Persian Rug Symbols

Nisha’s training had been obvious and easy: go and look for Caucasian rugs. My search led us to the warehouse of Memet Bozbay, an affable Kurdish carpeting investor, whom I had generated genuinely believe that I was a specialist customer. He pulled on loads of Armenian, Kurdish and Kazak rugs, many characterised by bold tints, high piles, and unusual motifs. Gesturing to 1 of them he commented, “And here, again, you can observe the typical Caucasian dragon theme.”

We scanned the carpet’s industry expecting to discover a flamboyant dragon spewing fire, but I couldn’t make out anything more resembling a dragon or a serpent. In the centre of the carpet there was, but a fascinating form that showed up notably insect-like. “You indicate this thing in the middle that looks like a cockroach?” I inquired innocently. The dealership gave me a puzzled appearance and hesitated to respond—he should have already been struggling to ascertain whether my question was sarcastic, or prompted by sheer cretinism.

It was some of those moments whenever my abject lack of knowledge associated with finer things in life was mercilessly revealed just as before, akin to the time whenever wine-tasting trainer had stated that a specific merlot exhibited “aromas of currant and coffee, with complex flavours of cinnamon, plum, and cedar that finish with firm but mature tannins”, whereas i really couldn’t assist thinking that it tasted quite like coughing syrup.

Following the awkward episode in the carpet dealer’s, it was about time to teach myself regarding basics of carpet semiotics, with a few books and also the oracle of our times—the online. After some researching i ran across that carpet motif which had uncovered my not enough erudition represented neither a cockroach nor a dragon, nevertheless the scarab beetle, a typical theme in Caucasian and Persian tribal rugs, especially .

Encouraged by this finding, we ventured into a heavy forest of themes and symbols which can be found, with different regularity, in tribal carpets and kilims from Anatolia, Persia as well as the Caucasus. Here are a few of the most crucial people.