Tour Guide, Qom, Iran
| 6 mins read
Every country has its own symbols that is known among the world by that; they may be feed or agricultural products but mostly these symbols are handicrafts. About Iran, Persian carpet or Persian rug is the most famous handicraft among the world.
Carpet is a textile that cover the floor that keep the sitter comfortable and warm. Rug is mostly use as the ornamental frame.
There is no exact information about carpet creation but by a bit study you can understand that where is it coming?
First of there is a folk tale that say:
“There was a Persian shepherd who had to leave his family to save his sheep flock from drought. He went to the north of Iran, there were more pasture.
After a while he heard in his region the drought was gone, the pastures became lush and it’s time to return home. When he came back home, he had a lot to say to his curious children about what he saw; a huge blue water that called sea or many trees that called jungle. As much as he described what he experienced, his kids came more passionate to see jungle and sea as their father saw.
The kids passion made the shepherd thoughtful that how can I show them jungle and sea? That’s how weaving carpet sparked in his mind. So he weaved trees and water on the warp, and gave a picture of his observations to his children.”
History say that: Pazirik carpet is the oldest carpet in the world, discovered in 1949 by Russian archeologist Sergei Rudenko in the Pazirik valley along with other ancient objects in the frozen grave of one of the secular rulers. Most researchers find this carpet from handcrafts of Parthians or Medes.
If we accept Pazirik as the oldest Iranian carpet, the carpet dating in Iran dates back to 500 BC, more than 2,000 years ago. Of course, evidence of the first Iranian carpet is written in Chinese books, which is related to the Sassanid period, which is not very correct.
According to the website of the International Carpet Association, the oldest carpet of the Pasirik carpet is a completely Achaemenid Persian work, which is now kept at the Armitage Museum of St. Petersburg, Russia.
Actually the people who lived in the middle of Iran plateau, mostly were nomads and ranchers. They used wool to make their required textile stuffs, like cloth, bedspread or coverlet, ground cloth. After a while they learned dying wool by natural dyes that could be find around, like they used pomegranate skin for making red color or walnut shell for a kind of green…
The carpet weaver from past to present mostly are women. Their feeling and flow of life has a strong effect on their weaving progress. It means what they were surround by could be a subject for weaving on a carpet, like the Changing seasons, babies born, a war or attack… That’s how trees, animals, and life happiness came on the colorful wool frame in the name of carpet.
As the other creatures and inventions, carpets improve through the time. Every city and ethnicity got its own styles and designs. The materials used are different. The patterns were mentally and maybe irregular and now it could be mentally or base on a special plot that a designer painted.
First of all let know about the cities’ designs:
Abbasi or Shah Abbasi is from Isfahan and Qom; The main role of this type of carpet is to create special flowers known as Shah Abbasi. The design of this flower is different with the flowers of other carpets. The obvious feature of this carpet is the presence of large petals. On the margin of the carpet there are also branches and leaves that are Slamy and Khataei.
Glue design; Carpets known as "Glue carpets" have several frames in which there are various images inside. This carpet is like a wall full of photo frames, all of which are equally spaced apart.
Hunting Ground Design is from Qom and Tabriz; Persian rugs can be seen by looking at their designs and their role. The hunting plot is the easiest carpet design that can be easily identified. The obvious sign of this project is the presence of a bow and a horse's horse.
Tree plan is from Tehran and Tabriz; in all Persian carpets, the flower and tree design has been used abundantly, but in the carpet of the tree plan, the main combination consists of small and large shrubs that are closed individually and integrated with other elements. A tree plan is known as a tree-tree, a flower-tree, an animal tree, and an earthen tree.
Altar design is from Qom. The altar design has been inspired by the altars and has been added to decorations such as candles and pillars and flowers, flowers and leaves. The sub-groups of this project are known as the altar of the tree, the altar of almonds, the altar of vases and the altar of the forefront.
And so many of other designs. Second is each piece woven on the carpet became as a symbol; like cypress that reflects resistance and is a symbol of vegetation and happiness; Simorgh is a legendary bird that symbolizes melting and dissolution; the flowers and the birds reflects life and birth; And by this way every carpet take its own story to tell.
In terms of materials, handmade carpets can be classified into five groups:
1. Woolen: They say that the wool is made of cotton and cotton wool. It should be noted that among the tribes and nomads, instead of cotton yarn, wool is used.
2. All silk: All the silks are said to be in rugs that are made of silk.
3. Silk Flower: In this type of carpet, in the roles and distances of the margins, silk wool is used instead of the wool. The carpet is usually made of silk.
4. Silk floor: In the field of such carpets, silk parchments are used instead of woolen lace.
5. Swift: It is a type of carpet with a thick and thin layer, and the role of flowers and bushes is fluffy.
Among the tourists who choose Iran as their destination, one goal is to buy a handmade carpet as a memory that is a story teller of who weaved it by her heart and feeling, day by day, ridge to ridge to keep alive our ancient heritage.