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origins of Armenian carpet and rug weaving

3/19/2018

Armenian carpet weaving that at the initial period coincided with cloth weaving by execution technique have passed the long path of development, starting from simple fabrics, which had been woven at the braiding frames of various form to pile knotted carpets that became the luxurious and dainty pieces of arts.

Carpet-weaving is historically a major traditional profession for the majority of Armenian women, including many Armenian families. Prominent Karabakh carpet weavers there were men too. The oldest extant Armenian carpet from the region, referred to as Artsakhduring the medieval era, is from the village of Banants (near Gandzak) and dates to the early 13th century. The first time that the Armenian word for carpet, gorg, was used in historical sources was in a 1242-1243 Armenian inscription on the wall of the Kaptavan Church in Artsakh.

Art historian Hravard Hakobyan notes that "Artsakh carpets occupy a special place in the history of Armenian carpet-making."Common themes and patterns found on Armenian carpets were the depiction of dragons and eagles. They were diverse in style, rich in color and ornamental motifs, and were even separated in categories depending on what sort of animals were depicted on them, such as artsvagorgs (carpets), vishapagorgs (dragon-carpets) and otsagorgs (serpent-carpets). The rug mentioned in the Kaptavan inscriptions is composed of three arches, "covered with vegatative ornaments", and bears aneagle-artistic resemblance to the illuminated manuscripts produced in Artsakh.

The art of carpet weaving was in addition intimately connected to the making of curtains as evidenced in a passage by Kirakos Gandzaketsi, a 13th-century Armenian historian from Artsakh, who praised Arzu-Khatun, the wife of regional prince Vakhtang Khachenatsi, and her daughters for their expertise and skill in weaving.

Armenian carpets were also renowned by foreigners who traveled to Artsakh; the Arab geographer and historian Al-Masudi noted that, among other works of art, he had never seen such carpets elsewhere in his life.

On the opinion of various authors that the origin of the oriental carpets and rugs did not have any association with nomadic tribes, and Central Asia. They consider that the "oriental carpet is neither of nomadic origin, nor do its origins lie in Central Asia; it is a product of ancient oriental civilizations in the Armenian Uplands at the crossroads of the oldest trade routes between west, north and south."

The development of carpet and rug weaving in Armenia had been the barest necessity that had been dictated by the climatic conditions of the complete Armenian Highland. The type, size and thickness of carpets and rugs had also depended upon the climate of every specific region within the territory of Armenian Highland. The dwelling houses and other buildings in Armenia were constructed exclusively of stone or were cut in rocks with no wood flooring inside traditionally. This fact was proved by the results of excavations carried out in medieval Armenian cities, such as Dvin, Artashat, Ani and others. There has been the necessary source of raw materials in Armenia, including wool yarn and other fibres, as well as natural dyes. The most widespread raw materials to produce yarn for carpets and rugs was sheep wool, as well as goat wool, silk, flax, cotton and other.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, when the carpet weaving started to develop at Near East, Armenia "was one of the most productive regions" in this regards. It was conditioned by the existence of "good quality wool, pure water and dyes, especially beautiful purple dye."

One of the most important conditions for the development of carpet and rug weaving was the availability of towns and cities, where the arts and crafts might develop. These cities and towns also served as large commercial centers located on main ancient trade routes that passed by the Armenian Highland, including one of the branches of Silk Road that passed across Armenia Silk Road#Persian Royal Road.

Abd ar-Rashid al-Bakuvi wrote that "the carpets and as-zalali that are named "kali" are exported from Kalikala (Karin) that was located on the strategic road between Persia and Europe. According to the 13th-century Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamavi, the origin of the word kali/khali/hali, a knotted carpet, is from one of the early and important Armenian carpet centers, Theodosiopolis, Karin in Armenian, Qaliqala in Arabic, modern Erzerum. He says, "А Qaliqala on fabrique des tapis qu'on nomme qali du nom abrege de la ville". Academician Joseph Orbeli directly writes that word "karpet" is of Armenian origin.

Between the tangible reality of the Pazyryk carpet and the Mongol domination of the Near East in the 13th century virtually nothing survives, not even fragments. Our knowledge of oriental rugs is entirely from literary sources. Of these there are three categories: the Arab geographers and historians, who represent the most important witnesses of rug making, the Italian merchants and travelers, and the Armenian historians. The most common term for these Near Eastern floor and wall covering in these sources are Armenian carpets or carpets from Armenia. It is only later, as the Ottomans conquered these areas, including all of Armenian in the 16th century, that the term Turkish carpet began to be used, but that too was replaced in the 19th century by the term Persian rug or carpet because the great commercial agents of England, the U.S., and Germany began setting up looms for quantity weaving in Iran to supply the ever increasing demand for the oriental rug in their countries.

The Medieval Arab sources – al-Baladhuri (a 9th-century Persian historian), Ibn Hawqal (a 10th-century Arab writer, geographer, and chronicler), Yaqut (13th-century Arab geographer), and Ibn Khaldun (a 14th-century Arab polymath) among the most famous - speak regularly about the wonderful Armenian carpets of Qali-qala and the medieval Armenian capital of Dvin ("Dabil" in Arab sources) as well as their use of the Armenian red cochineal dye known in Armenian as vordan karmir ("worm's red"), the fundamental color of many Armenian rugs. Marco Polo reports the following his travel account as he passed through Cilician Armenia: "The following can be said of Turkmenia: the Turkmenian population is divided into three groups. The Turkomans are Muslims characterized by a very simple way of life and extremely crude speech. They live in the mountainous regions and raise cattle. Their horses and their outstanding mules are held in especially high regard. The other two groups, Armenians and Greeks, live in cities and forts. They make their living primarily from trade and as craftsmen. In addition to the carpets, unsurpassed and more splendrous in color than anywhere else in the world, silks in all colors are also produced there. This country, about which one might easily tell much more is subject to the Khan of the eastern Tatar Empire."

According to the 13th-century Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi, the origin of the word kali/khali/hali, a knotted carpet, is from one of the early and important Armenian carpet centers, Theodosiopolis, Karin in Armenian, Qaliqala in Arabic, modern Erzerum. He says, "А Qaliqala on fabrique des tapis qu'on nomme qali du nom abrege de la ville". Academician Joseph Orbeli directly writes that word "karpet" is of Armenian origin.

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Armenian Orphan Rug

3/17/2018

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Armenian OrphaBeauty born from gratitude and horror, the Armenian Orphan Rug went on long-awaited public display Tuesday at the White House Visitor Center.

The storied rug’s nearly weeklong display two blocks from the White House culminates a lobbying campaign led by California lawmakers and the Armenian-American community. It’s unveiling Tuesday morning was a history lesson, a political statement and, not least, an aesthetic revelation.

“Ahh,” said Libby Heffern, the wife of the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, John Heffern. “Magnificent.”

Heffern was among dozens of enthusiasts who flocked to see the roughly 11-foot-by-18-foot rug, partially rolled out on a platform in a corner of the visitors center. A priest from an Armenian Apostolic Church in Maryland chanted a blessing, reporters from three Armenian television networks lit up the scene and several members of Congress posed for pictures.

Nearby were two other foreign gifts to presidents: a French vase presented to President Herbert Hoover after World War I, and Japanese cherry and dogwood blossoms encased in acrylic, given to President Barack Obama.

The rug, the vase and the encased blossoms had each been presented in gratitude for U.S. generosity after international catastrophes.

“The American people should be proud to display this rug,” said Southern California resident Hratch Kozibeyokian, a director of the Armenian Rugs Society. “This carpet is a symbol of a good deed. Why should it be hidden from public display?”

Hidden away – Armenian-Americans and their myriad Capitol Hill allies believe – has until now been the rug’s fate.

The rug was intended to thank the United States for relief provided to victims of what Obama has diplomatically called the Meds Yeghern, which is Armenian for “great calamity.” The half a dozen House of Representatives members who convened Tuesday, including Republican Rep. David Valadao and Democratic Rep. Jim Costa from California’s San Joaquin Valley, used another word:

Genocide.

By some estimates, 1.5 million Armenians died at the end of the Ottoman Empire, from 1915 to 1923. Historians and governmental bodies have characterized the catastrophe as genocide, a term first recognized in international law in 1948 as referring to actions intended to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

Armenian girls in the Ghazir Orphanage operated by the Near East Relief, located on a hilltop in what’s now Lebanon, took 10 months to complete the rug before it was presented in December 1925 to President Calvin Coolidge. The rug – depicting lions, birds, unicorns and eagles – contains 4,404,206 hand-tied knots.

“Each one of those knots was made by a child who lost her parents to the slaughter,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. “The rug brings to life the shattered families.”

Measured precisely, the rug is 11 feet 7 inches by 18 feet 5 inches. It’s previously been displayed in the White House in 1984 and 1995. Groups that include the Armenian National Committee of America and the Armenian Assembly of America wanted it shown anew at the famed Smithsonian Castle as part of a reception last year for a new book, “President Calvin Coolidge and the Armenian Orphan Rug.”

The Smithsonian display never transpired, though, and many activists blamed a White House worried about antagonizing Turkey. Turkey has lobbied long, hard and successfully against the Armenian genocide resolutions that lawmakers introduce in every Congress.

The word “genocide” doesn’t appear on the visitor center’s display explaining the rug’s background, and U.S. diplomats avoid using the term in public.

“The characterization of those events,” John Heffern carefully told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his 2011 ambassadorial confirmation hearing, “is a policy decision that is made by the president of the United States.”

No such hesitation is voiced by the lawmakers whose districts include Armenian-American voters, and the initial White House refusal to display the rug incited a lobbying campaign that included group and personal letters, behind-the-scenes phone calls and pressure on social media.

“The Armenian Orphan Rug not only symbolizes the terror and the struggle of the Armenian people,” Costa said, “but also their fighting spirit.”

The rug is on display at the White House Visitor Center, 1450 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, through Sunday.

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The Red Color of Armenian Carpets

3/17/2018

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The red color of Armenian carpets was made from "vordan karmir" or "worm's red" dyestuff.

The fact that "vordan karmir" dye was used in making of the oldest surviving carpet "Pazyryk" is a perfect example of this and has already been proven by the scientists in particular by I. Rudenko.

"Pazyryk" dates back to the 5-4th centuries B.C. and can be seen nowadays at the Hermitage museum.

Arab historians noted that Armenian carpets were the most valuable because they were made from high-quality wool and were dyed with durable "vordan karmir" pigment. This also explains why Armenian carpets were known in the Arab world as "kirmiz" (red).

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A Tale of Two Rugs

3/17/2018

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By Liana Aghajanian, Los Angeles

The story of two rugs, one given to US President Calvin Coolidge, and another recently found in a home in San Diego, helps unravel the history of the US's first humanitarian aid effort and the tragic fate of Armenians in Turkey 100 years ago.

When Maggie Mangassarian-Goschin walked into the home of 97-year-old Elibet Kunzler last July, she instantly knew the importance of what she had found.

Lying in the middle of the living room was a striking, colourful rug with more than 800,000 hand-tied knots. It was decorated with exotic plants, prancing deer and leopards that almost looked like they were leaping off the ground. To Mangassarian-Goschin it was clear this was an incredible missing piece of history.

The rug was woven by refugee orphans in Lebanon who had been saved from the 1915 Ottoman-era massacre of 1.5 million Armenians - a massacre that many scholars regard as genocide. More than 3,000 rugs were made and given to American donors who had paid for the children to be looked after.

This one remained hidden for almost 70 years in Kunzler's home, travelling with her from Lebanon, to New York, New Hampshire and finally San Diego, where she settled with her husband and children.

"I had a feeling, that there was something with this rug, because I had never seen anything like this in my entire life," says Mangassarian-Goschin, director of the Ararat-Eskijian Museum in Mission Hills, California, which specialises in Armenian antiquities.

Now, on the 100th anniversary of the massacre, this orphan rug and others like it are serving as a reminder of the US's first humanitarian relief effort, and allowing Armenians to connect with an important, if bitter part of their heritage.

The American Committee for Syrian and Armenian Relief, now known as the Near East Foundation, was the first nonsectarian international relief campaign to exist in the US.

It was founded in response to the plight of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians who were subject to deportation, forced marches, starvation, and execution at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, in the early months of World War One.

Cans of condensed milk were collected at film screenings across the US, and child actor Jackie Coogan who starred in Charlie Chaplin's classic, The Kid, passionately campaigned to raise funds. More than $110 million - an incredible sum at the time - was donated to fund schools, orphanages and other facilities. These efforts saved the lives of a million refugees, including more than 100,000 Armenian orphans.

Kunzler's father, Jacob, was a Swiss missionary working for the relief committee as an orphanage director, evacuating Armenian orphans from Urfa, in Turkey, by foot, wagon and donkey to the mountain village of Ghazir in Lebanon. Once they were settled, he created rug-weaving facilities in the orphanage with the help of Armenian master weaver Hovhannes Taschjian, who trained more than 1,400 Armenian girls in the art of weaving, dyeing and patterning. The orphans were being taught a vocational trade to ensure their economic survival, while also creating the rugs to be sold and donated for fundraising.

Affectionately called "Papa and Mama Kunzler", Jacob and his wife Elizabeth were singlehandedly responsible for saving the lives of 8,000 Armenian orphans, and they were so loved that the girls decided to make a rug for their family too.
Elibet, the youngest of the four Kunzler girls, born in Urfa, was invited to choose colours, and eventually decided on blue. The orphans worked to create the rug, which Papa Kunzler then gave to Elibet. Eventually, her parents shipped it to her from Lebanon to the US, just after the end of World War Two.

Polly Marshall, Elibet's youngest daughter, who is now set to inherit the rug, remembers playing marbles with her siblings on it as a child. The Kunzler girls would incorporate the plants and animals in the rug's design - said to depict the Garden of Eden - within their game.

"It was a part of our daily life, completely," she says. "Now the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of my mother play on it and I'd like to think that there's some way that spirit of these children are in this rug and [that] it attracts children through generations."

What makes the Kunzler rug even more significant is that it is considered to be a sister to the rug given to President Calvin Coolidge in 1925, as a sign of gratitude for the US relief effort, by this time renamed Near East Relief.

Though the Kunzler rug is much smaller, both rugs contain the same animals, plants, medallions and Armenian symbolic imagery.

When the Coolidge rug briefly went on display last year at the White House Visitor Center, Polly Marshall was one of those who paid an emotional visit to see it, and even found herself sneaking behind the rope to touch it.

"It was like my link to my grandparents, who I never met, and the orphans. I felt like I was touching all those lives," she says. "It's such a striking statement about these people and what they went through."

When Mangassarian-Goschin approached Marshall to see if she would allow the Kunzler rug to be displayed, she agreed without hesitation. If people couldn't see the White House rug - which has spent most of its life in storage, and was quickly returned there - they should have the chance to see its sister, she thought.

It is now slated to be exhibited temporarily at the Ararat-Eskijian museum in May.

"If this rug can help ease people's pain or help connect people to their ancestry, it's the least we can do, to make it available," Marshall says.

Hratch Kozibeyokian, a third-generation master weaver and president of the Armenian Rugs Society, says the global Armenian community is slowly realising the power of the story the carpets tell.

"There are only a few places our history is recorded - in our folk songs and our carpets," says Kozibeyokian, who helped decipher the similarities between the Coolidge rug and Kunzler rug.

But the rugs are unravelling a little-known part of American history, too.

This year, the Western region of the Armenian National Committee of America launched a campaign called America We Thank You: An Armenian Tribute to Near East Relief, to pay tribute to the organisation for rescuing Armenian orphans and other survivors of the massacres.

Shant Mardirossian, the grandson of survivors and chair of the Near East Foundation's board of directors says the story of the American generosity helps bridge the gap in the dual identities of third and fourth-generation Armenian-Americans. The US is now home to the second largest Armenian population outside Armenia.

"I couldn't be more proud of this history, that Americans who knew nothing about Armenians 8,000 miles away gave something to help them," he says. "In fact, one could even argue a whole generation of Armenians wouldn't be here today had it not been for their support."

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Carpet Weaving

3/17/2018

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Carpet weaving is a traditional art form widespread in all regions of Armenia, but the Karabakh carpets, due to theirs features and popularity, represent a separate category. Until the proliferation of synthetic aniline dyes in the 1870s, the rich colors of the Karabakh carpets were made of only natural substances, mostly of plants and minerals, native to that region. Indigo (blueing) was imported from the East and cochineal from the Ararat valley. Some villages and settlements have never accepted synthetic dyes, staying true to their traditional natural methods.

According to Dr. Dickran Kouyumjian, the Director of Armenian Studies Program of California State University, Fresno, various ancient sources testify about carpets and other textiles, skillfully made in Armenia. A unique example among Armenian ancient carpets, the carpet ‘’Gohar’’, which Dr. Dickran Kouyumjian called ‘’the biggest and most exquisite’’, has been made in Karabakh and has a signature identifying the weaver, Gohar, and the date 1700. “Another important carpet woven in 1731 in Artsakh for Catholicos Nerses of Aghuank is preserved in the monastery of St. James in Jerusalem”, states Dr. Dickran Kouyumjian in his article entitled “Armenian Textiles: An Overview”.

In Karabakh, as in other Armenian regions, carpets and rugs were not originally made for sale .They were considered household items and heirlooms not a product. It was considered bad luck to take a carpet out of home. Heirloom carpets had a protective significance and often symbolized fertility.

Symbols of legends Karabakh’s carpets are rich with symbols that represent family crests and ancient legends, some dating back to times. Although the carpets have changed a lot for many centuries, most of the ornaments have kept their original look. The most prevalent symbol is dragon. Though the dragon is the common symbol of carpets and rugs throughout the Caucasus, it is largely the result of a large outflow of Armenians from Karabakh in the 18th century, who have founded or revived many towns throughout the region bringing with them their carpet weaving traditions. Another symbol common in Karabakh carpets is medallion. There are five main types of medallions, though several other variations can also be found. They are most likely derived from the crests of prominent clans and meliks (semi-independent princes) who presided over the principalities of Karabakh from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. Some of the medallions have the suffix “-berd” (fortress) in their names, which implies that each fortress had its own crest. These include Jraberd (Water fortress), Arevaberd (Sun fortress) and Odtsaberd (Snake fortress), which are composed of swastikas (symbolizing power and eternity) and writhing dragons.

At the beginning of 19th century the Caucasus was joined the Russian Empire and gradually the prevalence of meliks with their historical borders started to weaken. But their traditional medallions, after the fall of those princedoms, stayed long in the art of carpet weaving. Although crests and medallions are relics of the Karabakh historic royalty, many symbols used in ancestral carpets reflect day-to-day lives of the inhabitants of this ancient land. The centerpiece of such rugs is a crowned bull (ox, buffalo), the role of which in the lives of the people of Karabakh was not limited only with agricultural functions. In ancient times the bull was glorified. Even after its death, its skull was put as a talisman in a prominent place in the home. Many carpets also have images of bovine leather and sheep's wool, as well as pagan sacred symbols images. A great number of Karabakh carpets have various symbolic images of eagles, the image of which was perceived as a symbol of power, strength and striving towards infinity.

By the early 20th century the production of hand-loomed rugs and carpets had stopped in the most Armenian cities as a result of massacres and continuous dislocation, when the great part of Armenian precious rugs were lost or destroyed. The art of carpet weaving was passed from generation to generation, and the destruction and separation of families made the continuation of that tradition almost impossible. In Karabakh, however, carpet weaving as an art form and industry, was preserved during the Soviet era.

In the 19th – 20th the carpets of Shoushi were the best in the region and were sold in all neighboring cities. In 1907 in the rug factory of Shoushi 120 women were working. 600-700 rugs were produced a year, most of which were exported to Europe. During the Soviet period the factory was transported to Stepanakert. Today the handmade carpets and rugs are woven not only in Stepanakert and Shoushi but also in surrounding villages, especially in the Nikol Duman House Museum in the Ethnographic District of Tsaghkashat village. These carpets are still popular and have great fame due to their high quality. Currently, the ornaments of Armenian carpets are also used in fashion and design elements. The basic colors that are used in Karabakh carpets are tight and dark tapes of red, blue and brown.

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Armenian carpets in early Renaissance Paintings

3/17/2018

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Art historian Lauren Arnold will give a presentation on the subject of her ongoing research into oriental carpets in early Renaissance paintings.

Her online Carpet Index debuted on Flickr in 2008, and includes over 300 images of oriental carpets in Renaissance paintings. Lauren's research for her upcoming new book has led her to several startling new conclusions about the nature of these painted carpets in Italian works of art.

For one, she has fresh evidence of significant Christian iconographic meaning for them as markers of holy ground beneath the Virgin Mary; and two, she will demonstrate that before 1500, the depicted carpets are not of Muslim manufacture, per conventional wisdom, but are of eastern Christian origin.

Arnold believes that their presence in Italian paintings indicates a significant migration of Christian Armenians, Georgians, and Syrians into the Italian peninsula and elsewhere in the west in advance of militant Ottoman pressure in the east, which culminated in the fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Turks in 1453.

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Sources of the Armenian Carpet

3/17/2018

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The geographical position of the Armenian Highland, its natural-climatic conditions, mineral, animal and plant, also raw material resources, as well as economy and everyday requirements have granted large opportunities for the development of weaving and carpet-making. The remains of the material culture, as well as written sources, testify to this fact.

Armenian textile goes back thousands of years. Besides woven pieces, early carpet-weaving tools and comb-like beaters of bone called ktutich (2nd-1st millennia BC), spindle heads (Shirakavan, Argishtikhinili), needles (Shirakavan, Noyemberian), pottery fragments with textile prints, weaver’s loom and other Bronze Age tools (Shirakavan, Lchashen, Argishtikhinili), and a ball of wool (Karmir Blour) were excavated.

Ornamented fragments of a karpet flat weave found in Shirak (Harich) refer to the 12th-11th centuries BC. Noteworthy are remains of a fabric found from a burial mound in Artik, the ornamented edges of which are reminiscent of a jejim flat weave. Balls of yarn, fragments of fabric made of wool and flax, found during the excavations of the Urartian fortress of Teishebaini and dating from the 7th century BC, are also known.

The rhombs with concave sides depicted in the Erebuni frescoes are reminiscent of textiles. Their centres show the motif called “ornament of the world”, which later became widespread in the Armenian miniature painting. A. Mnatsakanian, an expert of ornamental art, linked this motif to the central ornaments of the carpet “Pazyryk”. Of special interest are patterns on textile pieces: hooked cruciform, S-shaped and curved lines. Such ornamental forms are traditionally recurrent in the Armenian applied arts.

Svetlana Poghosian

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ARMENIAN RUGS SOCIETY

origins of Armenian carpet and rug weaving

Armenian Orphan Rug

The Red Color of Armenian Carpets

A Tale of Two Rugs

Carpet Weaving

Armenian carpets in early Renaissance Paintings

Sources of the Armenian Carpet

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