Surahani Baku Long Rug

Rugs such as this are called Surahani in the trade. 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. This rug is about average in size but has a a lower than expected knot count. The light red wool wefts are less common than white but still normal. Following Ulrich Schurmann's Caucasian Rugs plate 66, many in the trade call these Shirvan but Baku seems a better attribution.

Surahani Baku Long Rug, Surakhany, on the Apsheron Peninsula of Baku.

Size: 4 foot 3 inch by 8 foot 5 inch.

Structure: Symmetrical knot. 7 knots per horizontal inch and 6 knots per vertical inch. 42 per square inch (651 per square decimeter).

Yarn Spin: Z.

Warp: 3 ply tan wool.

Weft: 4 shots salmon wool.

Pile: 2 wool singles.

Ends: Band of two-pick oblique interlacing (top); heavy crossed wefts with .5 inch looped warp fringe (bottom).

Selvages: 2 cord interlaced dark brown wool.

Handle: Light-medium, durable, pliable.

Further Notes: Very good condition.

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

For Further Reading:

JBOC's Notes on the Bible

Southwest Asia Time Line

Caucasian Rugs

Thanks and best wishes,

J. Barry O'Connell Jr.

SpongoBongo and Persian Carpet Guiden Site Search

Persian Rugs