Middle Eastern nomads and villagers have used a variety of techniques to create stunning textile art. The most common structures are shown below.
Slit tapestry this is the technique used most frequently for the flat woven rugs and hangings called kilims. Slit tapestry is also used for bags, pictorial tapestries, and other articles. The fabrics are usually weft-faced, meaning that the warp is covered completely; the surface is ribbed in a vertical direction. Warp yarns are those that were affixed to the loom; weft yarns are those that were interlaced with the warps. In all of the photos here, the fabrics are oriented as they were on the loom--with the warps running vertically.
In tapestry weaving, weft yarns are discontinuous; the artisan interlaces each colored weft back and forth in its own small pattern area. With slit tapestry, at each point where colors meet, a small slit occurs if the pattern boundary is vertical. Other tapestry techniques, in which wefts are dovetailed or interlocked, overcome this potential problem but have their own disadvantages. Slit tapestry produces the sharpest pattern delineation and the smoothest weave. It also permits the most freedom and spontaneity; thus it is a favorite technique among weavers worldwide. Slit tapestry is fun to weave.
You can see in the loom photo that slit-tapestry kilims are woven in separate sections, in a very free-form sort of way. Rarely are pattern parts woven with single wefts, one and then another, right across the loom. Usually tapestry designs are bolder and more dramatic than those produced with other nomadic weaving techniques.
Since the weaver avoids long vertical lines in her pattern (to avoid long slits), designs are composed primarily of diagonal and horizontal elements. To construct a strong piece, intersecting diagonal pattern lines are also avoided. Because most kilim designs have been shaped significantly by structural considerations, most tapestry motifs have developed directly on the loom; they have not been copied from other sources. This is why we find designs similar in character wherever slit tapestry is produced around the world--whether by Anatolian, Navajo, Pre-Columbian Peruvian, or other weavers.
Tapestry weft yarns need not always be horizontal. They can be pushed about as the weaver wishes, to easily form curved or slanting shapes. Egyptian weavers who put animals, plants, and human figures into their tapestries use the same techniques as Anatolian, Persian, and Caucasian kilim weavers, but simply do not restrict themselves to geometric or quasi-geometric forms. When we compare Senneh kilims from western Iran which have erratic wefts, with the Harranian folk art tapestries of Egypt, the structural similarities are striking.
Weavers sometimes choose to weave slit-tapestry pieces sideways. The loom's width is always a limitation, but the direction can also be shifted for design purposes. An Egyptian artist who wishes to portray a group of long-legged animals and still avoid long slits, logically produces her piece sideways on the loom. Indeed, the internal rhythm in such pieces is nearly always dominated by a verticality in the designs. On the other hand, pieces woven right-side-up display a predominance of horizontal forms, as shown in the photo above. When tapestries like these are designed directly on the loom, with no preliminary drawings, the natural tapestry processes help to shape graceful imagery.
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The Turks have produced the largest kilims, usually in two narrow pieces joined, as well as small ones and a multitude of prayer kilims. As a prayer rug, which is carried about with the worshiper, the light and extremely flexible kilim offers obvious advantages. In Turkish kilims, cotton is often used for the white areas, and small details may be brocaded. The kilims of the southern Balkans began as close copies of Anatolian types but have gradually developed into individual styles, such as the black, red, and white kilims of Pirot. In Romania, also, there are varied local fashions, progressively less Oriental in colour and pattern as the distance from Turkey increases. The name kilim is also given to a variety of brocaded, embroidered, warp-faced, and other flat-woven rugs and bags
Here again we question: Are kilims just floor coverings? No, some are hangings, some are bench or divan covering, etc., etc. Once more a trusted source of information turns out to be at least a bit misleading.
There are other definitions to be found, some much less accurate, others quaint or curious, but their very profusion shows that more and more people are interested in our favorite subject, the kilim. Not many years ago the word 'kilim' wasn't even listed in an English dictionary or encyclopedia! What's more, even today your computer spell-check tool probably doesn't recognize kilim as a legitimate word. Don't worry, it is.
Having researched the matter in some detail in numerous sources we have arrived at the following definition:
Kilim, a word of Turkish origin, denotes a pile less textile of many uses produced by one of several flat weaving techniques that have a common or closely related heritage and are practiced in the geographical area that includes parts of North Africa, the Balkans, Turkey (Anatolia and Thrace), the Caucasus, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia and China.
We believe this definition to be correct though incomplete, because, as all kilim lovers know, no words can convey the romance of the kilim. We try to fill this void by providing in these pages as much detail as possible about the traditions, culture and heritage of kilim-making to make the romance live - and we hope you enjoy it.
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The origins of the hand woven oriental pile rug in existence dates from the fourth century BC. This hand woven oriental rug known internationaly as the Pazyrk Rug, this oriental rug was discovered in 1949 frozen inside a burial mound in Siberia. Many oriental rug experts believed the Pazyrk rug was woven in the Caucasus where the countries of present day Turkey, Iran, armenia and Azerbaijan. Other oriental rug experts note the similarity of the woven motifs in the carpet to the architectural motifs found at Persepolis, the ancient capital of Persia.
No matter where this interesting oriental rug was woven, the technique of creating a soft pile by knotting and compacting wool yarn is the same technique used by oriental rug weavers today. There exist various fragments of oriental rugs and textiles, but the next oldest oriental rug still in existence dates from the 13th century.
Ancient sources describe many historical oriental rugs. Alexander the great found Cyrus the Greats tomb resting on fine oriental rug. Sui annals state that woolen oriental rugs from Turkey , Persia, were being exported to china during the 6th and 7th centuries.
When the Arabs conquered Persia the historical oriental rug of Khosrow 531-579 AD, the so called Spring Winter oriental rug woven with gold and silver threads and sewn with jewels was taken as booty by the conquering Arabs.
The Arab historian Tabari wrote that 60.000 soldiers were paid with fragments of this oriental rug. Ancient accounts exist showing that mant solders sold hheir fragments in the Damascus bazaar. The famed beauty of the spring winter oriental rug served as inspiration for subsequent oriental rugs for a tousend years. The theme of the oriental rug was paradise. Paradise is a one filled with eternal moment.
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Knotted pile structures are, of course, used for the wide range of plush pile carpets popularly known as Oriental rugs. But tribal weavers have also knotted tent bags and saddlebags, saddle covers, animal trappings, cushions, door hangings, tent girths and other articles. Sometimes knotted pile has been combined with one or more of the flatweaves.
To form the pile, small segments of colored yarn are attached firmly to pairs of warps. The Asian or North African weaver works with the loose end of a continuous yarn, wrapping each individual knot and then cutting the yarn before starting the next knot. (This differs from the processes used by European and North American weavers who make flossa or rya pile rugs.) After each row of knotting, one or more wefts are inserted and packed down tightly. The precise manner in which this is done determines the rug's flexibility, thickness, and durability.
Knots of two basic types have been used throughout Asia and North Africa: asymmetrical and symmetrical knots. The first, the asymmetrical knot, sometimes called the "Persian" or "Senneh" knot, is superb when fine design detail is desired, because these can be closely packed. Not true "knots," each short yarn segment is wrapped around two warps, but only encircles one of these completely. Either the right or left warp may be enclosed. Asymmetrical knots predominate in Iranian, Central Asian, Indian, and Chinese production. On workshop carpets, alternate warps are often pushed behind to allow a more compact structure. This is done by alternating a heavy, stiff weft yarn with a finer, more flexible and sinuous weft. Sometimes three-weft sequences are used. These dense constructions are described as having depressed warps.
Symmetrical knots are inherently more secure, and thus are excellent for coarser weaves. The pile yarn wraps around a pair of warps from opposite directions, and the ends emerge together, between these warps. In knot-making terminology, this is a "clove hitch." Symmetrical knots are typical in Turkish and Caucasian rugs, but they also appear in some Turkmen rugs, some North African weavings, and a good many Persian village rugs. In older rug literature, symmetrical knots have been called "Turkish" or "Ghiordes" knots.
Other kinds of knotting have been used in more isolated rug- weaving areas like Tibet and Morocco's Middle Atlas Mountains. Tufted rugs made with punches or tufting guns on pre-woven fabrics in China have sometimes have been confused with hand-knotted carpets. With tufting, no warps are encircled completely, and the backs of these rugs are usually sprayed or painted with adhesives to secure the pile yarns.
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Knot counts are one gauge of quality in some large workshop carpets, but with antique rugs there is little correlation between a rug's coarseness and its value as textile art. Other qualities are more important: the artistry, craftsmanship, rarity, wool quality, and the weaving's importance as an historic or ethnographic object.
If you wish to identify the knots in your rug, you must first determine which end of the rug was at the top when it was woven. The fringe yarns on the ends are the warp. Running lengthwise through the rug, these were the yarns stretched on the loom. Stroke the pile; knots were tied with the pile inclining downward, toward the bottom of the loom. As the weaver wrapped each knot, she tightened it by pulling it downward or toward her, against the already woven fabric.
A novice should start by examining the most coarsely woven rug available, perhaps an Anatolian, south Caucasian, or Kurdish piece. First, on the front of the rug, fold a section along the wefts, parallel with a row of knotting. Since rugs with the lowest knot counts are usually symmetrically knotted, that is probably what you will see. Each knot spans two warps and has a wide "collar" horizontally across its top. Two pile tufts emerge from under this collar, usually merging to look like one. If you cannot see individual knots clearly, try an intricate section of the design with narrow, but lightly colored pattern parts. As you handle a flexible old symmetrically knotted rug, you will begin to see the surface as lots of small square, chunky pile sections. This characteristic is accentuated if the pile is worn.
Once familiar with symmetrical knots, you will easily recognize those that are not, almost by default. Instead of an unbroken series of collars, on rugs with asymmetrical knots there are alternating tufts of pile and much smaller collars, each the width of a single warp. Asymmetrically knotted constructions do not separate readily into small square sections unless they are quite coarse, like some Chinese Ninghsia pieces.
Asymmetrical knots can be tied so that they either "open to the left" or "open to the right." With some rugs you need only rub your hand lightly over the surface to determine their direction. If the pile fibers slant obviously to one side, the knots open that way. Otherwise, look for a place with a single knot in a light color; the knot opens on the side of the collar where the tuft emerges. It may help to fold the rug vertically and roll it back and forth slightly to isolate a column of knots.
he vast majority of workshop carpets with severely depressed warps have asymmetrical knots. Persian Bijar carpets are one exception; they are symmetrically knotted. By folding a rug along a narrow vertical outline it is usually possible to see whether a knot's two yarn ends emerge singly or together from under its collar.
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