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Oriental Rugs - History |
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No one knows exactly when rug-making began, or where, or even why. Some hypothesize that rugs evolved as a movable substitute for mosaic. Others suggest that carpets developed to fit the domestic needs of nomadic lifestyles. What is known is that for thousands of years rug making has been a tradition in the Middle East and Asia Minor, a dry and mountainous region where nomadic sheep herding provide ready supplies of wool. Though the oldest knotted rug in existence - the Pazyryk rug, discovered in 1949 in southern Siberia - is dated at 500 B.C., its fine craftsmanship suggests that rug making was by that time already an established tradition.
Many consider Persia, the land we now call Iran, to be the historically accepted leader in the making of fine oriental carpets. The oldest intact Persian rug, however, dates only to the early years of the 16th century, the dawn of Persia's Golden Age. From 1501 to 1723, under the gentle patronage of the Safavid Dynasty, rug-making flourished. The art was held in such high esteem that Shah Abbas the Great himself (1587 - 1629) designed carpets. The innovations of the Golden Age-the elaborate central medallions, balanced borders, and floral and animal motifs - remain the standard upon which many Persian city carpets and other rugs around the world are based.
The Golden Age was short-lived. The Afghan invasions of the early 1700's disrupted the Persian world and for the next 100 years, until a vigorous trade began with the west, few fine court carpets were made. Most rugs exported during those years were from Turkey. Turkey's trade with Europe and, later, America, remained brisk well into the 1800s. It is hardly surprising: at one point, the Turkish Empire's borders extended into what is now Austria. So strong was the domination of the market that most oriental rugs were called Turkey carpets. By the mid-1800s, however, the Persian carpet had begun to make a strong comeback.
Until the turn of the twentieth century, the highest-quality oriental rugs sold in America were those from large commercial workshops in Kerman, Tabriz, Isfahan, Kashan, and other Iranian cities where rug-making had earlier established a firm stronghold. In time, rug dealers and collectors began to recognize the special beauty of the more-coarsely-woven tribal rug. Tribal rugs were-and in many places, still are-crafted by nomadic women on small, moveable looms that could easily be transported when the tribes moved in search of grass for their sheep. Like their city counterparts, these rugs carry designs reflecting age-old elements from nature and religious art. But while the elaborate patterns of the Safavid court rugs appear with only slight variations in the medallion city rugs, the same designs in many tribal rugs tend to be more rectilinear than curvilinear and emboldened. The flowers are lengthened, the animals stylized, the soft medallions eliminated or turned into vigorous geometric statements.
As demand for rugs grew in the early years of the twentieth century, new trading centers began springing up in India, Pakistan, and other traditional rug-making countries where commerce replaced the stream of invasions that had earlier characterized cultural exchange. Even a few Balkan countries, notably Romania and Albania, began selling rugs, particularly after World War II. Weavers still hand-knotted their rugs on traditional looms, their designs reflecting geographical preferences, but many of them, particularly in the village and city workshops, also began making efforts to tailor rugs to American and European tastes. Sizes changed to fit typical American homes - the 8 x 10 foot rug, for example, was made to fit the traditional American dining room. Chemical dyes were added and improved over the years to meet changing color palettes. While many rugs remained in the Middle East during the twentieth century, huge numbers were shipped abroad.
Today, attention to foreign tastes remains a concern, but many rug-makers are returning to the natural colors and hand-crafting of old. Workshops combine computer with age-old dye recipes and hand-shearing techniques, providing unique combinations of tradition and novelty for the discriminating buyer. Never have consumers had so many choices of colors, sizes, styles, and countries of origin.