Tribal Rugs: A Complete Guide to Nomadic and Village Carpets

by James Opie

Providing a survey of the rug weavings of the nomadic peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asia, this volume follows the history of their design evolution from the 2500-year-old Pazyryk rug (the oldest complete rug of complex design) to antique and traditional designs, and up to the present day. As tribal life gives way to relentless modernization and it becomes too late to simulate artificially the broad cultural support on which a living craft depends, the art of tribal rugs becomes increasingly the domain of the collector and the scholar. The book's discussion of the origins of tribal weaving patterns is accompanied by illustrations and diagrams which enable readers to identify the relationship between the different patterns.

Genres: Art

328 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1992

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a spectacular book on hand-made nomadic and rural (“folk”) rugs! To me the perfect rug book will include scenic pictures (weaver's at their looms and sheep in their pastures) of each type of rug to show us where and how the rugs arise as much as what the finished works of art look like, and this book goes a long ways towards such an end. It covers the nomadic life-style and the people behind the rugs with beautiful prose and pictures (including history and anthropology as well as detailed discussions on, and examples of, the design motifs), and then gives a tribe by tribe presentation across the whole vast Near East/Central Asian region including full page color plates (on almost every other page) of the most gorgeous rugs I have ever had the pleasure to see (especially the examples of 19th century Khamseh Confederacy rugs absolutely blew me away). I'd read other reviews which noted that the more recent editions are of inferior quality, so I got a copy of the Tolstoy Press 1992 1st edition, and it is large (9.5x12.25") and beautifully done.

[Dennis Hedrikson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book seemed much different to me than most rug books I've read. In Part 1 of the book, Opie puts forth his main idea---that being, Persian tribal rugs (his main interest) contain motifs which come from very ancient Persian sources. And he provides pictorial evidence. A related point---which he carries into almost every rug or woven artifact that he shows---is that, for instance, the "latch-hook" (a very familiar detail) is actually an animal head, with horns. He provides numerous examples of woven, Persian tribal artifacts which were made for tribal use, which seems to show this. In fact, almost all the rugs he shows have animals or humans depicted---and, of course, the "bird rugs," which were new to me, though I was aware of the 'chicken' motif. His thesis includes the idea that many tribal motifs actually are variations of the "scorpian" motif (motif A-1 in the Peter Stone book)---and that most tribal motifs originated in remote areas of Persia, and not the usual ideas about Turkmenistan. He very directly dismisses the "Turkoman migration" origin of tribal motifs. In Part 2 of the book, where he works on various tribes, the rugs shown are mostly very much "Folk Art". Opie makes the interesting point that kilims (rather than pile carpets) very often consist of tribal motifs with no urban influence. Anyway, it's a very interesting book, and a good effort to balance against so many rug books which take a very Western, or even American point of view---and many show just very finely produced rugs. Very few of the rugs shown are wider than 5 feet, and most are smaller. He also includes some pictures and many anecdotes relating to the people he has known in the rug making countries. The book is quite expensive---I read a library copy.