Uzbek Carpets That Warm The Heart
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www.sairamtour.com Carpets warm your heart and please your eyes”. This saying expresses in the best way possible the significance of carpet weaving art for the Uzbek people. There would be no house in Uzbekistan without carpets. By tradition that developed in antiquity, carpets have always been an important part of dwelling decoration, often replacing furniture. Carpets have been used to cover the floor and to decorate the walls, and their artistic values have always been appreciated no less than their functional properties.Carpet weaving art has been known in Uzbekistan from times immemorial and carpet varieties are so diverse that it is difficult to find any other region in the world where large felt mat, flat-woven carpet and Oriental pile carpet would be equally popular. Probably, a large felt mat was the most ancient kind of carpets. Nowadays this invention of nomadic people still serves shepherds on mountain and steppe pastures. They cover their yurts with felt mats and put them on the floor, as, according to the popular belief, neither a snake nor a poisonous spider – Black Widow will ever crawl on it.
Predominantly women are engaged in felt mat manufacture. Washed and fluffed fleece or camel’s hair is sprinkled with water and spread evenly on a reed mat or another felt mat. The half-finished product is rolled up and tied up with a rope. Several women simultaneously roll it with their legs, throw it up and beat. After a while they unroll the bolt, moisten the half-ready felt with water, wind it up on a round timber and go on felting until the cloth is ready.
White dense felt mats are considered to be the most valuable, but grey and color felts are also manufactured. In Khoresm, Karakalpakstan, Surkhandarya and Fergana valley they produce polychromic felt mats decorated with plain ornaments. It is difficult to say with certainty when exactly the carpet weaving art appeared. Probably it happened when women learnt to spin threads from fleece. While excavating in Uzbekistan semi-nomadic tribes’ dwellings, dating back to the late Stone Age, the archeologists found stone spinners. Nowadays in some rural areas women still use stone or wooden spindles with similar spinners. By means of these spindles it is possible to spin a rather thick coarse yarn. In Nurata intermountain valley, in Jizzak and Andijan such yarn is used to weave long-piled carpets – julhirses which resemble bearskin. The julhirs is not densely woven, but its surface is soft and fluffy, whereas its archaic ornamentation reminds of its ancient origin. The central space of a carpet is often woven as longitudinal stripes with repeating patterns on them. The edging in the form of a chain of rhombuses and triangles emphasizes the geometrical harmony of the pattern. The original long-pile carpets – julhirses with elegant cheerful coloring make glory of Samarkand carpet-makers until present day. The Andijan julhirses are distinguished for their original design. The central part of these carpets is covered with crosslike patterns, whereas in the edging there prevail wave-like motifs and the color treatment is based on the contrast of dark blue and red. For making flat-woven carpets women use factory-made or home-made yarn, which they themselves dye. Quite often these carpets are woven from cotton threads. The flat carpet weaving techniques are extremely diverse. The smooth surface of such a carpet is formed by interlocking warp (vertical) and weft (horizontal) threads. In different regions of the country flat-woven carpets vary in texture, ornament and coloring. The women weave these carpets on primitive narrow-beamed looms – the same were used by women of steppe tribes thousands years ago. The width of the carpet cloth produced on such a loom does not exceed forty or fifty centimeters. These narrow carpet strips with alternating bright crimson, yellow, black and green stripes are sewn together to make a flat carpet practically of any size. Carpet cloth is also used to make pouches and saddlebags – hurjuns for transportation of cargo on camels or horses. The Bukhara flat-woven carpets have always been considered the best. They are woven on wide-beamed looms. These carpets are usually of big size with large simple patterns of white, red and yellow colors. The Surkhandarya skilled workers manufacture flat-woven carpets in the complex techniques «gajari» and «terma» with a geometrical ornament on a bicolor base. They also produce «afghani» flat-woven carpets from high-grade wool yarn. The «arabi» decorative carpets woven in the so-called «slit» techniques are also very much appreciated in Uzbekistan. Their expressive large patterns are composed on the contrast of bright and white spots. The wedding carpets «beshkashta» are particularly elegant. Their multi-color and a little prominent pattern is created by the warp threads twining round thick weft threads. The prominence of such pattern over the surface gives the impression of embroidery. But a real glory to the Uzbek carpets was brought by the «gilam» carpets. It is difficult to determine the epoch when the pile carpets appeared. It is only known for sure that among the goods transported by caravans on the Great Silk Road from East to West there were oriental pile carpets which highly valued everywhere. The high quality of local products was praised by Marko Polo who visited Central Asia in the 13th century. “One has to know that the finest and most beautiful carpets in the world are manufactured here”, he wrote in his travel notes. Two centuries later Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo, a Spanish ambassador to Amir Temur's court, vividly described “bright red carpets” he saw in Samarkand palaces, gardens and marquees of the ruler of Movarounnahr. Unfortunately, only a few carpets dating from the late 17th – early 18th centuries have survived to our days. In Uzbekistan it is possible to buy carpets in almost every market. Spread on the floor they compete on brightness of colors, folded as rolls they keep close their refined ornaments, and hung at the shop doorway the carpets are ready to be filled with wind like sails. It may happen that among them you’ll be able to come across the legendary magic carpet from the Arabian Nights.
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