Khorasan rugs by Mary Beach Langton

KHORASAN

Khorasan, " the Land of the Sun," Country and is the northeastern province of Persia. Separated as it is from Russiaby mountains and from Kermanby a salt desert, little or no European influence has reached this part of Persia. Within its borders we find alpine scenery, luxuriously fertile fields, desert tracts, and as great a variety of climate and people. The descendants of the ancient Iranians constitute only a small part of the inhabitants, for we find Arabs, Turkmen, Turks, Armenians, Jews, and a large nomad people. The women are still the weavers of rugs, both in the villages and among the nomad tribes.

The Khorasan rugs are among the finest of the antiques, and reflect something of the Old Persian culture. They have a wonderful sheen, due to the fine wool of which they are made; and an unusual artistic effect is produced by the uneven trimming of the pile, which makes the figures of the design stand out from the background. They have the warmth and softness for which the ancient Iranian fabrics were famous. Designs On a background of rich blue or red, floral designs in elaborate patterns are worked out, some showy and others with small, intricate patterns. Often the medallion effect is made use of, with the field and corners well covered with flowers and traceries; or with a bold central figure on a rich, plain field. A favorite design in the old fabrics is a large palm in each corner, extending to a rosette in the center; and frequently the small palm and rosette cover the entire field. Figures of animals and birds occur with the same grace and beauty as in the old Kirman rugs. One of the chief characteristics, and a distinguishing one, in both old and new, is the many borders, sometimes ten or twelve, usually one being wide with many narrow ones on either side. These all have the wavy lines, connecting rosettes, the palm, or other floral patterns. The many borders add great dignity to this rug, and form a beautiful setting for the central field, giving to the whole a distinguished air.

Soft, rich colors predominate, this Colors being due to the fine, soft quality of the wool of this district. The background is often of the old Persian blue, or a rich wine-color, and occasionally one with a peculiar purplish-pink cast is seen. The new fabrics nearly equal the old, and only time is needed to give them the mellowness so characteristic of the antiques.

Material and The material is of the best: the warp of cotton, the woof of cotton or wool, and the pile of lustrous wool. The sides are overcast, and the ends have, usually, a fringe of loose warp.

The Khorasan is a most satisfactory rug, beautiful in color, durable, and pliable, giving an air of elegance to a room. It is especially suited to living rooms, libraries, and halls, and comes in all sizes. Most antiques are oblong.
How to know oriental rugs, a handbook by Mary Beach Langton, D. Appleton and Company, 1904

Khorasan Rugs By John Kimberly Mumford

KHORASAN FABRICS

Sterling carpets, some of which possess much artistic merit, come from this far eastern provinceof Persia, which even now extends from the borders of Irak Ajemi, in Central Persia, to Afghanistan, and from the Turkmen boundaries of Asiatic Russia, southward to the province of Kerman. Most of the western portion of Khorasan is desert, in the scattered oases of which only small villages are found. The greater part of the weaving is done in the hill country, along the northern and eastern borders. Fragments of many races populate the province—Iranians, Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and what not— and the fabrics therefore are of many sorts. The Iranian element is for the most part sedentary, and has assimilated many of the Arabs and Kurds. The Tartar tribes are wanderers, as they have ever been. The Afghans and Baluchi who roam in numbers along the eastern and southeastern confines are robbers to the manner born, and prone to violence.

The best varieties of Khorasan fabrics show something of the same opulence in design which is found in old Isfahanand Teheran carpets, though with more of the treatment of the Kermanrug previously described. The works of the nomad classes are devoid of fineness, but like those of similar tribes in the Caucasus and Asia Minorare rich in bold effects and durable beyond belief. In Khorasan both the upright and horizontal looms are used, also both methods of knotting.

Khorasan Proper.—The realism which marks certain carpets of the Feraghan group is fairly outdone in many of the proper Khorasans. There is, perhaps, not so much of poetic feeling apparent, but the floral designs are more interesting for the reason that passably successful effort is made to portray them in perspective. In drawing and coloring the floral masses with which the grounds are covered in some of the more pretentious Khorasans suggest European treatment. The largest and most difficult forms are undertaken, not only without much concession to Oriental decorative convention, but with evident intent to depict them as growing out of the ground. As compared with the flowers in the Teheran and Isfahan rugs, these are as exotics to the exuberant growths of the field. In brilliancy of color and general treatment they resemble somewhat the Kermans; but even where the central medallion is used the “painted panel" appearance of the Tabriz fabrics is absent.

In some rugs lavish use is made of animal figures, birds and humans. They are all most brilliant in coloring and are drawn with much skill though in rather bad proportion. They are not represented in motion, as is customary in the Teheran and Isfahanfabrics, but in the most photographic and everlasting of poses. A favorite device in these creations is the Persian heraldic emblem, a lion, sword in hand, with the great sun rising at his back. The geographical location of Khorasan and its history go far toward explaining the prevalence of many of the features in design. That part of the province in which the rug-making is almost wholly carried on lies in the main track of travel between Teheran and the East. Its cities have been for centuries the religious centers of Mohammedan Persia, although they have been taken and occupied at intervals by Mongol invaders. Nishapur, most important of these during the Middle Ages, and under one dynasty the capital, was the home of Omar Khayyam and other learned men whose writings have survived to our era and found translation into other languages. Thus, in close touch, with China, and yet a home of Persian culture, and withal famous for the industrial skill of its people, this one city alone must have had much to do with the establishment of the high type which prevails in the best of the Khorasan carpets even now.

It would seem, however, that for a long time the superlative carpets of Khorasan had been made farther to the south. Bellew in his book, “From the Indus to the Tigris," says:

"Birjand, the modern capital of the district of Ghayn, or Cayn (Qayen), an open town of about two thousand houses, is the centre of a considerable trade with Kandaharand Herat on the one side, and Kerman, Yazdand Teheran on the other. It is also the seat of the carpet manufacture for which this district has been celebrated from of old. These carpets are called kalin, and are of very superior workmanship, and of beautiful designs, in which the colors are blended with wonderful harmony, and incomparable good effect. The best kinds fetch very high prices, and are all bespoke by agents for nobles and the chiefs of the country. The colors are of such delicate shades, and the patterns are so elaborate and tasteful, and the nap is so exquisitely smooth and soft, that the carpets are only fit for use in the divans of Oriental houses, where shoes are left without the threshold. The best kinds are manufactured in the villages around, and those turned out from the looms of Dorokhsh Nozad enjoy a preeminent reputation for excellence. . . .

“Sihdih, as the name implies, is a collection of three villages on the plain to which they give their name. Only one of these is now inhabited, the other two being in ruins. Very superior carpets are manufactured here, and they seem to fetch also very superior prices, to judge from those asked of us for some specimens we had selected. . . .

“Ghayn (Qayen)   exports its silks mostly to Kerman raw, but a good deal is consumed at home in the manufacture of some inferior fabrics for the local markets. The carpets known by the name of this town are not made here, but in the villages of the southern division of this district."

The genuine Khorasan is not, however, confined to large, showy designs. All of the more minute patterns in vogue among the artisans of the other districts of Persiaare made use of by the people of the eastern province. The pear, the fish pattern, and the conventionalized floral devices recognized as belonging to the Persian decoration are frequent. In their use of the pear, the Khorasan weavers have devised a complex pattern of their own, which, though it has been adopted into other families, is looked upon as the property of the inventor. Two small pears in light color rest their narrow ends, or tops, upon a larger one, at right angles, so as to form a cross, the arms of which lie diagonally to the field of the carpet, and the repetition of the pattern makes of the small, light-colored pears a pronounced diagonal stripe throughout the entire area. The large, dark red pears are so arranged that their stripe is broken at regular intervals. At these points of fracture two of the large pears are placed side by side and a new stripe is begun. The smaller pear figures are jeweled with tiny patterns in bright color. A recurring perpendicular stripe is made by yet other and longer pear shapes, placed vertically between the cross patterns. The blue of the ground, showing between these groups, itself forms a horizontal stripe and the effect of the whole is rich and striking.

Sometimes the medallion is used, always covered with a skillfully arranged design in small figures. A pronounced waving vine is usually found in the main stripe of the border, drawn in white on a ground of dark red. Frequently, as a substitute for the rosettes, palmettes, and lotus buds common in Herati design, the pear groups are used. The narrow borders repeat the undulating effect, sometimes in two vines on a blue field, or in some mixed pattern on a lighter ground. Where the body is filled with the great, rich flower designs before mentioned the border usually presents a consistently large pattern composed of the established Assyrian elements.

The knots of the old Khorasans are closely woven. The compactness which this insures makes the rug lie firmly, even on a highly polished floor, a virtue which looser fabrics have not. In length of pile the Khorasans vary, but in almost all lengths, even in some of the more closely trimmed examples, there is a peculiar appearance of surface, similar to that of rugs which have undergone wear, and in which the corrosive effect of certain dyes has begun to be apparent It is most evident in pieces which have large patterns, and in which it is not necessary to bring out minute points of color. This uneven clipping adds to the softness given by the fine wool with which the rugs are napped. It gives to a carpet which has from a hundred and twenty-five to a hundred and fifty knots to the square inch, and in its foundations is excessively solid, the appearance of being fleece to the foot. This same peculiarity occurs in some varieties of antique Indiarugs.

Through ignorance, probably, vendors often sell old Feraghans for the fine-patterned Khorasan. The Khorasan dyes have hitherto been to a laudable extent vegetable. Lately a new line of products has been brought to this country, woven in the Feraghan pattern, but upon a red ground instead of blue, as is the custom in the real Feraghans. The foundations are cotton, but the weaving is compact and careful, better, in fact, than most of the modern proper Feraghans. The pile is not finished like the Feraghans, but is trimmed unevenly, after the Khorasan fashion. The dyes in these new fabrics leave much to be desired. Oriental rugs By John Kimberly Mumford 4th Edition Scribner, 1921