Oriental Rugs & Carpets

The mere geographical position of this city ensured for it an importance above the average. Situated in the north-west corner of Persia it is the gateway to Turkey in the west and Caucasia in the north, well-placed as a trading centre during peacetime and a very important bastion in wartime. During the eleventh century when Persia was conquered by the Seljuk Turks, these invaders settled in the province of Azerbaijan, of which Tabriz is the principal city, and they introduced the Turkish language, a dialect of which is still spoken there. It was in the thirteenth century, however, that Tabriz became a capital city under the Mongols. For three hundred years it survived a long series of wars from all quarters, but at the end of the sixteenth century Shah Abbas the Great moved his capital to Isfahan, which is in the centre of the country, and therefore less vulnerable.

It has been thought that the great carpets of the sixteenth century were made in Tabriz, but this is hardly possible because firstly, in addition to being Turkish speaking, the weavers of Tabriz, and indeed of the whole of Azerbaijan, use the Turkish or Ghiordes knot, and the sixteenth century masterpieces are all constructed with the Persian or Senneh knot. Secondly, the Ardebil carpet is dated 1539/40 and it is assumed that this is the year it was either completed, or very near to it. If that is so, the piece was being made a few years previously in 1534, the year when Tabriz had been taken by the Ottomans, and the capital temporarily removed to Kasvin. It seems improbable that the court manufactory was taken away and set up again during the making of this carpet.

Like the rest of the country, Tabriz was subject to the gentle decline in textile art, but the merchants of the city traded in a multitude of commodities with whichever conqueror came along, and by the middle of the nineteenth century it was again a very wealthy city. As foreign trade expanded, so Tabriz prospered, the merchants bringing goods from all corners of Persia for onward transmission to Constantinople (Istanbul) and thence to Europe and America. Once it became the practice to weave custom-made carpets for the various overseas markets, often under European supervision, Tabriz weavers made vast quantities, and still do so.

Unfortunately they have set their quantities above their qualities, and although between the two world wars some very high quality pieces were produced, very low qualities were, alas, also introduced, and even today some very poor carpets come from that city. To their credit, however, it must be said that high-grade carpets can still be obtained, but not enough of them are seen on the market, probably because of their price.

Before we leave Tabriz, it should be mentioned that, unlike all other Persian weavers, the weavers of Tabriz do not tie the knots with their fingers, but with a knife with a hook on the end. They can work astonishingly quickly with this instrument. The blade is, of course, used to cut the yarn after the knot has been made.