UIGHUR RUGS
The Tradition of figural designs
Risalat Karimova Usmanovna

The art of carpet-making has developed since time immemorial in the vast territory of eastern Turkestan. Large quantities of tools and equipment for weaving rugs have been found in the oasis sites of eastern Turkestan, dating to the first centuries a.d., and bearing witness to the widespread production of carpets. Excavations conducted amongst the ruins of settlements and in necropoli have even led to the discovery of archaic knotted carpets with the widest range of colours and decorated with stylised, geometric motifs inspired by the plant world..

The territory of Anatolia,
corresponding to today’s
Turkey, has had an extremely abundant textile production throughout its tormented history. Foremost in this activity, together with embroideries, have always been rugs, many examples of which have been collected and displayed in Western museums for the past 150 years. Their celebrity in past centuries was already linked to their importance as prestigious articles for trade.
Kilims from the same region must be seen in a different light as these were flat-weaves that were of little use as floor-coverings...

The turbulent events that
overcame Persia during
the First World War did not spare the town of Kirman, which was contested between Germany and Britain. The political instability that resulted also affected rug production; many of the weavers fled the city to avoid the possibility of being overwhelmed by the war, as did most of the foreign dealers, causing the closure of many of the principal workshops. The uncertainty of the European and trans-Atlantic markets, which reduced their usual orders to virtually nil in just a year, was sufficient to deal a death-blow. Production ceased for a number of years, but the end of the war saw the production resources of the city almost intact, able to meet the demands of the market that almost immediately, and, surprisingly, proved to be extremely lively.