavers were open to new ideas in design concepts. Rugs began to show more refined detail than the crude, primitive designs of earlier centuries. Close attention was paid to the execution of the details of motifs such as birds, animals, landscapes, and exotic flowers. Persian elements, which were popular and in demand, were used for a variety of designs. Floral motifs seen in French carpets (France) also started to be woven throughout the Caucasus region, mostly in the Karabagh district. These designs were incorporated to match the fashionable French-style furnishings used by Russian royalty and nobility during the Tsar period.
In the early nineteenth century Prayer Rugs were widely produced by the Muslim population for personal daily meditation and for trading. Prayer rugs have an arch design, also known as a Mihrab. Some were woven with a hand symbol in each corner above the arch to guide hand placement during prayers.
Occasionally, Caucasian rugs featured an unusual design, coloration, or weave. This was generally the result of tribal migration or relocation from a village to another area and weavers applying styles that were marketable at the time. Crossover designs as a result of intertribal marriages also commonly influenced new styles.
Caucasian rugs range from medium to fine in grade quality. They have a warp made of wool or, at times, a mixture of goat hair and wool. The weft is made of cotton, wool, or a mixture of wool and goat hair. By the early twentieth century cotton was adopted for the entire foundation. The Kazak and Karabagh districts in the western region mostly use wool for the weft. The eastern Caucasus region districts of Baku, Kuba, Shirvan, Talish, Moghan, Daghestan, and other areas use mainly cotton for the weft. In the Shirvan and Kuba districts examples of very fine rugs with silk foundations were highly coveted as dowry gifts and gifts for prestigious government officials. The rug pile is made from sheep wool, but rare examples of silk pile exist. The pile height was made in response to the geographical landscape of the particular district. For example, high-pile weavings were made in the mountainous areas such as Kazak and Gendje. Medium-pile rugs were produced in lowland and valley areas such as Talish, Lenkoran, and Daghestan. Low (short) pile rugs were from mostly sea-level areas close to the Caspian Sea, such as Shirvan, Kuba, and Baku districts. The Turkish (symmetric) knot was universally employed. In addition, flatwoven Jajim, Sileh, Soumak, and Verneh rugs were actively woven with individual techniques and designs.
The colorations of Caucasian weavings were mainly reds, dark blues, or ivory for the field and borders. Throughout the region all color shades were utilized for the design elements. In the eastern districts, such as Shirvan, Daghestan, Kuba, and Baku, shades of green, blue, cinnamon, gold, and yellow were occasionally used for the background, medallions, and borders. The Karabagh district applied black, blue-black, or pomegranate-red (from cochineal) for the field, medallions, and borders. In the Kazak district some areas, such as Karatchopf, Fachralo, Bordjalou, and Sewan, employed shades of green for the background, borders, and medallions. Some Kazak villages used gray for the medallion and borders on a limited basis. Natural-colored brown and black sheep wool was used in design outlines, and at times for the borders or field.
Caucasian rugs are geometric in style and incorporate motifs representing objects encountered by tribes on a daily basis, such as animals, birds, stars, worms, landscapes (trees, shrubs, and branches), various flowers, flower heads with leaf and vine pat-terns, and household items. Religious inspirational designs were also woven. Symbolic messages of power appear in design and colors on some rugs.
Some Caucasian rugs have a woven date of completion, in Persian Farsi numerals, that follows the Mohammedan (Islamic) year, which begins with the Prophet Mohammed's birth year of 579 CE. Generally, the Islamic year was placed above the word for date, which is pronounced "seneh." At times the year was woven incorrectly or is missing a numerical digit, since many nomadic weavers were illiterate during this period. Usually a zero is missing because the Farsi word for date has a dot above one of the letters that is similar to a zero. This has created confusion in the proper reading of dates. In some cases, weavers would follow a design sketch when weaving the date but were unaware that the cartoon design was reversed; therefore, the correct way to read the date on these Caucasian rugs is from the back. Furthermore, many village weavers sometimes repeated the same design patterns for several years, and it is possible that some rugs were completed as many as twenty years later than the woven date. Armenians followed Christian dates, which are inscribed on some weavings. These rugs were mostly made in the southwestern Caucasus region districts of Kazak and Karabagh, which have large Armenian populations.
Old markets in the Caucasus region customarily had tribes selling or trading their own rugs as well as wheat, livestock, and other products. To maintain efficiency in the bazaar, only one or two kinds of products would be sold on certain days. Therefore, the tribes were able to sell their woven items once or twice a week, which made it convenient for locals as well as those who traveled from long distances to acquire rugs. Caucasian weavers, like other rustic weaving groups, made many rug formats for trade, personal use, and necessity, such as house-hold decorations, Khorjin (saddlebags), grain storage bags, shoulder bags, Balisht (pillows), bedcovers, floor coverings, and Prayer Rugs. Weaving of travel necessities and decoration for one's animal transport was a way of life. Weavers created horse and camel saddle covers and large bags for traveling and carrying products. At times, owners would adorn their animals' heads and bodies with beautiful decorative weavings.
Early Caucasian rugs are mostly long and narrow in shape. These formats, also known as gallery, are sized eight feet by four feet, ten feet by five feet, and twelve feet by six feet; the length is approximately double the width. From the eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries, the dimensions of rugs and tribal items range from approximately five feet by three feet to twelve feet by nine feet. Large gallery sizes and runners were made up to approximately thirty feet by ten feet by weavers in Karabagh.
By 1900 there was an immense production of these colorful, geometric Caucasian scatter rugs and runners, probably over one hundred thousand per year as a fair estimate. Early photographs of Ocm Carpets's London warehouse floors show many dozens of tall stacks of Caucasian rugs, several thousands overall. Although the largest company at the time, it was not the only importer. Many shipments went directly to America, Germany, or other Western markets.
By the second half of the twentieth century American and European collectors, wholesalers, interior designers, and retailers continued to greatly appreciate early rugs from the Caucasus region. Collectors have been in the forefront in purchasing Caucasian pieces from all weaving districts and have been paying up to six figures to obtain them.
Antique Caucasian rugs are recognized as a true art form. The inventive and famous Dragon or animal combat motifs created by Armenian weavers are now preserved in museums and private collections around the world. Tribal imaginings woven into various beautiful designs have captured the Western world's appreciation for the charm and beauty of Caucasian rugs.

Bibliography

• Abraham Levi Moheban. 2015. The Encyclopedia of Antique Carpets: Twenty-Five Centuries of Weaving. NewYork: Princeton Architectural Press.
• Peter F. Stone. 2013. Oriental Rugs: An Illustrated Lexicon of Motifs, Materials, and Origins. North Clarendon: Tuttle