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Turkoman
Turkoman rugs are produced by nomadic weavers
of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,
Afghanistan and the
province of Khorassan in northeast Iran.
Turkoman rugs are easily distinguished
by their three characteristics of a dominant red to red-brown
background color, geometric pattern, and a unique octagonal
motif known as gul, which has several versions. The
layout is generally all-over and guls are repeated
in rows with usually smaller guls of similar, but not
exact, geometric design (minor guls) in between the
rows of major guls. White, beige, black and blue are
used to create color contrast in the motifs and the border
of the rug.
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Gul is the Persian name for
flower. However, some rug scholars argue that the Turkoman
gul has originated from an ancient Turkish word
meaning family or tribe, and historically each tribe
had its own symbolic version of gul. However,
as the result of battles between the tribes, the symbolic
gul of defeated tribes were used by their conquerors.
Therefore, overtime, different tribes began using each
other's distinct guls in their weaving. Still,
some guls could be associated with certain tribes.
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Another common but less frequent design is the
hatchli (hatchlu) design seen in the Turkoman ensi rugs.
Ensi rugs were originally used to cover the
entrances of Turkoman tents. The hatchli design
is frequently seen in village, workshop and tribal rugs
of Afghanistan. In this design, a large cross divides
the background into four equal parts. All quadrants
have identical motifs. One frequent motif within the
quadrants is a shape similar to a menorah (candleholder
with several holders).
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The major Turkoman weaving tribes
include Salor, Saryk, Tekke, Youmut, Arabchi, Chodor and
Ersari.
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