When carpet enthusiasts talk about the Khorasan, they quickly direct the conversation toward the inhabitants of the Iranian and Afghan tribes and their often dark, yet at the same time strikingly colorful tribal weavings.
The Khorasan region is located in the easterly part of Iran, where the ancient Iranian city of Meshad can be found, and spreads across the Iranian border into western Afghanistan, where the former Persian city of Herat is located. The Khorasan region also dips into the most southerly reaches of Iran and Afghanistan, spilling over into Balochistan in northern Pakistan.
For centuries, these fiercely proud and self-sufficient nomads have roamed the Khorasan. Although there are many other tribes and sub-tribes in this area, it is the Iranian and Afghan Baluch weavers that have stirred and captured the imagination of the carpet collector.
In order to simplify the process of identifying the antique, semi-antique and contemporary weavings from this region — and thus remove the difficulty and confusion in trying to place weavings with specific tribes and sub-tribes — the carpet trade has placed all weavings from this area into two groups: The Iranian Baluch and the Afghan Baluch. The former trades through Meshad, the latter through Herat.
It is the view of many carpet purists and collectors that during the 19th century the Iranian Baluch weavings from the Torbat-e-Haidari region of Khorasan were by far the most spectacular. These weavings display great aesthetic beauty and can be very captivating. Furthermore, the older rugs were often decorated with finely woven and intricately detailed kelim at both ends of the rug, which is a feature no longer seen in today’s productions.
The Baluch choose to use a limited range of colors — dark blues, reds, orange-reds, and browns — along with un-dyed wool that provides the weaver with natural shades of ivory, black and brown. The ivory wool is often used in small amounts with great effect to highlight their often-dark designs. Interestingly, a number of classic Iranian carpets from Nain and Tabriz also highlight their carpet design details using colored silk.
Some old Baluch carpets, including the classic prayer carpets that display the abstract tree of life that is adorned with Baluch willow leaves, have hand spun brown camel hair as their main field color. Today, the use of camel hair in both carpets and prayer rugs is rare.
The Afghan Baluch weavers were and still are to this day prolific weavers. However, considering that Afghanistan has been at the sharp end of 21 years of war, the continuous supply of contemporary carpets and related tribal textiles seen in the shops today are little economic miracles.
The two examples are fine Afghan Baluch weavings that clearly demonstrate their innate skill as weavers as well as their ability for vibrant and dramatic color coordination.
Figure I is a semi-antique, beautifully woven Afghan Baluch bolesht (tent cushion). It measures 1.54x0.56m which includes a 7cm wide intricately woven kelim at both ends of the cushion. The weaving averages 95 Persian (asymmetric) knots per square inch. The kelim design in blue, white and red depicts a row of 10 ashik guls with double headed ram’s horns. The main field design consists of vertical rows of top quality wool piled serrated Baluch leaves on a light brown camel hair background. The wool serrated leaves are woven with synthetic colors of indigo blue, light brown and dark brown. The main field is framed by three guard stripes. The inner guard stripe displays the scepter head design. The middle guard stripe displays the ram’s horns design on a red background. The ram’s horns symbolize virility and strength and are seen in many Afghan Baluch weavings. The outer guard stripe features stepped pyramids.
The rear side of many Afghan and Iranian piled or flat woven cushions and tent bags are generally made from plain brown or black, flat woven wool sacking. Sometimes, this sacking will display basic and sometimes crude black, blue and white kelim design details. However, the rear side of this cushion has a very fine flat weave that displays colorful bands of elegant blue and red chevrons, as well as a swirling running dog design and diagonal rows of hooked diamonds.
Figure II is another fine example of a semi-antique Afghan Baluch weaving. The wool cushion measures 1.20x0.60m. The main field has a highly detailed lattice design that displays serrated Baluch leaves. The leaves alternate in synthetic color between red, blue, brown and amber. The lattice design is creatively constructed by weaving three large vertical barber’s poles and 20 narrow horizontal barbers poles. (The barber’s pole is also used by other weaving nations such as Iran and Russia to decorate their rugs and carpets.) The main field has an inner guard stripe displaying the Turkoman bride’s painted fingernail design. The fingernails alternate in color from red to blue and are outlined with ivory wool. The knot density of this weaving is 125 Persian (asymmetric) knots per square inch.
The design on the rear side of the cushion is truly magnificent and is rarely seen in recent weavings. It displays very pretty, colorful bands of decorative kelim. The kelim design details include three bands of small singular diamonds, three bands of interlinked, multicolored diamonds, and a singular band of white ashik guls on a black background. A further seven bands of plain sky-blue and blush pink help emphasize and radiate the sparkling beauty of the kelim.
Rectangular cushions like these examples can be found in most carpet shops. They are usually found in the flat form and you can ask the carpet shop to stuff them for you. Because the cushions are small in comparison with rugs and carpets, they are often overlooked when people are searching for weavings to decorate their homes. Many of the semi-antique/antique cushions are little masterpieces and will always bestow rich color and warmth in any home. They would also make exceptional gifts for family and friends where price ranges are within most people’s budgets. Recent weavings can be acquired for as low as SR80-100. Semi-antique (50 years and over) will cost in the region of SR250-450, while antique cushions (100 years and over) have a SR500-1,500 price range. Of course, price depends on demand, size, quality, colors (whether synthetic or natural), desirability and rarity.
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