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Karacadag Rug from Ed Krayer
Normally we would categorize this kilim
as a Malatya kilim. This one is different because Ed
bought it in Turkey where a man identified it as from his
his village of Karacadag. When Ed mentioned Malatya the
man insisted that it was woven in Karacadag by his
people, the Kurds. So obviously Karacadag Kurd is the
logical attribution. That being said I accept the
Karacadag attribution but I suspect that it is not truly
Kurd in an ethno-linguistic sense. I suspect it is
actually Zaza. The Zaza people are very similar to Kurds
and for many years were considered a sub-group of the
Kurds. In fact most Zaza identify as Kurds particularly
to outsiders.
"Few,
if any, Kurmanji speakers understand Zaza, but most
Zaza speakers know at least some Kurmanji. Virtually
all Zaza speakers consider themselves, and are
considered by the Kurmanji speakers, as Kurds." http://www.let.uu.nl/~Martin.vanBruinessen/personal/publications/Bruinessen_Ethnic_identity_Kurds.pdf
My thought is that since Karacadag and
Malatya are both heavily Zaza areas, and since these
kilims seem markedly different than Kurdish kilims that I
see from elsewhere I propose that these kilims are from
the Zaza people. At the risk of being overly provocative
I am floating this idea to see what I can turn-up either
to affirm or refute it.
Ed was kind enough to share these rug
images with me.
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