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Caucasian Rugs: Guide to Zakatala rugs

JBOC attribution Caucasian Rugs - Azerbaijan - Zakatala Area

Zakatala Rug from the Mark Carol Collection

Zakatala is a predominiently Inglio area but is about one quarter Azeri Turk and historically there has been an Armenian population. The rugs tend to have less commercial influence and give us clues into pre-commercial Caucasian rugs.

Zakatala rugs

A stepped diamond Zakatala rug

The first I heard of Zakatala rugs was when Erol Kazanci and some Englishman went and photographed the rugs in the Zakatala Mosque for an article in Hali. The rugs did not strike me as particularly distinctive or distinguished. How ever not long after that I began to see distinctive and distinguished rugs in the marketplace being sold as Zakatala or Zakatale.

As a group they seem to have less commercial influences than we normally see in rugs from Azerbaijan. As a group they seem to be soft fairly coarse rugs.

Why are Zakatala rugs as a group so seemingly unaffected by commercial pressures? One possible answer is that Zakataly was a center of sericulture. If women were raising silk worms then they were not weaving rugs commercially. Most women weavers were weavers because there were not other culturally acceptable jobs available. If there were plentiful opportunities in sericulture then it stands to reason that there would be relatively little commercial weaving. Zakataly was in the Khanate of Sheki which was known for silk embroidery rather than rugs.

So Zakataly gives us a glimpse of what pre-Russian Caucasian rugs were like.

Here is a picture of Erol Kazanci at ACOR 3 where he introduced Zakatala Rugs. www.rugreview.com/acor3.htm

By the way do you recognize the couple to whom he is speaking?

The Peter Bruce Zakatala Rug Detail of back.

Map of the Kazak/Gendge Area

For the purposes of classifying rugs Zakatala rugs were considered part of the Gendje region. I no longer agree and consider them in their own group.

The town of Zakataly is located in extreme northern Azerbaijan, sheltered from north winds by the Caucasus Mountains. The town continues a long tradition of silkworm breeding and there is a wildlife and nature preserve nearby. The Zakataly Wildlife Preserve is located north of the town among the unspoiled Caucasus Mountains. The Ruined Shamil's Fortress eas built in the 1830s by anti Russian rebels. It was used as a prison for the mutineers from the battleship Potyomkin in the 1905 revolution. http://www.az/maps/north.html

Zaqatala is the capitol of the Zakatala district in the Sheki-Zakatal region of Azeribaijan. The population is primarily Ingilo (aka Ingioy). The Ingilo are Sunni Moslim Georgians and are seen as culturally distinct from the main body of Georgian people. So while ethno-linguistically akin to Georgians their religion creates a major point of cultural seperation.