- Abadeh Top quality postwar Shiraz
style rugs. the town half way on the main shiraz Isfahan road
- Afghanistan The world's most
fascinating country after India. Central Asian crossroads - melting
pot of tribal folkloric designs and arguably the home of what today is
considered "Persian art"
- Afshar Mainly SE Iranian settled
tribe with smaller groups in NW Iran
- Agra Indian antique decorative
carpets
- Ahar Heriz style carpets NW Iran
Azerbaijan
- Ahmad Shah Durrani Afghan King
- Ahura Mazda Pre-Islamic god. zoroaster
fire temples Yazd.
- Aimaq West Afghan group of
tribes/clans
- Ak Koyonlu "people of the white
sheep" historical central asian turks
- Akstafa Caucasian rug type distinctive
bird with tailcomb motif
- Ali Martyr and first saint of Shia
muslims
- Alti Bolak good N Afghan turkoman rug
in a tekke type design
- Anatolia Asian Turkey
- And Khoy N Afghan turkoman rug type
- Aqcha N Afghan steel backed postwar
rugs
- Arabesque group of particular
curvilinear tendril designs. probably originated in Islamic spain
- Arab name given to various unrelated
sub-tribes in south and east Iran
- Arak early centre of revival weaving
NW Iran
- Ardebil Good commercial weaving centre
in azerbaijan
- Ashkabad Turkmenistan city and home of
the modern "5 year plan factory turkoman"
- Assadabad Hamadan Area herati designed
rugs with nicely small central medallion
- Aubusson antique French tapestry
carpets
- Azeribaijan This Turkish speaking
country is the most important rug weaving area in history.
- Babur The babur nama gives a view of
the life of a nomadic central asian horseman driven from his ancestral
lands by the emergent uzbeks to found the Moghul dynasty in N India
- Bactria historical Central Asian
dynasty
- Bakhshaish NW Persian town, good
antique decorative carpets. A financial consideration.
- Bakhtiari Central Persian tribe, style
of village weaving
- Baku Caspian sea Port
- Balikishir W Anatolian turkoman style
weaving
- Balkh N Afghan ruined city of
importance
- Behbehan Luri centre between Shiraz
and Ahwaz, SW Iran
- Belouch General name of a sombre type
of rug. Related tribes in Pakistan Afghanistan, Iran.
- Benares India famous brocades
- Bergama W Anatolian centre with a
strong weaving tradition
- Beshir Place and generic name for
colourful turkoman weaving
- Beyshehir Anatolian town famous
for it's great antique rugs discovered at the Seljuk built
mosque
- Bhadohi North Indian 20th century
weaving town
- Bibibaff coll. name for a rug
"woven by a respected grannie"
- Bihzad developed Persian Minature
painting in Herat late 15thC
- Bijar Important Kurdish town weaving
- Bilverdi Heriz, Karadja etc.
Azerbaijan revival weaving centre
- Birjand E Iran centre for both
floral and tribal weaving
- Bukhara Possibly the most famous
central asian city. generic dilettante name for all turkoman rugs
- Borchaly A style of Azeri Kazakh rug
- Cairo Was this the home of the famous
eponymously named ottoman rugs that some say are THE best. The 16th C
example in the Met could claim the title.
- Channakkalle W Anatolian squarish red
rugs
- Caucasus Dramatic tribal peasant
village workshop weaving. Area between the Caspian and the Black seas
- Chahar four, the number
- Chahar mahal four palaces
- Chehel forty
- Chehel Sotun Safavid building in
Isfahan with paintings of period French partygoers
- Chakesh Afghan Turkoman rug type
- Charschango N Afghan gul/rug type
- Chelabird popular south Caucasian
Kazakh type
- Chesmeh Sinjung, East Turkestan type
of rug
- Chobash Turkoman carpets with a
distinctive blue red
- Chodor Turkoman tribe
- Cochineal carminic red dye from the
new world
- Crusaders met the first Turks
- Cyrus ancient Persian King
- Daghestan NE Caucasus fine bluish rugs
- Dali A sub group of the ersari
sulayman turkomans
- Dari Central Asian lingua franca
classical Persian patois
- Darius ancient Persian King
- Daoulatabad NW Afghan collecting
centre of carpets esp. the wazirate large type
- Derbendt Caucasus
- Diyarbakir Kurdish rug collecting
centre in E Anatolia
- Dokhtare ghazi Aimaq Belouch style
rugs west of Herat
- Doruksh Jufti knotted Qainat carpets
in the floral city style
- Doshemealti red and blue postwar good
Anatolian commercial rugs popular with tourists
- Durrani royal afghan line
- Dye colouring agent
- Eagle kazak also chelabird, star,
stern, all western names for a distinctive Karabagh rug
- East Turkestan now Sinjiang. Home of
Uighur turks. Distinctive Yellowish rugs
- Elburz Mts North of Tehran, Kelar
Dasht villages, rug types
- Enjilis good Hamadan type
- Engsi Turkoman yurt door cover.
design usually in 4 parts, quarters, Hatchli
- Ersari Mainly Afghan Turkoman tribe
- Ezine European Turkey Town noted for
elegant simple small rugs
-
- Farah SW Afghanistan town. centre of
Belouch/Aimaq/Pashtun?Kuchi hegemony
- Fars S Persian province
- Felt wool fibres can mat together to
form this insulating and possibly the first rug material
- Ferahan fine Kurdish town rugs
- Firdaus Arab Belouch area East Iran
- Ferghana fabled vale home of Tadjiks
and Moghul dynasty
- Fethiyeh ex Greek weaving town near
Rhodes SW Anatolia
- Flatweave not a pile weaving!
- gandhara West Himalayan/Afghan
Buddhist dynasty. Origin of lovely schist Buddhas. Greek meets east
style.
- Gabbeh trans. "woolly" tapis
ordinaire assoc with south Persia
- Genje Colourful central Caucasian rugs
- Georgia North Caucasian area home of
much fine weaving
- Gorevan Azeri town carpets similar
Heriz
- Gerus Bijar type, design from nearby
town.
- Ghaznavids historical Afghan dynasty.
Spread Islam in Indian sub-continent.
- Ghiordes W Anatolian Ottoman classical
prayer rugs
- Ghor Central west Afghan area known
for fine Turkoman and Belouch rugs
- Gireh Persian unit of measurement
- Gol flower /rose/a name etc
- Gonbad i qabus Turkoman area NE Iran
- Gul Turkic badge, the repeating
octogon in Turkmen rugs
-
- Hadith the Islamic Traditions
- Hafez South Persian classical poet
- Haft Rangi seven colours traditional
to Persia
- Hamadan City and Generic name to
single wefted rugs of NW Iran
- Harshang Popular 18thC Caucasian rug
design
- Hashtrud trans."8 rivers"
where the most beautiful kurdish girls are found. Eastern shores of
Lake Urmia
- Hazara Personable ethnic group
of Central Afghanistan
- Herat W Afghan centre and state of
mind. Often art capital of Central Asia
- Hereke Finest Anatolian silk rugs
- Heriz Famous decorative and
heavyweight carpets from Azerbaijan
- Holbein Dutch painter's name attached
to a type of Anatolian carpet design and group
- Hulagu Mongol Khan, grandson of
Ghengis
- Husseinabad a Hamadan area W Iran
producing village in the standard single weft and herati pattern
-
- Ilkhan Mongol Khan
- Indigo a blue vat fremented dyestuff
- Iran Originally Persia. Today 8
million people involved in the carpet trade
- Iraq not really a carpet country being
mostly lowlands except for Iraqi Kurdistan
- Isfahan Classically decadent central
Persian city
- Islam "Submission to Allah"
- Ismail, Sshah Founded Persian Safavid
Dynasty
- Isparta W Anatolian commercial weaving
- Istanbul major crossroads and bazaar
of the carpet world
- Izmir SW Anatolian market centre
- Jaipur Traditional carpet city of N
India. "The Pink City"
- Jamshidi An Aimaq weaving group from
North and East of Herat, west Afghanistan
- Jangal aruq type of Ersari prayer rug
- Joshagan fine village rug NW Iran
- Jufti double knot using 4 warps
- Kabul Afghan and Moghul capital
- Kelardasht Village rugs from the
Elburz
- Kandahar Pashto centre S Afghanistan
- Karabagh South Caucasian area
"black garden"
- Karadagh ditto "black
mountain"
- Kara turk: black
- Kara Koyonlu historical "
black sheep turkomans"
- Kars NE Anatolia Kazakh style modern
commercial weaving
- Kashan central Iran fine floral Town
rugs
- Kashgar East Turkestan modern Sinjung
market city
- Kashmir controversial home of some
Moghul carpets, and 20thC. fine weaving
- Kathmandu market for some Himalayan
weaving
- Keyseri centre of Turkish commercial
weaving esp. silk
- Kazak denotes distinctive tribal rugs
from the Caucasus as well as Tarters from Central Asia
- Kerman elegant east Persian
traditional weaving centre
- Kermanshah Kurdish market town
- Khamseh grouping of SW Persian tribes
- Khirghiz Central Asian ethnic group
- Khiva the first Turkoman town to fall
to the Russians
- Khorassan East Persian province in
Central Asia
- Khorramabad SW Iranian, Luristan
market town and bus stop. Dark saturated bleeding colours
- Khotan traditional centre of East
Turkestan weaving
- Khuzistan Arab province of SW Iran
- Kelim flat woven rug usually in the
slit tapestry technique
- Kipchack Central Asian historical
ethnic group
- Kirshehir Centre of Anatolian prayer
rugs
- Kizil Ayak two types of Turkoman -
Turkmenistan and Afghan Turkoman
- Kizil bash historical military force
in Persia
- Knot makes the pile or nap of a carpet
and distinguishes it from the machine made and flatweaves
- Kolyahi Iranian Kurdish clan of
weavers
- Konaghkend type of Kuba Caucasian rugs
from the place
- Konya important Anatolian weaving and
cultural centre
- Kowdani a type and quality of Afghan
Balouch rug
- Kuba the Caucasus centre of commercial
revival weaving
- Kubla Khan grandson of Mongol Genghis
Khan who took the Chinese realm
- Kouchi gerenic Afghan name for tribal
pastoralists
- Kufic early Islamic script stylised in
carpets usually borders
- Kuhi people from the mountains-there
are many tribes with this in Iran and Afghanistan
- Kula west Anatolian historically
important weaving town
- Kunduz north Afghan market town
- Kurd an ethnic nation divided by
modern national boundaries and makers of a significant proportion of
oriental carpets
- Kushan a Tarter empire
- Labijar Sulayman Ersari Afghan
Turkoman tribal group
- Ladik west Anatolian weaving town
- Lahore historical weaving city and
elegant Punjab capital
- Laver Kirman a fine quality of antique
Kirmans
- Lhasa Tibetan capital
- Lillihan a flowery hamadan rug type
- Loom on which a rug or textile is made
- Lorenzo Lotto Painter after whom the
antique rug designs are called
- Lotus Buddhist iconography
- Luri refers to the ancient indiginous
tribe and mainly nomadic weavings
- madder rubia tinctorium natural red
dyestuff
- mahal western dealers name for a group
of decorative west persian carpets
- mahun pilgrimmage centre near kerman
east iran
- maimana west afghan uzbek centre of
kelim production
- malayer orangy fine west persian rugs
- mamluk islamic eqyption dynasty
controversial best all time carpets
- manufactory made by hand in a factory
- marasali misspelling of shirvan type
of rug usually prayer rugs
- mashad Eastern Iran mmajor city and
place of Shia pilgramage Blue/rud coloured floral city style carpets
- maslaghan distinctive type of hamadan
rug
- mauri fine quality of afghan turkoman
rug
- mazar-i-sharif north afghan cultural
and market centre
- medes early persians
- mehriban type of west persian rug town
- Mehrivan NW Persian town for heavily
woven carpets
- Melas Originally Greek population.
Colourful 19thC rugs. Modern brown rugs.
- Memling Name of a gul which is a
latch-hooked polygon appearing on rugs in the paintings of Hans
Memling, a 15thC European painter.
- merv A centre of the Tekke Turkomans
- meshkin NW Persian, Azerbaijan kelims
- mihrab The "Prayer Arch"
- melas Sw Anatolian town famous for
it's colourful antique rugs and distinctive colourless modern rugs
- mina khani "Hall of Mirrors"
carpet design similar to Beshir and Jan Beghi designs
- mir-i-boteh in Persian the
"Everlasting Flower" and precurser of the Paisley design
- moghul The subcontinental dynasty
produced court carpets that set modern auction records
- Moharram This Islamic holy day falls
on the tenth of the month of Muharram, and is marked with grief. It
was on this day that Hussein, the grandson of the Holy Prophet
Mohammed, attained martyrdom at the hands of Yazid in the battle of
Karbala in Iraq. The Shias hold huge public processions where they
perform self flagellations. The Sunnis also mourn the death of Hussein
but in a quiet way.
- mohtasham Superior type of antique
Kashan
- mongols Kings of the known world whose
patronage following conquest saw a flowering of the arts
- moud East Iranian town producing a
brownish type of robust floral rugs
- muhammad. " There is no God but
God and Muhammed is his Messenger"
- mushwani Type of Aimaq belouch rug
from either an eponymous group or simply a design meaning
"running mouse"
- nadir shah The 18th C. Afshar king of
Persia who sacked Delhi and stole the Peacock Throne
- nain Central Iranian town known for
fine but boring carpets "really sixties stuff"
- nahavend Type of Hamadan with big
angular designs
- nepal Himalayan state and centre of
contemporary and Tibetan weaving
- nigde Cappadocian rug and kelim centre
- nimrud "half river' in dry SW
Afghanistan
- nineveh the ancient Palace of
mesopotamia
- ning xia NW Chinese/ Mongolian
traditional centre of sophisticated rugs
- neiriz Souther Iranian centre of glass
and pottery firing and tribal rugs
- nishapur NE Iran antique pottery and
tribal rug centre
-
- Ok-Bash 5-sided Turkomen tent pole
covers
- Ortakoy Anatolian weaving centre
- Ottoman Great Turkish dynasty, Osmanli
-
- Paisley The sprouting seed design
developed from the Persian boteh
- Pakistan Major centre of antique and
contemporary weaving
- Palmette a design like the cross
section of a rose
- Pao Tou NW Chinese/Mongolian weaving
centre
- Parsee descendants of the Zoroastrians
in scattered communities since the diaspora
- Paritzi the two flowers of Paritz is a
Kerman Afshar design
- Parthia Ancient Central Asian state -
Nomadic horsemen
- Pashtoo Afghan language, ethnic group
straddling Pakistan border
- Pazyryk Earliest complete carpet
- Pendi Oasis Turkmen and blue red style
of late 19thC rugs
- Perepedil Cauasian workshop rugs with
all over pattern
- Persepolis SW Persian ruins of
pre-Islamic civilization, Darius, Cyrus Xerxes etc
- Persia the dynasty of Southern Iran.
From pars, Fars. Modern Farsi = Persian
- Pomegranate Delicious fruit with
rubies a metaphor for feminity
-
- Qain East Iranian desert weaving
area dependant on underground water. The Qainat
- Qashgai SW Iran tribal confederation
- Qazvin NW Iran collecting centre of
Kurdish, village and Shahsevan weaving
- Qizil Bash Turkmen led army of Nadir
Shah Afshar
- Qoltoq Afghan Turkoman weaving
group
- Quchan NE Iran Kurdish weaving centre
- Qum Religious studies centre of Iran
and produces modern carpets
-
- Raver. Excellent carpets from this
village north of Kerman also called Laver
- Rumi Jallaliddan Rumi the original
Whirling Dervish, great Sufi poet
- Roumania source of 20thC export
quality carpets in traditional designs
- safavid 200 years of classical
flowering dynasty 16th-18th centuries
- salor Old Turkoman tribe
- saltoq Clan of the Afghan Sulaman
Turkomen
- samarkand Great Central Asian city
- sanandaj Capital of modern Kurdistan.
The Persian name for Senneh.
- saph A multiple prayer rug, usually
woven sideways
- sarab NW Persian village rug
- sarouk Kurdish and surrounding areas
SE of Hamadan, fine quality antique rugs
- saryk Turkoman tribe
- sassanid Historical Persian dynasty
preceding Islamic period
- selim. "The Grim" Ottoman
sultan of Turkey
- seljuqs Turkish migratory group
developed high art once settled in Turkey and NW Iran. Followed by the
Mongols
- senjabi Kurdish NW Persian Rug
- senneh Fine Kurdish rug
- seraband Distinctive boteh patterned
NW Persian rug
- serafian Contract Isfahan weavers
highly respected and copied
- serakhs Balouchi area of Turkmenistan
- shahsevan NW Persian tribe remained
traditional through the 20th century
- sharia Islamic Law
- shebergan Turkoman town of N
Afghanistan famous horses, buskashi players and the Labijar rugs
- shia Followers of Imam Ali
- shindand A tribal heartland town in
west Afghanistan
- shiraz SW Iran major rug collecting
centre
- shirvan East Caucasian fine rugs
- silk road Mythical name for the
Mediteranean - China trade routes
- samovar Traditional hot water urn for
tea making
- simurgh mythical Persian bird
- sinkiang, xinjiang Islamic Uighur
Turkish province currently under Chinese dominion. Called East
Turkestan also.
- sirjand Afshar Belouch centre in SW
Iran
- sivas Central Anatolian town noted for
floral carpets and centre of a kelim trade
- sothebys ASuctioneers
- srinagar Moghul centre now commercial
weaving
- sufi unorthodox Islamic sects, person,
following "direct experience" of Allah
- sulayman Ottoman Sultan, Afghan Ersari
Turkoman tribal type of rug.
- sultanabad W Iran home of the Zeiglers
and other revival weaving
- sunni Major branch of Islam
-
- taba tabai Term for medium quality
Tabriz carpets
- tafresh A type of Hamadan rug
- taghan A type of Afghan Turkoman
Ersari as in Taghan Daoulatabad
- tahmasp First uniting Shah of the
Safavid Dynasty Early 16thC
- taimani West Afghan tribal carpets
- tajikistan State bordering North
Afghanistan
- talish Long rugs of west Caspian
littoral
- tamerlane Historical Central Asian
leader
- tapestry General term for flatwoven
wall hangings esp European
- tarim The basin of Sinjung (East
Turkestan)
- tashkent Historically important
Central Asian city destroyed by earthquake in modern times
- tashpinar A type of Central Anatolian
village rug
- tehran Captial of Iran
- tekke Major Turkmen tribe
- tibet The "Roof of the
World" country
- tienstin NE Chinese 20thC commercial
carpets
- timuri Elegant rugs from this west
Afghan tribe
- transoxiana Area between, around the
Syr Daria and the Amu Darya (river Oxus)
- transylvania East European province
where Christian churches held a group of Turkish rugs that defined a
style
- turkestan "Place of the
Turks" encompassing a great part of Central Asia
- turkey West Asian state
- turkmenistan Central Asian state
- turkoman Major grouping of rugs, and
the people.
- uighur Ethnic group inhabiting
Xinjiang province. East Turkestan etc
- ulugh beg
- umayyed
- urdu Language of central Pakistan, The
Moghuls.
- urmia NW Iran lake, Kurdish weaving
area
- ushak West Anatolian weaving town with
a long history
- uttar pradesh Weaving state of North
India
- uzbekistan Republic north of
Afghanistan
-
- Vagireh phonetic pronunciation of
wagirah, a rug sampler
- Van Lake, town, and centre of Kurdish
culture and kelims
- Veramin distinctive paletted settled
nomad weavings
-
- Wagireh sampler made for western
orders
- Waziri 20th century Afghan gul
- Warp longitudinal threads
- Weft latitudinal threads
- Weft faced weave the "face"
of the flatweave is the weft
- West Turkestan as opposed to East
Turkestan
- Xerxes pre-Islamic Persian king
- yagcibedir the anatolian belouch/turkoman
rug type
- yahyali central anatolian rug type
- yalameh strong commercial weaving town
between Shiraz and Isfahan
- yamoudt large Turkoman tribe
- yacqubkhani Aimaq/Belouch tribe Herat,
Afghanistan
- yarkand east Turkestan sufi town
- yazd near Kirman desert oasis town
trad. fine floral mughal influenced carpets
- yueh-chih pre-Islamic Cental Asian
horde
- yuntdag west anatolian rug type
usually central medallion pendant with triangular amulets
- yun tsai stou motif popular chinese
border motif
- yuruk Anatolian generic term meaning
nomad
- zagros mountain chain traditional home
of nomadic groups
- zahedan Iranian centre of
seistan belouch rugs
- zahir shah last Afghan King. Deposed
Nov 1973 and re-instated 2002
- zarathustra pre-Islamic prophet of
Ahura Mazda
- zeikhur NE Caucasian mostly tight long
rugs
- zenjan Capital, province and simple
rug type of NW Iran
- ziegler&co late 19th century
English carpet business with looms in NW Iran defined the style
- zil-i-sultan south persian rug design
- zilli traditional name for large
simple flatweaves
- zoroaster see zarathustra
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