This bag of very fine and even wool felt comprises a square-within-square, where triangular flaps are folded into the center, three of them then sewn together with cording leaving a flap at the top, as in an envelope. This is an evolution of or departure from the classic Turkic bokhcha¹ (as known from Ottoman and other contexts), which is simply a purpose-made² cloth square used to contain other items by folding it around them. Smaller cloth examples are known from Turkmen contexts, especially Yomud but also Tekke, whether sewn shut or left open. These latter are often used to contain or wrap up Korans or other valued items. The loops attached to our example’s upper corners are indicative of its further evolution into something that could be readily transported and used as a functional container. A small wire hook is attached to the point of the flap although no corresponding loop or tie is present below.

Recently, a similar piece was seen in the trade. That bokhcha was distinguished by the presence of charming little appliquéd men, a camel and two quadrupeds. Otherwise, it was a close copy in every respect although I would guess it was slightly smaller and the “ram’s horn”-like features in each quadrant of the front were somewhat more pinched. Another example has been published in Hali.³ It is similar in conception and decoration although more restrained in its use of cording and employs different principal elements in its design, triangular forms that bear a distinct resemblance to the common triangular Turkmen talismans, complete with pendants. It is in like manner bedecked with loose wool tassels on bottom and sides. This one, from the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Turkmenistan in Ashkabad, has been attributed to the Goklen Turkmen.

A close pile parallel is illustrated by Robert Pinner in Hali,⁴ although it has lost the tassels it was surely endowed with originally, as may be seen in one of the examples illustrated by H. McCoy Jones and Jeff Boucher, from the collections of the Walter Vincent Smith Museum of Art in Springfield, Massachusetts.⁵ The pile examples are roughly the same size although slightly larger. Such pile pieces feature four pile-woven triangles (which form the decorated front, parallel with our felt example), flanking a flat-woven square (forming the back). They do not sport any obvious devices for carrying.

Regarding any special functions, Pinner⁶ simply says that, among the Salor (for instance), a bokhcha is a principal part of the dowry, along with two chuvals and four torbas, presented by the mother of the bride to the mother of the groom. One assumes the case was parallel among the Yomud, who particularly favor this form, and perhaps other Turkmen groups. Due to the relatively privileged status this form had among the Yomud, special functions for it may very well have existed that have simply never been documented. The bokhcha itself––in conjunction with other dowry textiles––is also an expression of the mastery of the textile arts in the family whence the bride comes that will be employed in the service of her new domestic unit. Further, it will certainly function as a container and serve a decorative role whether hung or propped up in the tent.

It is difficult to distinguish questions of technique from design on this bokhcha. An exceptional amount of calculation, skill and effort has gone into its complex decoration. It is a study in polychromy, with two different dyes (madder red and indigo blue) used in the characteristically Yomud wool triple braiding applied to its sides; three (brown, blue and teal) in the heavy transverse cording, which is structural; but four (brown, blue and teal and crimson); in the lighter, entirely decorative cording forming the verticals and horizontals continuous with the ram’s horn motifs which comprise the principal decorative element. Five (blue, teal, aubergine, red and orange) plus natural off white are used in the side and bottom tassels. Similar embroidered cording is applied decoratively to a Yomud felt horse cover in the author’s collection. Moreover, the triangular wool appliqués come in six colors( red, orange, light green, aubergine, purple and blue), a range rarely seen in Central Asian textiles employing this imported material.

It is impossible to determine without question the clear iconographic identity of ram’s horn-like features on this bokhcha in the absence of precise ethnographic evidence. If they are indeed ram's horns, their curling character has been greatly exaggerated for decorative effect. The Turkmen term for the ram’s horn device is gochak, but that is also frequently used in the literature to apply to repeat motifs in the borders of Turkmen rugs that lack any iconographical significance due to that repetition. Still, there is no doubt that this motif is also employed in a more explicit and autonomous manner in this context and that it is a profound and ancient symbol amongst Turkic peoples, spread from Central Asia to modern-day Turkey. Among other places, it appears at the apex of the niche in Ersari prayer rugs and in some ensis (door rugs), where it may be single or repeated.  A distinctive Ersari example of an uncommon variety with three sets of horns is illustrated in Hali.⁷ A notable example of East Turkestani weaving attributed to Kashgar is illustrated in one of the Herrmann catalogues.⁸ However, the ram's horns on a prayer rug that really play the part are the great curving ones to be found on a Beshir prayer rug sold in a Christie's auction.⁹   This motif also appears --in the form of real horns-- attached to shrines throughout much of Central Asia and Afghanistan.

The literature on Central Asian rugs surveyed for this note is essentially mute on the possible symbolic significance and cultural origins of this motif and the presently available search engines giving access to the periodical literature were unavailing. Even Richard Frye, one of the great authorities on Iranian and Central Asian history and culture (who prefers to think of these as goat horns––they may be interchangeable), confirms the paucity of literature: “I have not seen any study of this phenomenon––the horns of goats…” ¹⁰  Frye goes on to describe the custom in the Pamir region (Nuristan & Tadjikistan) of placing the horns of the markhor or mountain goat over the threshold as an apotropaic symbol to ward off the evil eye or evil spirits. He comments on the presence of stone goats with curved horns in graveyards in Iran but especially Azerbaijan, adding, “When questioned, local people only say that their grandfathers made these stones as to guard the graves.” Frye confirms that their origin is pre-Islamic, probably descending from totems of the early Turkic tribes and conveyed westwards when they migrated. That ram’s horns were widespread powerful symbols throughout the ancient world is evidenced by the common depiction of Alexander the Great on coinage wearing the ram’s horns of Zeus Ammon.

Recently, I have received new information concerning the ram's horn motif. Pedram Kosronejad, an Iranian scholar presently residing in Paris has been making a comprehensive study of representational imagery in Iranian tombstones, with a special emphasis on the Bakhtiari. He explains¹¹ that monumental figural sculpture lined the approach to the tombs of important male figures, such as senior generals, in early Chinese dynasties. These adopted numerous forms but were the model for similar sculptural figures in inner Asia, which however restricted themselves to two figures: the horse and the ram. As Turkic peoples moved west into the Middle East, they brought this imagery with them, particularly that of the ram which was to find widespread representation in many contexts. He associates the ram's horn image specifically with qualities of masculinity, not unrelated to my earlier suggestion of an association with fertility and power.

N. Kasraian¹² has included a series of photographs of a small mosque and a house in a village near Bojnurd/Bujnurd, a Turkmen-dominated area in northern Khurasan. This mosque employs painted decoration throughout as does the house and the images really must be seen to be believed. Both employ wooden post and lintel construction. The broad capitals to the wooden columns supporting the roof of the house are painted with ram's horns and the walls have them opposed, in vertical series and emanating from a circular center within large roundels. The mosque is even more amazing since the qibla wall is decorated with a series of three large rams horns one on top of the other, three of these stacks on either side of the mihrab niche within which is to be found another such series. The floor of this mosque is largely covered with characteristic Turkmen felts. This striking visual program of ram's horn lends an explicit sacral valence to this image, connecting it with the practice of attaching real ram's horns to shrines.

At the moment, my thinking remains conjectural pending even more specific information, but why a symbol so evocative of power and fertility would have been so clearly associated with religious imagery is not obvious, although we are speaking of animist––not Islamic––origins. That it would be found on an article with a possible relationship to the marriage process is much more readily understandable. On the other hand, would its repetition here in each quadrant of the bokhcha (along with simpler ones in each lower corner), indicate that we are in the presence of a non-signifying Central Asian curvilinear design rather than ram’s (or goat’s) horns? That the Goklen piece referenced above substitutes representations of talismans for the ram's horn forms suggests an apotropaic and thus signifying function, which has its own relation to power in that these symbols protect against malign influences. The German ethnographer and curator, Johannes Kalter, does comment on “…rams’ horns, which among both Uzbeks and Turkmen can be combined into complicated ornamental structures on textile materials. They are connected with ideas of power.” ¹³ He provides no specific evidence, so there is no way to know for certain at present. Finally, the most dramatic use of such horns is on an extraordinary, tall and slender tower near Khuy, Iran.¹⁴  Emerging from its brick and mortar fabric are countless ram and/or goat horns. This tower is attributed to the order of Shah Isma’il, the charismatic founder of the Safavid dynasty who led a millenarian movement as much as he founded a state. The association is intriguing.

JBS

1) ”Bokcha” is the most widely used transliteration of this term, although “bokche” is not far behind. However, since “bok” is Turkic for “excrement”, it is advisable to spell it otherwise. For this reason, it is unsurprising to find an example from a Turkish source on Cloudband at the time of writing spelled “bokhça”. When Derek Bok, President of Harvard, visited Turkey, he was regularly addressed as “Mr. Derek”

2) The term “purpose-made” is used here to indicate a textile artifact originally made to fulfill its named function and decorated in a fashion conforming to the character of the object. Hence any old square piece of fabric is not a bokhcha, only one designed and named as such. Similarly a bag can be made from pre-existing materials, but the failure of the design to conform to expectations or to be obviously part of some original whole typically betrays that fact.

3) Shakhberdyeva, Maya, “The Ashkhabad Turkomans”, Hali 37, p. 41

4) Pinner, Robert, “The Turkmen Wedding”, Hali 100 p. 106

5) Jones, H. McCoy and Jeff W. Boucher, Rugs of the Yomud Tribes. An Exhibition Featuring Rugs of the Yomud Tribes of Russian Turkestan and Northern Persia, The International Hajji Baba Society, Inc., Washington, DC, 1976, pl. 51

6) Pinner, Robert, ibid, p. 104

7) Hali, 50, April 1990, p. 37

8) Herrmann, Eberhardt, Seltene Orientteppiche X, 1988, p. 231 (also published in Hali, 41, September/October 1988, p. 97)

9) Christie's London, Islamic Art, Indian Miniatures, Rugs & Carpets, 8, 10 October, 1991, lot 326, p. 153, with a more typical one above an inner niche.

10) Frye, Richard, personal communication––as with all other Frye references here

11) Pedram Kosronejad, personal communication

12) Nasr Allah Kisra'iyan (Kasraian) (photos) & Kamran Afshar Naderi (text), Iranian Architecture (Mi'mari-i Iran), Sekké Press, Tehran, 2003, pp. 110-111.
and Nasr Allah Kisra'iyan (Kasraian) & Ziba Arshi (text), Turkmans of Iran (Turkman'ha-yi Iran), N. Kisra'iyan (pub.), Tehran, 1991, pp. 100-101

13) Kalter, Johannes, The Arts and Crafts of Turkestan, Thames and Hudson, London & New York, p.150, where he also illustrates a similar ornament from a Lakai context to that on this Bokhcha in ill. 162

14) Thompson, Jon & Sheila R. Canby, eds., Hunt for paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran, 1501-1576, Skira, Milan; New York: Distributed in North American and Latin America by Rizzoli, 2003, pl. 15.1, p. 332

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