Source: Export Promotion Center of Turkey
The Oriental Carpets and The Turks
The carpet is a gift from the Turkish people to worldcivilisation. The knotted rug, the earliest samples of which have been found inCentral Asia where the Turks used to live is an art form discovered, developedand it wherever they have traveled.
In order to protect themselves from the cold of the CentralAsian steppes where they used to live, the Turks invented the carpet usinglamb's wool which was abundant, and finds from Central Asia prove this. Turkshave taken this art form with them and spread it whenever they have traveled.
In the 1940s, when the Russian archaeologist Rudenko wasexcavating burial mounds at Pazyryk in the foothills of the Altai Mountains inSiberia where Turkish people used to live, he discovered the earliest survivingcarpet in the world in the fifth of the mounds. Dating from between the 3rd and2nd Centuries BC, this carpet was woven using the Turkish knot and it isgenerally accepted that this carpet is attributed to the Asian Khuns.1
Hand-Made Carpets and Kilims
The carpet is a woven textile which is produced by knottingcoloured threads on the warp, compressed by the weft. Two types of knots areused in producing carpets: The Turkish (Grdes-symmetrical) knot is wrappedaround two warps and the Persian (Sineasymmetric) knot around a single warp.The Grdes knot makes a carpet stronger, firmer and more durable, while theSine knot allows the weaving of different patterns. The tighter the knots, thefiner and stronger is the carpet.
Turkish carpets and kilims are in the most valuablecollections of museums and collectors in the world. Today, world museumsexhibit as their most important and valuable works of art the carpets woven inAnatolia, beginning from the Seljuk period and continuing with the OttomanEmpire.
Turkish carpets have had a vast influence on an extensivezone ranging from Central Asia to Europe. From the middle of the 15th century,carpets exported from Turkey were highly appreciated in Europe and Turkishcarpets played a large role in the social life of Europe. These carpets arereflected widely in the paintings of the time and they are illustratedprecisely. This interest, which grew and continued in the 16th and 17th centuries,especially during Renaissance period, is shown the existence of at least one ormore Anatolian carpets in portraits of aristocrats, religious figures or otherillustrations. Turkish carpets were so highly prized in Europe that they moreoften graced the table than the floor. Because Turkish carpets were highlyesteemed, possession of a Turkish carpet was regarded as a status symbol. HansHolbein, Lorenzo Lotto, Carlo Crivelli, Hans Memling, and Gentile Bellini aresome of painters who used Turkish carpets in their paintings.2
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