Source: Mehrda R. Izady -Harvard University - published in “Kurdish Life” - Number 7 - Summer 1993 and available on the Web (Maybe R. John can give us the link that I have lost).

According to Mehrda R. Izady, Yazdanism was introduced in Kurdistan as early as 2000 BC by the vanguards of the Indo-European speaking tribal immigrants, such the Hittites and Mittanis. "The Mittanis, an Indic group, settled in Kurdistan and influenced the natives, in several fields worth of note, in particular the introduction of knotted rug weaving. Even rug designs introduced by the Mittanis and recognizable in Assyrian floor carvings remain the hallmark of Kurdish rugs and kelims. The modern Mina-Khani and Chwar-Such styles (?) are basically the same as those the Assyrians depicted nearly 3000 years ago…The Mittanis could have introduced during this early period some of the Indic tradition that appears to be manifest in the Kurdish religion of Yazdanism."

"Until the 16th century of our era, the Kurds remained the followers of the ancient Hurrian religion of Yazdanism and spoke an Iranic language that medieval Islamic sources termed Pahlawani. Pawlawani survives today in the dialects of Gurani and Dimili (Zaza) on the peripheries of Kurdistan."

After the Arab conquest and the advent of Islam most Kurds converted
to Shafiite Sunni Islam. Many Kurdish Moslem are also followers Sufism.
The older Yazdanism religion was marginalized and is still practiced as Alevism, Yezidism, and Yarsanism. According to Eagleton, the Yezidis, found in south central Turkey near the Syrian border and the Jebal Sinjar region further south and east in Iraq recognize the devil as a powerful motivating force in the universe.

According to James H. Klingner (HALI #105- page 87) "these ancient beliefs readily explain some of the peculiar characteristics of the weavings from the Northern Zagros and the presence of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic imagery, generally eschewed by Sunni Moslem. Similarly, the odd Kurdsih practice of placing tufts of mohair or dyed bits of human hair in a weaving in order to gain a wish is surely linked to the Sufi practice of tying bits of cloth to a Shaik's tomb…"

Such old religious influences appearing in Kurds weavings help to make them "authentic".

The two first northeast Iraqi rugs, belonging to Mehmet Kiliç, illustrated below show clearly this zoomorphism as well as typical Kurdish North East Iraqi selvages, and oblique wrapping end finish.

The two rugs have a similar design, which is most probably of Persian source, with medallion and pendants, and variation of the Herati pattern. They show clearly how this adopted design has been adapted by the weaver to Kurdish tastes and how the "Herati" leaves are transformed into snake-like forms, with heads and eyes. (Look especially to the close-up of the second rug.)

Source: Tribal Kilim Gallery - Mehmet Kilic - Antwerpen Belgium - N° 00
Origin: Northeast Iraq - maybe Herki - circa 1920
Closely related to Eagleton's plate 60 labelled Northeast Iraq
Dimension: uneven shape, bottom lager than top, H 103cm V 187cm
Yarn spin: Z
Knot: symmetrical, H20 V24 480/dm² ; H5pi V6pi 30psi
Weft: dark dyed grey-brown singles, 3 to 8 picks
Warp: 2 ply tan wool, no depression

Selvage: very large typical northeast Iraq flat selvage 18mm width, 6 units (2,2,2,2,2,2) interlaced by the ground wefts alternating with reinforcing additional contrasting wool singles in bands of colors forming wedge shapes. It gives to the border a sawtooth effect. Camel hair used in one band of light brown color. (right side of the selvage scan)
End: missing except for 1” weft faced skirt at each end
Handle: floppy and heavy
Colors: ivory, brownish madder red, deep and medium indigo blue, medium brown, dark aubergine brown and a distinctive very vivid and saturated lemon yellow. Some reds contain fuchsine.

Here is the second rug:

Source: Tribal Kilim Gallery - Mehmet Kilic - Antwerpen Belgium - N° 00
Origin: Northeast Iraq - may be Herki - circa 1920
Closely related to Eagleton's plate 60 labelled Northeast Iraq
Dimension: uneven shape, H/bottom: 108cm top: 100cm V 202cm
Yarn spin: Z
Knot: symmetrical, H24 V24 576/dm² ; H6pi V6pi 36psi, lustrous pile, height 2cm
Some offset knots to shape the design near the bottom and two long (6") thick vertical ridges of overlapping knots in the middle of the rug near the bottom border may be to reduce its width which is larger at the bottom than at the top.
Warp: 2 ply gray wool, no depression
Weft: dark dyed gray-brown singles, 4 picks; some discontinuous weft to shape the design where necessary.

Selvage: typical northeast Iraq flat selvage 18mm width, 6 units (2,2,1,1,1,1) interlaced by the ground wefts and alternating with reinforcing contrasting wool singles in bands of colors forming wedge shapes.

End: at each end 2" weft faced skirt adorned with a two color twinning band, also a very usual practice among Kurdish weavers from the North Zagros.
The end finishes of this rug are the most usual in northeast Iraqi rug.
Corded fringes with triangular wrapped bases and finished with a overhand knot
As I said in my introduction, it's OBLIQUE WRAPPING that seems to me more and more limited to Kurdish work. Oblique interlacing was more widely used and isn't so distinctive.
Handle: floppy and heavy
Colors: ivory, brownish madder red, light greenish blue, deep and medium indigo blue + dark aubergine brown and light salmon pink containing fuchsine.

This rug presents an anomaly at the bottom. Near the corner, there is a long odd vertical slit measuring 5.5". The inner part of this slit has its own selvage !!!, similar to the selvage of the rug. The outer part of this long slit hasn't any special treatment and the weft reverse around one warp.

Some months ago, I presented on the Show and Tell forum a kilim showing the same feature, which I thought could be from northeast Iraq. Marla, who has handled far more pieces than me, preferred an east Anatolia attribution. This kilim is on her "oblique wrapping" end finish page.

Nobody could help to explain why such slit appear in these rugs, and I still don't know why the weaver did it. A weaving hallmark of one sub-tribe?

Thanks to all for all your efforts to make this very technical Salon attractive,

Daniel

Here is the link to which Daniel refers above. I'm not sure it will be "live" in this post but if not, simply copy it and paste it into the "Address" line on your browser screen, then press "Enter.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/kurdish/htdocs/his/orig.html

Apparently a Harvard University lecture.

Regards,

R. John Howe

Here is a baby bag from my collection in which Sufism influence, may be, explains the odd practice of inserting one or more tufts of Mohair or bits of dyed human hairs in the weaving to bring good luck. This practice is not restricted to the Kurds but I don't know any other weavers who used it so extensively.
I have heard that large flat weaves containing lots of "good luck" tufts were hung in the trees in villages of South Eastern Anatolia. Does any one know somewhat more about this habit?

Structure analysis:
Baby bag woven in one piece
Origin: Siverek, South East Anatolia midway between Urfia and Dyarbakir.
H62cm x V35 cm (one face); 2Ƈ" x 1ƈ"
Structure: Weft faced plain weave, 3/1 overlay underlay brocading, rows of 2/1 soumak edging the brocaded bands
Warps: 2 ply ivory wool, 14 pi
Wefts: single, ivory wool, 56pi
Brocading weft: 2 ply wool, 24 per vertical inch
Soumak weft: 2 ply wool
Selvage: no special treatment
Hemmed ends
Joins: 2 color(brown & blue) plait stitch
Bottom: one tuft of mohair

Thanks for your interest,

Daniel

There is an other article of the same author dealing more specifically with Yazdanism:

http://kurdish.com/kurdistan/religion/yezdanism.htm

This seems to be also a sort of presentation by Dr. Mehrdad R. Izady of his book:

The Kurds, A Concise Handbook, By Dr. Mehrdad R. Izady, Dep. of Near Easter Languages and Civilization Harvard University, USA, 1992

Now, in the body of the article there is a reference to a section of this book that could be interesting for us: "turtles are common motifs in Kurdish decorative and religious arts (see Decorative Designs & Motifs)". Probably in this section there are designs related to rugs and textiles…

If somebody has access to the above mentioned book… A little scanning please!
Regards,

Filiberto Boncompagni

I do not own the book and so cannot provide any scans but if you want to pursue it there are four copies available at the moment on the "Advanced Book Exchange." (an international network of used book stores) If you visit the site make your search by name at the second level of search. The Quick search offered in the first screen is usually too superficial.

Regards,

R. John Howe

Izady offers a lot of helpful information but he does not know much about rugs. The relevant drawings are found on page 254 of his book but they and the interpretations are not the work of Izady himself. Rather they are taken from a man named Anahid Akasheh who I do not know but who wrote a paper called "Woven Skies, Woven Lands: Kurdish Textiles as an Expression of Social Structure" in 1986 and "The Archeaology of Kurdish Rugs" in 1992. What Izady refers to as turtles are really a variety of designs that most of us would recognize as being floral - for example the so-called Herati border he calls turtles and scorpions acknowledging it is a city border design. The typical central medallion and drop pendant format he calls "land turtle" or "anchor." The floral form known from the harshang pattern he says is also a turtle. To me, the entire chapter is merely curious.
Izady also cites Cecil Edwards and William Eagleton among others.

Sorry there is nothing else to report, Michael