A Boteh a Day Keeps the Covid Away

[Joel Greifinger]

Hi Pierre,

I agree with Jim's appraisal. An earlier version of the 'mirror botehs' in the major border of your second rug can be found on this Afshar bag that I posted back in post #38:

https://i.postimg.cc/bJ8tMPvS/Afshar-paired-boteh-bf.jpg

Joel

[Pierre Galafassi]

Many thanks Jim and Joel for making the origin clear.:cheers:

I did not know this Afshar shar babak clan.
I suppose that, like most other Afshar clans, they were Turkmen too? Transplanted by some Shah near to the northern border of Persia, as a glacis against annoying nomads?
Or even, perhaps, part of the first qizilbash supporters of the Safavides?

Your beautiful bag, Joel, has un-je-ne-sais-quoi-de-Turkmen, do you agree?
Regards
Pierre

[Joel Greifinger]

I did not know this Afshar shar babak clan.

Hi Pierre,

Here's what Parviz Tanavoli wrote:

"Shahr Babak is the furthermost important town in the northwestern part of Kerman Province and it is the center of the district of the same name. Shahr Babak is an old town and its construction has been attributed to Babak, the grandfather of the progenitor of the Sasanians (224-624 A.D.), Ardeshir Babakan. The people are city dwellers and Kermani descendants. In the area around Shahr Babak, however, there are several villages that are inhabited by other people, such as Lor, Lak, Arab and Ataollahi. Some of these villages, like Dahaj, have become universally famous for their carpet weaving.

Shahr Babak and Dahaj are 100 and 170 kilometers away from Sirjan, respectively. The barren desert lying between Sirjan and these two towns is one of the main obstacles blocking interaction between the people of the two areas and thus the main reason why the carpets from each area are distinguishable from each other.

The rugs of Shahr Babak and Dahaj heve special patterns with fairly large-scale elements from nature such as flowers, plants, birds, and animals. Their structures are closer to those of Kerman and Yazd carpets rather than those of the Afshars. They are often asymmetrically knotted and instead of the red wefts of Afshar rugs, their wefts are blue. The knot counts are higher than those of Afshar rugs. In my opinion, the Afshars have been influenced by Shahr Babak and Dahaj rugs more than the other way around. The Afshars have integrated the features of the Shahr Babak patterns into their own weaving culture, however.

The amalgamation of Shahr Babak and Dahaj rugs with those of the Afshars is an invention of the carpet traders in response to the increased demand for Afshar carpets at the beginning of the twentieth century. The traders started to combine the patterns of these two peoples and ordered carpets of mixed lineage to be produced in both regions. The most reliable method of distinguishing these carpets that have hybrid designs from Shahr Babak, Dahaj, and the Afshars is to study their structures."

Joel