BIJAR, Iran; July
15, 2012 -- When one thinks of Persian carpets, one usually thinks of two ends
of a spectrum.
At one end:
intricately crafted workshop carpets. At the other: spontaneous tribal carpets.
But most Persian
carpets lie between these poles and are distinct from both.
They are the
carpets produced not in city workshops or nomads' tents but in towns and
villages.
The weavers, often working at home, range from a single person to a small group and together they form a vast cottage industry.
The weavers, often working at home, range from a single person to a small group and together they form a vast cottage industry.
Usually the
weavers are women weaving part-time to supplement their family income. But
there is nothing informal about their work.
Their skill level is so high -- and so consistent over generations -- that their towns and villages are internationally famous for the rugs they weave.
Their skill level is so high -- and so consistent over generations -- that their towns and villages are internationally famous for the rugs they weave.
One of the best-known
examples of town and village weaving are Bijar (or Bidjar) carpets, produced in
the Kurdish town of Bijar and neighboring villages in northwest Iran.
At the top of this
article is a Bijar with a drop repeat pattern. It is available from the
Nazmiyal Collection in New York.
Bijar carpets
first appeared in Western markets during the 19th century and were particularly
popular in America. They could be found both in homes and in public spaces,
such as university common rooms.
One reason for
their widespread popularity was their durability. The weavers made them so
strong – so tightly packed and heavy -- that they were nicknamed the "Iron
Rugs of Persia." That also made them especially appealing to men, who
regarded them as a masculine choice for dens and studies.
How the weavers
made the rugs so durable was no accident. They put three wefts between the rows
of knots, and one of the wefts was not only thicker than the others but
sometimes as thick as a pencil.
That
makes the rugs so stiff and heavy they can barely be folded. They have to be
rolled up for storage.
The success of
Bijar rugs – which continues today -- tells much about what historically made
Iran's town and village rugs so successful in general.
Each of Iran's famous weaving locales traditionally has something characteristic about the way its rugs are made. The difference is often in the technique of the rug's construction or the use of colors and it makes the rugs recognizably native to an area.
But what most town and village weavers don't do is limit their rugs to just a few patterns or designs.
Each of Iran's famous weaving locales traditionally has something characteristic about the way its rugs are made. The difference is often in the technique of the rug's construction or the use of colors and it makes the rugs recognizably native to an area.
But what most town and village weavers don't do is limit their rugs to just a few patterns or designs.
They
may have a traditional repertoire of patterns peculiar to the village or
locality, but because they are weaving commercially they do not restrict
themselves to only those.
As rug experts Murray Eiland and Murray Eiland III note in
their book ‘Oriental Carpets – A Complete Guide’:
“Any of the popular Persian designs of the nineteenth
century, except for types specifically associated with nomadic tribes, can be
found on Bijars.” That includes Herati, Mina Khani, Floral Arabesque, Harshang,
Weeping Willow, and simple Medallion forms, just to name a few.
Below is a medallion Bidjar carpet with a Herati pattern.
The Herati pattern was the most popular pattern among weavers throughout Persia
in the 19th century. The carpet is available from the Nazmiyal Collection in New York.
Often, the designs on town and village carpets seem
traceable to the designs on city workshop carpets.
So much so, that many experts think that local weavers take
their main inspiration from this source and that tribal designs have only a
minor influence.
But where town and village rugs differ dramatically from
city workshop rugs is in how they interpret patterns.
Whereas workshop rugs are filled with swirling lines and
curves, town and village rugs simplify the curves by making them more angular
and rectilinear. The result is a bolder look that make town and village rugs
something all their own.
The angular stylization of town and village rugs is part
inspiration, part necessity.
The weavers, who are not full-time professionals, have
neither the expertise nor the time to do the high knot-count weaving that
creates minutely graded swirls and curls. So they modify the designs
accordingly.
There are other differences, too, in how town and village
rugs are woven compared to workshop rugs. One of the most interesting is how
the weaver learns the pattern she or he is using.
In professional workshops, patterns are usually drawn by
artists and given to the weavers in the form of a ‘cartoon.’ The cartoon, drawn
on grid paper, shows the pattern of the rug knot-by-knot, so the weaver has a
guide to follow no matter how complicated the pattern gets.
But town and village weavers have traditionally worked by
copying another rug, instead. When
there was a new pattern to learn, it would be transmitted to the weavers in the
form of a sampler rug that contains examples of all the motifs in the design.
The sampler rug, called a wagireh (or vagireh), may show both
the field and border patterns for the carpet, as in the photo above. This
sampler from the 19th century is available from Nazmiyal Collection
in New York.
Wagirehs can vary widely in size.
If the carpet to be woven frequently repeats its elements, a
small wagireh is enough to show the weaver ‘one repeat’ of the pattern.
But if the pattern continues to change for a long time
before it repeats, a much larger sampler rug is needed. Thus some wagirehs can
be as large as 9 x 5 feet (2.7 x 1.5 meters).
Perhaps not surprisingly, wagirehs themselves have become
collectors’ items in recent years. One reason is that they have become rare as
rug companies today mostly commission rugs by giving local weavers paper
cartoons instead.
Here is a picture of another wagireh, available from
Nazmiyal Collection in New York.
Through the centuries, town and village weavers have proved
to be more than just highly skilled weavers.
They have also provided a depository for weaving skills that might otherwise have become lost in the ups and downs of the workshop carpet industry.
They have also provided a depository for weaving skills that might otherwise have become lost in the ups and downs of the workshop carpet industry.
Just that happened when Persia’s court-sponsored workshop
system collapsed during the tumultuous period that followed the end of the Safavid
dynasty in 1722. The workshop virtually disappeared until the revival of the
Persian carpet industry again in the 19th century.
Eiland and Eiland note that during that time – when export
of Persian rugs to foreign markets stopped and most of the rugs sent to Europe
were Anatolian – the weaving that continued in Persia was only “at a modest
level to meet local needs.”
That modest level was the ongoing work of Persia’s cottage
industry, whose rugs only became known to the West following the explosion of
foreign demand for Persian carpets in the second half of the 1800s.
The explosion of foreign demand not only brought Persia’s
dormant workshop industry back to life, it sparked an enormous export of town
and village rugs to the West, too.
Ever since, town and village rugs have provided the bulk of
Persian carpets in Western homes.
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