12

Qarabagh pile rug
Probably from Jebrail, 19th century
 

This relatively small prayer rug is of a type that was commonly woven with cochineal as the red dye, rather than madder, as here. As Juerg Rageth quite correctly noted in his presentation at ACOR 6, the increased use of cochineal (and indigosulphonic blues and greens) by about 1850 in Turkey (and cochineal probably slightly later in the Caucasus) completely threw off traditional color balances in village and nomad rugs and kilims. How did this piece escape the cochineal scourge?

The design of wide vertical stripes containing boteh within a meander is fairly common in pile rugs from the Transcaucasus and western Iran, and it may be derived from either imported fabric or local jajims. Jajims in this case are probably a more logical source, as there are many such Azarbayjani warp-faced covers with wide bands of alternating blue and red vertical stripes which contain repeat geometric designs. The narrow stripes - in this rug, they are ivory - between the broad red and blue ones are also typical of Azarbayjani jajims. It seems a natural progression for village weavers to have substituted curved, urbane boteh in the broad stripes for more angular, restricted patterns seen in jajims.

The top of the mihrab in this rug is artfully introduced into the striped pattern so that it does not disrupt. The representation of green hands on each side of the field is a nice touch. The integration of all the design elements here by the weaver could not have been easy.

Previously published as plate 27 in
Caucasian Prayer Rugs, Ralph Kaffel, London, 1998