Abrash
The word used to describe the variations in color found within a single color in
an Oriental carpet. Abrash is commonly seen in tribal nomadic rugs and in
reproductions of them. Mild Abrash is caused by variations in yarn diameter
native to nomadic dyeing and yarn spinning. Heavy Abrash is caused by the change
over to a new dye batch. Generally Abrash is desirable in tribal carpets and
undesirable in urban carpets.
Afshan
Named for the Afshar, it describes the presence of silk pile in an urban carpet.
Afshar
A Turkic speaking nomadic group living mostly in southern Iran known for fine
quality of their rugs.
Antique Wash
A chemical bath that tones down colors to simulate aging.
Arbrush
A brush designed with a series of delicate stripes of a different tone closely
paralleling each other - running horizontally across the face of the rug. In
wool rugs this is done deliberately to cheer up a plain, open-field background
which the weaver felt was monotonous.
Ardabil
Home of the 14th century tombs of Sheik Safi ad-Din and Shah Ismail. The city
that shares the name of The Ardebil Carpet one of the finest and most famous
objects of Islamic art. There is controversy, though, as to whether the carpet
was actually made there. Modern era carpets from the region are generally of
dubious quality.
Art Silk
Also called artificial silk it describes a yarn for weaving made from mercerized
cotton that attempts to take on the appearance of silk. The fiber is very soft
to the touch and is used to create a price category for smaller budgets whose
tastes run toward expensive silk rugs. Rugs sold as silk as given a burn test to
check for the presence of cotton.
Aubuson
Fine flat carpets woven in France from the 15th to 19th Centuries. They were
derived from Moorish weaving with the assistance of Architects and Artists of
the royal court.
Aubusson
A flat-weave rug, generally with a floral medallion in pastel colors, once woven
in France. The designs of these rugs have been adapted to pile carpets and are
now woven in India and China.
Axminster Rug
A complex machine made rug woven to a flexible cotton frame that can contain up
to 70 colors of wool. Its invention in 1882 in the midst of the industrial
revolution practically destroyed the handknotted rug industry. It was thought
that mechanized items were all going to be of superior quality, a theory later
shelved.
Axminster Loom
A popular loom for making machine-made rugs, it offers flexibility in color and
design.
Bakhtiyari
A nomadic group of southern Persia. This tribes weaving is popular among
collectors and the rugs themselves tend to be of unusually durable construction
lasting as long as 200 years in heavy wear environments. The most popular design
feature a square grid with a floral vase in each.
Baluch
A nomadic tribe living in Afghanistan and bordering countries who produce a
large volume of commercial weaving. Their rugs are generally brown, black, and
gold.
Bessarabian
This type of kilim originates in a part of Romania that is now part of the
Ukraine. Designs usually feature curvilinear floral patterns and are more
formal, sophisticated and elaborate than those found in other areas of southeast
Europe.
Bidjar
The rug design named for the Bidjar region of Iranian Azerbaijan. Originally the
design was Kurdish featuring hundreds of trees and was really responsible for
earning the region its fine reputation. Commercial Bidjar are factory woven and
feature a distinctive diamond shape medallion. Commercial Bidjar are thought to
be the most durable carpets in history as most will last 300 years. This has
earned the Bidjar the colorful moniker The Iron Rug of Persia . Both types of
Bidjar are still made in limited quantities.
Border Rug
A rug that features a design on the outer rim of the rug, surrounding the field.
Boteh
A small Oriental rug motif that resembles a pine cone or pear.
Braided rug
A rug made by braiding yarn around a core and shaping it into a rug. Braids can
be tubular (shaped around only one core, which forms a round braid) or flat
(shaped around two core yarns, which makes a flat braid).
Bukhara (also Bocarra)
Turkoman rugs are referred to as Bukharas. The pattern most associated with
these rugs is that of rows of repeated geometric motifs, or guls, woven on a red
background.
Bukhara
The capitol of Usbekistan and the traditional trading center for Turkmen tribal
carpets. Today, rugs called Bukhara are generally commercial copies knotted in
Pakistan and India. Actual Turkmen carpets are called by their tribal names to
ease confusion with their popular reproductions. Commercial Bukhara carpets are
available in about twenty quality gradations, though surface appearance may be
similar. Commercial Bukhara carpets are the best selling hand-knotted rugs in
the world.
Burn Test
A small tuft of fibers from a rug may be burned to test for its content. For
example cotton has a vegetable smell when burned. Wool smells faintly like hair.
Silk smells distinctly like human hair when burned.
Chanted Rugs
A technique used for the duplicate manufacture of the finest urban rugs. The
colors of the pre-dyed yarn are chanted rhythmically to assure that rugs are
more perfect than rugs made with other techniques. Most fine carpets from Tabriz
and Isfahan are made this way.
Chi-Chi
The often derided name for Caucasian type rugs made in Chechnia and Dagistan.
Chin Wool
The fine whiskers from the chin of sheep that are sometimes set aside a special
ceremonial carpet. Chin wool carpets are considered finer than silk ones but are
very rare. Turkmen tribes most notably use this fiber for their finest carpets.
Chrome dyes
Synthetic dyes that use potassium bichromate to form a permanent bond between
yarn and the dye. More widely used than vegetable dyes because they are
colorfast.
Cross-woven
A rug woven horizontally on Wilton loom. (More commonly, rugs are woven
vertically.) The cross-woven technique allows fringes to be incorporated into
the rug rather than sewn on later.
Dhurie
A low grade kilim from India. They are generally a product of the Indian prison
system. It is also a term used to insult the quality of Kilim from other places.
Dhurrie
A reversible, flat-woven rug with a loose weave and a casual feel, often
brightly colored. Dhurries are usually woven in India with either cotton or
wool. The design is created by interweaving colored weft threads through the
warp threads.
Ersari
A large mostly settled tribe of northwest Afghanistan who make both urban and
tribal rugs. They are renowned for the quality of their nomadic saddles and tent
gear.
Field
The center of an area rug. It may have a specific pattern or be of a plain
color.
Flat Weave
A catchall term that describes any rug without pile including Soumaks, Kilim,
Verneh, Sozani, and Dhurie. Aubuson carpets are also flat but are excluded due
to their extreme complexity.
Gabeh
A fluffy long piled rug used by nomads as a mattress. They have only been sold
commercially in the West since 1990. Gabeh usually have a simple colorful design
often with a pastoral scene. The Gabehs charm has only been appreciated recently
and they now are being produced commercially for export.
Gileem ( see kilim )
Gul
Persian word for flower, it describes the common ornaments found in Turkmen
carpets. Guls are the design element often mistaken for elephants feet.
Handmade Rug (Hand Made Rug)
A rug that is either entirely handknotted (finished with knots) or handtufted
(yarn is pushed through the canvas using a tufting instrument). These rugs
generally are made of wool or other fine materials such as silk. They are
generally more expensive than machine-made rugs.
Herati Border
A rug pattern consisting of a rosette surrounded by four leaves. The rosette is
often found inside a diamond shape.
Hereke
Turkish city famous for its factories where the most elaborate silk rugs in the
world are made. Though Hereke is in Turkey they use the Persian Senneh knot in
rugs made there.
Heriz
A large city now located near the border between Iran and Azerbaijan. The
geometric medallion rugs woven there in the early 20th century were extremely
popular in Europe and the U.S.A. Commercial carpets bearing the Heriz design are
woven in every rug producing county in the world. The Heriz design is the most
popular Persian design in the west.
Hooked rug:
A rug made by using a hooking device (either a hand-operated one or machine one)
to push and loop yarn through a canvas. This is either left looped (creating a
"loop hook" or "latch hook" rug) or sheared to create an open pile.
Karabagh:
The Karabagh district lies southeast of the Kazak district in the southern part
of the Caucasus, along the border with Iran. Although many different designs are
woven in rugs from Karabagh, repeated boteh, single and multiple medallions,
bouquets of roses, Herati and prayer designs are most common. Kashkuli
An element of the larger nomadic Qashqai tribe of southern Iran famous for the
quality of their rugs.
Kashmir
The name for the fancy village carpets made of silk or mercerized cotton in the
Islamic region of India. Kashmir are woven with a Persian knot and mimic the
designs of newer urban carpets from Iran with an emphasis for Indian tastes for
brilliant color. Coloration used in these rugs is unique to India.
Kazak
The people of Kazakhstan and the Turkish style rugs of that region.
Kilim
Any pileless carpet in which the pattern is formed by the colored weft strings
being wrapped around the warp. In Farsi the word is Gileem. The word is also
used to describe the pileless side of nomadic bags and saddles.
Kilim (or kelim)
A reversible flatweave rug, similar to a dhurrie but more tightly woven. These
most often are made of wool.
Knot
There are two basic types of knots used in oriental rugs:
Persian Senneh
A fine asymmetrical knot used in fine urban and complex tribal carpets.
Observers will notice that these rugs have a light and a dark side.
Turkish Ghiordes
The symmetrical knot used in most tribal carpets it makes for a higher pile
heavy wearing style of rug. Chinese carved carpets also feature this knot.
Knot count
In makig handmade, hand-knotted rugs, each piece of yarn is knotted through the
back of the rug as it is incorporated into the rug. The higher the number of
knots per square inch, the higher the quality of the rug.
Kurd
A tribal people who live in eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and the Kordistan
region or Iran. They produce what are commonly thought to be the finest tribal
style rugs in the world. Kurdish rugs are a passion among rug collectors and
connoisseurs and bring the highest prices at market.
Line Count
The number of horizontal knots in a linear foot of rug. As with knot count, the
higher the number, generally the higher the quality of the rug. This measurement
is commonly used for judging the quality of Chinese and other Oriental rugs.
Lur
Formerly nomadic people of south western Iran. They are renowned for the quality
of their rugs and kilim.
Machine-made Rug (Machine Made Rug)
A rug that is produced using an automtated loom for yarn placement and weaving.
Fringe on these rugs may either be sewn into the rug or sewn on by hand later.
Often made of polyproplyene, acrylic or wool, these rugs generally are less
expensive than handmade rugs.
Memling Gul
A stepped-hook polygon motif named after the 15th century Flemish artist Hans
Memling, who used rugs with this motif in many of his paintings.These guls are
used in Caucasian, Turkish and northwest Persian rugs.
Merigeh
The weavers in the town, located south of Tabriz, specialize in the production
of inexpensive silk rugs. The medallion design with spandrels is the most
frequently woven.
Natural rug
Often refers to an ivory or earth-toned rug where the texture of the rug is the
main feature. These rugs are usually made of sisal, jute or wool.
Oltenian
A type of kilim that is considered to be the finest of the Romanian kilims.
Their designs usually include elaborately curving flower and leaf sprays.
Oriental
Traditional word that means of the Eastern World or of the land found by ship
when Africa has been circled , it has come to more accurately describe
characteristics of Turkey, Iran, India, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
and Pakistan. The modern definition excludes characteristics of China and
Indochina now classified as Asian.
Ottoman
A powerful Turkish dynasty that ruled most of extended Persia from 1290 to 1924.
It was named for its founder Osman.
Polypropylene
A petroleum-based synthetic material which is often heat set to guarantee
vibrant color, long lasting beauty, easy maintenance and long-lasting superior
performance.
Prayer rug
This design has an arch at the top of the field. The arch may be either
geometric or curvilinear, depending on where the rug was woven. These rugs are
woven throughout Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, the Caucasus and Turkestan.
Qashqai
Name of a former politically confederation of southern Iranian nomadic tribes
mainly: Shesh Boluki, Kashkuli Bozorg, Amaleh, Derrehshuri, Farsi Madan, and
Kashkuli Kuchek. The regional trading center for these tribes is Shiraz. Most
Gabeh carpets sold in the west are of Qashqai origin.
Salor
A Turkmen tribe famous for the quality of its rugs that has been virtually wiped
out by military conquests. Modern era rugs from this group are rare and highly
prized among collectors.
Saryk
A Turkmen tribal people known for the quality of their older rugs. Newer units
are of dubious construction and design.
Savonerie
The name given to French piled carpets made until 1890 that look similar to
Persian Kermans. These rugs were more foot friendly than their cousin the
Aubuson and had an impressionist quality many find very appealing.
Sefavid
A Persian dynasty remembered for Shahs Tasmasp and Abbas who were great patrons
of the arts and ambassadors for Persian rug weaving to the rest of the world.
They are credited for the enduring international popularity of Iranian style
carpets.
Serouk
The factory woven carpets woven in the vicinity of Serouk in Iranian Azerbaijan
are some of the most beautiful ever made. Most were manufactured with intent to
export to the United States. They were frequently found in the lobbies of fine
hotels and in American living rooms in the post WW2 era. Serouk rugs often
remind people of their grandparents or a relative visited during the holidays.
Shah Abbas
Design element that features swirling feathers and Lotuses named for the Shah
who commissioned its design. Its found in most modern urban Persian style rugs.
Shahsavan
The once powerful confederation of Turkic speaking tribes living in Azerbaijan.
They are decimated by military losses and now mostly make kilim.
Soumak
A heavy flat woven rug made with a weft wrapping technique. This technique is
also used in commercial rugs that are designed to look like antiques. Most
traditional Soumak are made in the Caucasus region.
Sozani Kilim
In Farsi Sozani translates as Laundry Bag . They are heavy flat woven carpets
similar to soumak with an additional embroidered design on the surface. They
have been the rage in recent years with the increased popularity of tribal
carpets. Sozani are the most exotic type of flat woven tribal carpets and are
even being made in silk.
Spandrels
The corner design of a rug field.
Talim
A special notation used to record and reproduce the designs of Kashmir carpets.
Tekke
The largest Turkmen tribe in the 19th century thought to make the finest rugs
made in the Turkmen style. The Tekke carpets are among those most highly prized
by collectors.
Tribal rug
The term is often used interchangeably with gabbeh, to describe a
primitive-looking or Southwestern-looking rug. This look is very popular this
year and is available at all price points.
Tufted Rug
A mechanically assisted technique for manufacturing rugs in which tufts of wool
are punched through base fabric to color in a silk screen design painted on the
base. The back of the base is then painted with thick Latex glue and covered
with a sacking material. Mostly this method is used in China to produce
inexpensive versions of their handknotted rugs.
Turret gul
An octagonal motif with spiked projections that point both inward and outward
from its rim. A smaller octagon appears at the center of the gul.
Vegetable dyes
Dyes made from plants and bark. They produce unusual shades of blue, green and
other colors. They contain no synthetic chemicals and, due to their natural
ingredients, tend to fade faster than chrome dyes.
Verneh
A Shahsavan type of soumak rug featuring interlocking birds.
Village Rug
A rug made by a variety of people working on the clock on a loom located in the
center of a village. Usually some form of day care is provided. Most large size
tribal carpets are made this way. Warp
The weave that runs up anad down the rug.
Weft
The cross weave of a rug.
William Morris
The English design firm named for its founder that specialized in adopting
middle eastern designs to western tastes. Most of their beautiful designs were
used in institutional settings like Grand Hotels and Government Buildings. They
actually made Persian style carpets in London from 1890 to 1914 with labor
imported from Pakistan.
Wilton loom
An automated loom used for machine-made designs. It offers flexibility in color
placement and design, including the ability to cross-weave rugs.
Wilton Rug
A machine loomed carpet with a limited color palette. Most today are made of
synthetic fiber and have dubious durability. Well made wool wiltons can last as
long as 15 years of more. Most Wiltons are made in time sharing factories that
manufacture wiltons for many companies at the same time. Modern Wiltons are the
first type of rug to be computerized and automated.
Yuruk
The Turkish word for nomad. It is used to describe any nomad living in Turkey.
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