Throughout Southwest Asia we see Turkic peoples who left the tribe. The Afshar once ruled Persia and today they exist primarily as a minor dialect of Southern Azeri Turkish. The Osmanli clan of the Chodor were driven out of Turkistan by the Mongols, ruled Turkey for hundreds of years as the Ottoman and can not even be found today. Another of the major tribes of the Oghuz confederation the Arabatchi virtually disappeared except for a small group of people cited by Moshkova and others. Where did the Arabatchi go? Many of them left the tribe and drifted into the polyglot of Turkic peoples of the Caucasus. The Mongol had a word for those people and clans who left the authority of the tribe... Kazak 1. So to look for the lost Arabatchi we seek evidence of their weaving in the Kazak weaving of the Caucasus. The Turkmen were driven from the Mangeshak peninsula in the late 17th century by a severe and protracted desiccation. The Salor arrived in Khiva in force around 1800 AD. The Tekke followed them. The Arabatchi headed for the hills, the Caucasus mountains. There they settled among the indigenous population and their designs became the source of a new inspiration for these people. As evidence of this fact I draw your attention to the rug from "Oriental Rugs From Pacific Collections"plate# 171 2. The point is easiest made by direct comparison with the original design which can be seen in Mackie Thompson plate 55 3. and " Thompson Sale" Plate # 31. 4
If you have these books just lay them out, oriented the same way, and the relationship is coldly obvious.Notice in the central medallion of the Caucasian rug that on the four vertical segments there are little meaningless hook like invaginations into the field of the medallion. They are meaningless until you see their counterpart on the Arabatci original.The iconographic device filling the interstitial spaces between the large stars of the Arabatchi are found repeated four times in the Caucasian run along the sides of the its field.
The devices found on the extremes of the vertical axis of the eight pointed stars of the Arabatchi are found simplified in two similar devices on the Caucasian. Considering the closeness between these two weavings one would imagine the Caucasian rug should be first half of the 18th century. I hope you thoroughly enjoy this visual exercise! James Allen
Editor's Note: RugNotes is pleased to present this article by James Allen. Jim is an internationally known collector of Turkoman weaving from Chattanooga Tennessee. Jim: authored "Design and Illusion", Hali #55 February 1991, page 98. participated in the Turkoman Roundtable", Chicago: ACOR II, 1992, delivered the paper "Perspective in Ancient Turkoman weavings". Philadelphia: ICOC 1996. His paper will be published in the next OCTs. He can be reached at abey2@comcast.net 1. Based on unpublished research based on a reexamination of Section 64 of the Yuan-ch'ao pi-shi by J. Barry O'Connell Jr. 2. Eiland, Murray L. Jr. Oriental Rugs From Pacific Collections. San Francisco: San Francisco Bay Area Rug Society. Plate 171. 3. Mackie, Louise & Dr. Jon Thompson, Jon. Turkmen. Washington DC: Textile Museum, 1980. Plate 55 4. Sotheby's Catalogue, Turkmen and Antique Carpets from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Jon Thompson, December 16, 1993. Lot 31, 5. I substituted the Thompson sale piece for the Mackie Thompson piece because of technical difficulty with the larger picture. If you have Mackie Thompson it has the better example. JBOC For Further Reading: Thanks and best wishes, J. Barry O'Connell Jr. |
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