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Stephen and I made our spring trip to Turkey to check on our production and to put in our new orders. We had a truly memorable trip. We began in Istanbul meeting with our dear longtime rug friends. We then traveled to Southwestern Turkey to visit with our weavers and then on to the fishing village of Foca on the Aegean for some much needed r&r.

The goal of this trip was to go into the mountains to several villages where our weavers make our custom kilims and pile rugs and to see Catal Huyuk the Neolithic site (more about this in a later blog). We needed to place new orders and check on our completed pre-sun pieces. It was the beginning of May which means the weavers were basically finishing the production and starting to head into the fields to farm their land. They work on the farm cycle, planting in the spring, harvesting all summer and then putting their produce and animal products by for the winter. They primarily weave for us in the fall, winter and early spring when they can't be in the fields.

They dress in colorful village clothes that are attractive and utilitarian at the same time as you can see in our pictures. The older village women wear a more elaborate traditional headdress than the younger villagers do these days.

Climbing by car, we took hairpin turns into the mountain villages. We passed many of the plants growing in the nearby fields, plants that the weavers use to make the natural dyes for our rugs and kilims. In our pictures you see the madder plant whose roots have been used for centuries to produce various shades of red. The weavers gather at least two year old roots in the fall and dry them, using a mordant to set the dye. It is speculated that Anatolia was most likely where madder root originated but of course its use radiated to Europe, the central Asian countries and North Africa. The Romans, Greeks and Egyptians used madder as the primary dye for various hues from red to violet. The use of madder was very widespread and popular in the Middle Ages. Madder fell into disuse in the 19th century with the rise of synthetic dyes but has seen a resurgence in the last twenty five years as the world returns to more natural products.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our pictures also show a field of  yellow woad or dyer's woad as it is called. Thirty subspecies of woad grow in Turkey and the arrow shaped leaves which are bluish green, not the pretty flowers,  produce the indigo that is so treasured around the world and had been historically used to produce gradations of blue color. You will also see a picture we took of the wild chamomile. Fifty species of the largest genus of this plant are known in Turkey and produce various hues of yellow color. One of the weavers gave me a bag of walnuts from her trees. They were delicious. The outer husks of the nuts and the leaves have been used since ancient times to produce brown dyes.  Many other natural plants are used of which I will write more about in subsequent blog entries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We watched the weavers in one village hand spin the wool and store the skeins by color so that when our customers work with us to choose a color from our “color blanket” for their custom rug or kilim we can pretty accurately match to the skeins the weavers produce. We also watched the weavers string the warp threads on vertical looms to create the base structure for the kilims they will weave. From there,  some of the weavers use a template to create the rug or kilim design, while others are so skilled at weaving they simply create. When the piece is complete, the rug or kilim is then cut down from the vertical loom and if it is a pile rug, it is shorn to the thickness that best reveals the design. Oftentimes, the pieces are then put out in the sun for about six weeks to achieve the depth of color in striation, or abrash, that we are looking for and that gives the pieces their jaw dropping beauty.

We hated to leave the villages which are teeming with life and very self sufficient. The villager’s homes are built into the sides of the mountains and the animals are housed on their first floors to efficiently heat the homes above. They live a truly green existence with inexpensive solar panels and rain barrels on their roofs. The weaver’s looms are on their porches in the warmer weather and in their homes in the winter time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were in one of the villages when some of the farmers were returning from the fields. The picture of the women on her donkey with the hay under her for her animals at home is particularly representative of the happy village life we encounter each time we go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After spending many days with the weavers, Stephen and I headed through the ancient city of Pergamon, now Bergama, famous through the Renaissance/Ottoman era for carpets back to the 11th century (Yoruk clans) and on to Foca a little fishing village on the Aegean to relax, eat fish and gather our thoughts.  

We asked ourselves the question “Will Turkey remain as bucolic and rural and full of the old traditions long into this century now that the Arab world has had this huge push towards modernization? We think probably not. Just as the Yoruk tradition of the migration is dying out in western Turkey so maybe will the mountain villages as young people are drawn down to the cities. We feel fortunate over the last thirty years to have seen the old traditional life in all its unhurried  close to the earth ways. Being in the villages always reminds us how rich, full, connected and beautiful family and tribal life can be.
Clare Mahfouz-Moss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My husband Stephen returned from his recent buying trip just before the holidays with some really interesting pieces. We were estimating that this was probably his fortieth or so buying trip. He never fails to find (or commission) pieces for specific customers or to add to our diverse inventory.

For instance, he brought a very charming Turkmen little girls dress with coins, beads, cowrie shells etc. that sold the first week it came through the door. You certainly wouldn’t worry about where your child was with this musical costume.

Most interestingly, to add to our extensive collection of prayer kilims, he found a mid 19th century Cankiri 3.7 x4.10. The iconography includes the Nazarlik (protection against the evil eye), Bereket (fertility), Sacbagi (amulet), Tarak (comb), Cengel (hook). The colors are from natural dyes and the ends are intact with the original braids. Kilim motifs tend to be symbolic expressions that reflect universal concepts of birth, fertility, masculinity, heroism, the physical body, childbirth, luck, common fears, monsters, everyday objects, flora, fauna, religious symbols and death to name just a few.  In other words, the essence of the human, natural and spiritual world is reflected in the weaving. This kilim’s face tells a rich story and it is in beautiful condition.

Another luscious piece that he bought out of an old Turkish estate is from Gordes. It is 4.4 x 6.1 c. 1910 with ivory ground and beautiful reds accented by deep green. Gordes was one of the most important carpet producing areas of Anatolia from the 17th to the 19th centuries.  Gordes is mostly famous for prayer and bridal carpets. This piece is traditionally described as a “Kis-Gordes” which means that is was probably made by a young woman for her trousseau. The design is in the tradition of  western Anatolia pieces. Rugs from this area are thought to be some of the earliest exported to Europe with examples appearing in many Renaissance paintings. What makes it typically a Gordes piece is the floral filled crossbars at the top and bottom with the prayer lamps and carnations trimming the inner niche.

Many other wonderful pieces came as well including our special production new kilims that are very rich primary colors in the longstanding Konya tradition. The piece below is just one sample…

It has taken an educated eye and persistence and a lot of travel over the years to create the depth and diversity of the Araby collection.

 

-Clare Mahfuz-Moss

The staff at Araby loves it when a great rug (in this case a Ghashang Bijar) goes to a great family. It's even more special for us when we get to see the piece in its new setting!

Modern Design, Ancient Tradition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our customers love our Gabbehs and often comment on how modern arty their designs are. I smile and remember how as a little girl in my grandfather and father’s shop on Boylston Street in Boston, I would ask about the “funny wooly rugs” that didn’t look like any of the other traditional pieces in our store. Rather, they looked like shaggy natural sheepskins with long fibers and spare, tribal designs if they had any design at all. My grandfather explained that they were rugs made by nomadic people from Fars Province, the Qashqa’i, Bakhtiari and Lors tribes who lived in the Zagros Mountains in Iran, all known collectively as the Qashqa‘is. These rugs were functional objects much like the tribe’s decorative salt bags and saddlebags-all useful items that moved with the tribes as they followed the animal migrations. They were for the tribe’s use i.e. “for their feet only” meaning they generally were not sold to the West but used as sleeping mats, as wraps for their children on cold nights and to generally warm and cool the family tent.

The oldest mention of a Gabbeh in Iran dates back to  sixteenth century AD in a decree from one of the Shahs who was hosting a reception for the then Mugal of India. He required “a silk tent to be set up for the kitchen near the royal pavilion and the private quarters, covering the ground with silken carpets from Korassan, with Gabbehs, with felts from Jam, and with suzanis.” This mention elevates the humble, functional Gabbeh to the level of the fine rugs and embroideries of the day. The word Gabbeh comes from the Persian for “unclipped” These rugs are characterized by their long pile and dense wool structure. The weavers are from the Turkish speaking Qashqa'i tribes  who are among the most powerful tribes in Iran. Parviz Tanolvoli, a respected art historian with a particular interest in the Qashqa’i tribes writes about these strong women weavers:

'Besides weaving, they are responsible for most of their family’s affairs, including cooking, childcare, milking the herds and the production of dairy products. Weaving is the result of a number of activities for which they also have responsibility: spinning, gathering of dye materials, and the dyeing process itself.'

He adds:

 'The endurance and bravery of these women is no less that that of their men. In horseback riding, shooting, mountain climbing and hiking they not only keep up with the men but sometimes surpass them. It is not uncommon for a traveler in the tribal areas of Iran to encounter a nomadic woman crossing the mountains and plains all alone, spinning thread as she goes.'

These nomadic tribes still follow their herds, taking them to the higher mountains in the summer where they do their weaving on ground looms, leaving the finished rugs to bask in the sun to mellow the colors. In the colder winter months, they move to lower pastures to spin, dye and weave, using the softest of the wool of the sheep’s underbelly to create the  natural luster you see in these wonderful pieces.
And where do the designs originate from on these modern looking rugs? The earliest gabbehs with their spare designs harken back to prehistoric pictographs found all over the world. Stripe, checkerboard, animal, figural and plantlike motifs that you might see on a Gabbeh are seen in cave art, pottery and textiles from France to Australia and New Zealand to Ireland to our American Southwest and Africa and reflect I believe this commonality of symbols and consciousness that make us humans.
A noted rug scholar, G.D. Bornet in his “Geometric Archetypes in Carpets of the Nomads” speculates that Gabbeh design may go back much further:

‘The representative depictions of pre-historic and early historic times-naturalistic animal depictions, later stylized drawings of humans and animals-have frequently been the subject of scholarly interpretations, but there have been no studies on the origins and significance of many geometric patterns, although the two forms are often found together
In the same locations'

The modern Gabbeh often incorporates these ancient symbols but in a whole new way. Where the colors of the old Gabbehs may have been more somber and muted the new Gabbeh colors are spectacular and organic. The vegetable dyes are rich, strong, lustrous, like nothing else you have ever seen in a rug. I often find the customers smiling as they look at them. The designs are sometimes endearingly childlike or sometimes so sophisticated that your jaw drops at the sheer genius of the weaver’s art.

The new Gabbeh is a phenomena of the last decade of the twentieth century but given its strength as a functional and beautiful art form, I believe it will become one of the most treasured antique rugs of the future.

Clare Mahfouz-Moss

 

 

Forty Women Soumak

 In the new carpet section of our website there is a beautiful mixed weave soumak with forty strong looking women lined up in rows. This piece looks like a modern representation of women and a modern interpretation might be that these are formidable, happy women not to be trifled with but the iconography actually has a long, rich heritage dating back to Paleolithic times. There is an argument that the figural wall drawings found at the Catal Huyuk site in Anatolia (c. 6000-7000 B.C) represent the Mother Goddess whose raised arms and open legs signify fertility, childbirth.and the cycle of life. The iconography is specifically called elibelende (pronounced like Ella Belinda) meaning hands on hips, a defiant, strong stand. Elibelende is a motif that can be found in many examples of Turkish, Kurdish and Persian tribal and village weaving. Sometimes the elibelende figure is highly stylized. Sometimes the figure seems to show a stylized child in the womb. Other examples show a distinct looking person as in our piece.What is wonderful about our soumak is the individual look of the women, each with different faces and attire, standing together forty strong surrounded by stylized stars. The stars represent good health and vitality and like elibelende also have a Paleolithic past. Also each women has an ancient amulet motif on her dress warding off the “evil eye”.
Come see this piece in person to get the full impact of the weaver’s art. No computer monitor can do it justice. This soumak was made in the Zagros Mountains, near Shiraz, by female weavers of the Qashqai tribe. It is one of a kind and has a “chi” like no other.

Clare Mahfouz-Moss

Many of our customers ask me what books I would recommend to help them understand the cultures and societies of the countries where their rugs have been woven. This is particularly true in the case of Iran. Iran is an enigma to most Americans. Travel to Iran and from Iran is not easy as I can personally attest. Once there, it is a fascinating place and the overwhelming majority of Iranians are pleased to meet an American and are very gracious hosts. 

Two books that I strongly recommend to anyone who wants a glimpse of Iran are Terence O'Donnell's Garden of the Brave in War and Christopher de Bellaigue's In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs. These are both memoirs by Westerners who resided on a long-term basis in Iran. O'Donnell's book recounts his fifteen years in Iran from the early sixties until just prior to the revolution. It is evocative and heartfelt and, I think, can help one understand the Iranian way of looking at the world. De Bellaigue's book is more contemporary (he is married to an Iranian) and gives an excellent account of recent Iranian history, interesting anecdotes, and most importantly, his interviews and interactions with Iranians that he meets. He is able to give individual voices to a place most of us only know from newsclips and soundbites.

Welcome to arabyrug.com's new feature blog!

We have added a blog to our website so our customer's can access
images and information regarding our latest acquisitions and creative
designs! We will update this blog regularly so be sure to check back
in!