Surahani Fire Temple Baku floats on a huge reserve of oil. Zoroastrians have used oil in their worship and there were fire temples. Surahan has long been a center of the fire worshipers and it is also a center of weaving.

Surahani Fire Temple

Baku floats on a huge reserve of oil. Zoroastrians have used oil in their worship and there were fire temples. Surahan has long been a center of the fire worshipers and it is also a center of weaving.

German scholar Engelbert Kaempfer wrote in 1683, "that in Surakhani, a village alone not far from Baku, between 2,700 kg to 3,000 kg of oil were extracted daily for export. This quantity filled 80 carriages carrying 8 oil bags each." 10.2 An Overview - Baku: City that Oil Built - by Farid Alakbarov

Surakhani is the center of the Baku Oil Field

"Twelve versts from Baku we came upon one of the oldest altars in the world, erect and flaming with its natural burnt-offering to this day. Surakhani is the ancient seat of probably one of the most ancient forms of worship. For unnumbered ages the gas which is generated by the subterranean store of oil has escaped from the fissures in the limestone crag, and the fire of this gas has lighted the prayers of generations of priests, as it blazed and flared away to the heavens. Fire-worship in Persia, of which, until the eighteenth century, Baku formed a part, is older than history. It may be that the fire in this temple at Surakhani has been unextinguished for a period extending from before the time of Cyrus (about B. C. 600), the fire-worshipping period being older than Cyrus." - Arthur Arnold, MP for Salford, Through Persia by Karavan, 1875. The Fire-temple at Baku
Caucasian Rugs: Guide to Baku Rugs The Oliveira Shirvan Surahani ‘Garden' Rug

The Oliveira Shirvan Surahani ‘Garden' Rug

Islam and carpets

Despite the historical sites related to fire worship Baku has been overwhelmingly Moslem for over 1000 years.

Carpet was not just an export item. Due to oil Baku was a wealthy town and rugs and carpets were donated to the Mosques. These rugs were a point of pride as can be seen by this postcard of a mosque interior
Caucasian Rugs: Guide to Baku Rugs Baku Mosque Minaret circa 1900

Baku Mosque Minaret circa 1900

Caucasian Rugs: Guide to Baku Rugs Baku Mosque interior circa 1900 Islam and carpets Despite the historical sites related to fire worship Baku has been overwhelmingly Moslem for over 1000 years. Carpet was not just an export item. Due to oil Baku was a wealthy town and rugs and carpets were donated to the Mosques. These rugs were a point of pride as can be seen by this postcard of a mosque interior

Baku Mosque interior circa 1900
Caucasian Rugs: Guide to Baku Rugs Surahani Baku Long Rug

Surahani Baku Long Rug

 Today when we say Baku people think of the city of Baku. In terms of Oriental Rugs we are speaking of the Baku Khanate which dominated the region before the Russians came to power in 1806.

Included in with the rugs of Baku are Ashaga Fyndygan, Baku, Surahani, Chila, and Saliani.

Surahani is from Surakhany a town on the Apsheron Peninsula of Baku. These rugs average 84 KPSI and 35 square feet in size. About 45% of these rugs are wool wefted Stone, P.F. Rugs of the Caucasus: Structure and Design. page 20 and 216. Light red wool wefts are less common than white but still normal. Following Schurmann, Ulrich. Caucasian Rugs plate 66, many in the trade call these Shirvan but Baku seems a better attribution.

  • Baku city in the Caucasus that passed from nominal Persian control to Czarist Russian Control in 1806. The city is in the center of a massive oil field and was a site of early fire temples that contained natural seeping oil fires. Baku rugs frequently have botehs which some relate to the flames of the fire temples.

Caucasian Rugs: Guide to Baku Rugs Carpet dealer Old City of Baku, Azerbaijan

Carpet dealer
Old City of Baku, Azerbaijan

Photo Credit Galen Frysinger http://www.galenfrysinger.com/

Baku Rugs: Talish Saliani long rug

Baku Rugs: Talish Saliani long rug
Caucasian Rugs Baku Rugs A Baku long rug 2nd half 19th century Baku long rug 2nd half 19th century

Baku Rugs: A Baku long rug 2nd half 19th century

Surahani is from Surakhany a town on the Apsheron Peninsula 15 km north-east of central Baku.

These rugs average 84 KPSI and 35 square feet in size. Just over half have cotton warps. About 45% of these rugs are wool wefted Stone, P.F. Rugs of the Caucasus: Structure and Design. page 20 and 216. Light red wool wefts are less common than white but still normal. Following Schurmann, Ulrich. Caucasian Rugs plate 66, many in the trade call these Shirvan but Baku seems a better attribution.
Caucasian Rugs: Guide to Baku Rugs A traveler in Baku circa 1900. By the hat I judge him to be from north of Baku perhaps Daghestan.
A traveler in Baku circa 1900. By the hat I judge him to be from north of Baku perhaps Daghestan.

For similar hats see: Traditional Dagestani Dress
Caucasian Rugs: Guide to Baku Rugs The Baku oil fields circa 1900.
The Baku oil fields circa 1900.
Caucasian Rugs: Guide to Baku Rugs A man resting in a cemetery in the city of Baku circa 1910.
A man resting in a cemetery in the city of Baku circa 1910.

Indeed, the section on pile rugs is replete with categorical statements that are highly dubious at best. The following sentences should be examined: "Baku rugs closely resemble those from Shirvan and appear in eight patterns" (p. 72). Review Caucasian Carpets and Covers

In fairness Wright and Wertime were citing N. Abdullaeva's Kovrovoe iskusstvo Azerbaidzhana Baku 1971

For Further Reading:

Thanks and best wishes,

J. Barry O'Connell Jr.

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