Have you ever wandered through the carpet stores of the Old City or been at the first Azerbaijan State Carpet Museum? Have you ever paid attention to them, their ornaments and colors? If not, then you should definitely visit this interesting museum and get to know the history of this mysterious and old art – carpet weaving…
Before telling you about the museum, let me tell you about the history, to awake your interest for this old type of art. In Eastern countries like Azerbaijan, carpets were not just a way to keep home warm and fill up the empty space on the wall. It was an ancient and complicated form of applied art. Families that had women involved in carpet production were held in great respect by people and every person tried to get the best quality carpet in order to decorate their home. Thus, in Azerbaijan carpets became a very important part of home.
Archaeological data places carpet making in Azerbaijan as early as 4 B.C. The art of carpet weaving passed from generation to generation. But how are the carpets made? Well, the production of carpet is not easy. It goes through many stages like washing, combing, spinning and dyeing. The best wool for weaving a carpet is considered to be white wool, because it can be dyed different colours. Cotton, silk, golden and silver threads can be used along with the main material. Natural colored animal wool and yarns can be dyed using different plants and plant roots, onion skin, flowers and grape leaves. All colours are made purely by boiling these materials. Therefore carpets never change their colours even after hundreds of years because of their natural base.
Carpet weaving was entirely women’s work and required talent, patience and hard labour. Carpets were weaved by two methods – with pile and without pile. Thus the surfaces of the carpets were different. Pile-carpets were used mostly for decorative purposes, while pile-less carpets were used in the daily life of people. The loop of pile and pile-less carpet could be from sixty to 440 thousand loops for 1 square meter, while the height of the pile itself – around 3-6 mm. The more density the carpet has, the clearer and more accurate and therefore the more expensive it becomes.
Seven kinds of pile-less carpets are known: Sumak, Verni, Kilim, Palaz, Shedde, Jejim and Zili. In spite of the fact that Heyba, Gashlig and Khurjun differ in size, they also belong to carpets. Heyba, Gashlig and Khurjun had the same functions and were used like a travelling bag and worn over shoulders. Pile-less Kilim was even used like a curtain, therefore special holes were kept on them for the light to come through. Jejims were so thin and soft that they were used as outerwear.
Meanwhile, compositions in the carpets were mostly constructed under geometrical rules of mirror symmetry. There was a belief among people then that carpets bring happiness to the home. So, in the centre of many carpets we can find the sun and moon. There are some carpets with four side elements which describe life based on four elements – water, soil, air and fire. Every element in the carpet has a symbol. For instance, zigzag elements in Palaz, symbolize water. But the symbols and images on Azeri carpets may differ depending on the region it was produced in, because every region has its private design and ornaments.
There are four basic carpet-weaving schools in Azerbaijan: Karabakh, Guba-Shirvan, Gandja-Kazakh and Tebriz. We can see an image of sheep horn in many Guba carpets. It is a symbol of profusion and protection. Carpets produced in Baku also had different ornaments. Among them buta was a symbol of fire worshipping, the religion wide – spread before Islam. Buta resembles a flame tip. If butas stand face to face in the carpet it is called love buta, if they look on different sides, it is called parted buta. If it stands on small legs, it is dancing buta.
Carpets produced in Baku and Absheron peninsula mostly reflected the color of the sea and sands. In Karabakh weaving school, there were many carpets with images of beautiful horses (because Karabakh was known for its thoroughbreds), dogs and hunting scenes. Tebriz carpets were also very popular. The series of Tebriz carpets The Four Seasons have a very interesting plot. Such carpets are divided into four parts with decorative patterns. In the center there is one hero or a poet with his beloved and four different illustrations representing each season with couplets of oriental poems. In this carpet green dragon represents the east and symbolizes spring, the eagle represents the south and summer, the white beaver represents the west and autumn, and the tortoise represents the north and winter. The illustrations from different Azeri romance poems as Leyli and Majnun and Khosrov and Shirin were also often reflected in Tabriz carpets.
There are some kinds of religious carpets made especially for performing Namaz, Muslim’s ritual prayer. In such carpets called Namazlig couplets from the Holy Quran written. Very large ones were made for Mosques where big groups of people were performing Namaz at the same time.
At present, carpet production in Azerbaijan still goes on. The central carpet trading stores are in the Old City. Here, around Maiden’s Tower and Caravansaray there are nearly 50 carpet stores, which offer different kinds of wool and silk carpets for tourists who are interested in them. Azerbaijan State Carpet Museum named after the carpet designer Latif Karimov is one of the places in Baku, which is worth to be visited. This corner of culture is located in Neftchiler Avenue. Its collection numbers more than 10 000 objects, including ceramics, metal works, jewelry from Bronze Age, metal works of 14th century. Carpets and carpet items of the 17th-20th centuries, gold and silver adornment, national garment and embroidery; applied art works of modern period. Every year the Museum organizes the Republic and International Exhibitions, and publishers catalogues and booklets to many of them. The Museum has a bookshop where one purchase books on Azerbaijan crafts and carpet art. Opening hours are 10.00 – 18.00 every day, except Monday.
