A synthesis of the most recent research into the Salting rugs, from the nature of the yarns to the colouring substances used.
The Eighth International Conference on Oriental Carpets in 1996 included a focus session on the 'Salting' carpets. Six speakers addressed whether these carpets were sixteenth or seventeenth century Safavid - as originally thought by Martin and Pope - or whether they were the nineteenth century Turkish adaptations of Persian designs as theorised by Erdmann, Ellis, and Beattie. On the surface it would appear strange that such finely woven carpets in classic Persian designs could be seen as Turkish, but this theory had become so pervasive by the 1970s that Salting carpets were virtually impossible to sell. Even...

The origins and characteristics of the rich textile production of the Maghreb.
The weaving culture of rural Morocco is increasingly attracting the attention of the rug world. This year's International Conference on Oriental Carpets (ICOC) will be holding a general session on this topic. It is difficult to find a reason for this new interest in Moroocan weaving. However, a generation which grew up with notions of abstract modern art is now able to judge these weavings in a different light, using more than just finesse, natural dyes and age as a quality guage. The modern looking forms shown on these pages on the one hand hark back to the roots of the pile carpet and on the other can be taken as wonderful examples of an almost contemporary but nevertheless authentic development of the creative and sometimes anarchic spirit of tribal art...

The first study on the characteristcs of traditional weaving in Hashtrrud, an area to the north-west of Persia.
The north-western region of Persia is rich with natural resources and has been inhabited for millennia. Its pastures are crossed by rivers and torrents that transform the plains into fertile land. The people that live here are of varying ethnic origins and are the result of a complex history which over the centuries has seen migrations, conquests and dispersions. As with the regions of the Caucasus, the north-west of Persia was in every way a mixture of populations and cultures from which refined civilisations and cultures emerged such as the Safavids, who dominated Persia from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth century. The north-western region corresponds to today's Persian Azerbaijan and includes the northernmost part of Kurdistan and the region of Hamadan. It stretches as a chain of mountains from Mount Ararat and from the lake of Urmia to the legendary shores of the Caspian Sea...