Some respected people still have a problem with the Salor chapter. However the Thompson position on a limited Salor group prevails at this point. While not perfect this book seems to best sum up the "conventional wisdom" about Turkmen rugs and as such is a must read for anyone who takes the study of Turkmen weaving at all seriously.

N.B. A special note that it is past due to write about. This is a major work and Dr. Jon Thompson did an incredible job. The secret of the book Turkmen is that Dr. Jon Thompson was a last minute addition. This was to be primarily Louise Mackie's work. Two people who were on the Textile Museum Board of Directors at the time have told me that Mackie was stuck in the chapter "Turkmen Carpet Weaving in Historical Perspective". She was also expected to write the major section "Turkmen Carpet Weaving" which includes the cataloguing of the show and as such makes up most of the book. The board grew more and more concerned as the deadline approached. Finally with no sign of any major progress they decided they had to find someone who could rescue the book. They turned to Dr. Thompson. He took a last minute project and made it into one of the most important Rug books of all time.

In the mad dash to finish this book Dr. Thompson waded into the Imreli question. Quite rightly Thompson began the process of delineating a previously unknown group of rugs. Thompson was correct in that there was a distinct and distinguishable group of rugs with two clusters which called Imreli and Fine Brown Yomut. Later others noticed structural peculiarities around which they concocted the Eagle Group Theory. At one point Dr. Jon Thompson said that his attribution to the Imreli was provocative. Well, in retrospect the Imreli attribution is provocative but that is not the same as saying it is wrong. There were Imreli and they did weave rugs. Maybe they wove these, after all someone had to have woven them.

Guest Reviewer - James Allen

Anyone interested in learning about Turkoman weaving should start with Turkmen by Mackie and Thompson, some of the theories are outdated but it is the best picture book available.