The Azerbaijan History Museum, under the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR, is the republic’s leading scientific and enlightening establishment acquain­ting the public with the long and eventful history of the Azerbaijan people.

Over the years of its existence the Museum has enriched its vast and diversified collection with truly invaluable specimens highlighting particular aspects of the history and culture of the Azerbaijan people. Today it ranks among the leading Soviet museums as to the number and value of its exhibits.

The present catalogue covers but a small fraction of the vast collec­tion of carpets in the Museum’s eth­nographic fund, giving one an idea of the wealth of Azerbaijan mate­rial culture.

One of the indicators of a nation’s cultural level is the degree of development of its applied deco­rative arts, a component part of material culture closely associated with the economic, intellectual and socio-political aspects of life. Applied decorative arts is a nation’s opportunity to express, in shapes and ornaments, their aesthetic views, inner world and established aesthetic traditions, as well as demonstrate as best as possible their artistic taste and skills.

The origin and development of individual crafts were stimulated by such factors as changes in the mode of production, which consigned to archives some erstwhile important crafts, while giving rise to new ones. Thus, with the emergence and pro­gress of factory industry, the signi­ficance of once advanced crafts in Azerbaijan such as armoury, glass manufacture and broadcloth wea­ving sharply decreased. Some crafts, however, have survived till this day. Carpet making is one of them.

Carpet making is a very old and highly developed craft. Archaeolo­gical finds bear evidence that it was already in existence back in the 9th century B.C. Written sources of later periods, for instance, writings by antique Greek, Roman and Arab authors (Herodotus, Xenophon. Al-Mugaddasi), also indicate that carpet making is indeed a very old craft. In Azerbaijan, it has develo­ped over centuries to reach the sum­mit of perfection. Azerbaijan craftsmen have produced magnifi­cent specimens – from simple pile-less carpets to the exquisite khalcha variety.

It is accepted to divide Azerbai­jan carpets into four types:

1. Kuba-Shirvan (with manufac­turing centres in Kuba, Shirvan and Baku);

2. Gyandja-Kazakh (with manu­facturing centres in Gyandja and Kazakh);

3. Karabakh (with manufacturing centres in Karabakh, Shusha and Djabrail);

4. Tebriz (with manufacturing centres in Tebriz and Ardebil).

They are distinguished mainly by the following features: ornament, manufacturing technique and the kind of article in question. Azerbaijan carpets are noted for a vast variety of ornamental composi­tions which now exceed 600. Some very rich and intricate designs were popular within the boundaries of a particular village or town or ethnic group and were handed down from generation to generation as a valua­ble heritage. Some carpet designs therefore bear the names of the localities where they originated, for instance, Pirebedil, Chichi, Afurdja, Salakhly and Shikhly, or of the ethnic groups that invented them, such as Sor-sor, Djek, Gryz, Gasym ushegy, Talysh and Gara goyunlu. The distinctive feature of Azerbaijan carpets is that their decorative scheme comprises phyto-morphous, zoomorphous, anthro­pomorphous (this despite the taboo to depict human images) and geo­metrical elements, highly conven­tionalized when conveyed onto a carpet. In earlier periods, some designs had a definite clear meaning which was lost with the passage of time.

The greater part of carpet decora­tive motifs is common to other

Azerbaijan crafts too. The simila­rity of ornament in metal, fabrics, ceramics, etc. is traceable among the specimens of the ethnographic fund.

The central motif of the Khila-buta carpet, the “buta” ornament, is found in many variations of han­dicraft articles. For the most part, decorative motifs are borrowed from the natural environment or suggested by everyday life. It has been established, for instance, that honeycombs, which symbolize wealth and prosperity, form the basis of the design of Shilyan piled carpets.

Azerbaijan carpets are manufac­tured in various techniques. Basi­cally they are divided into piled and pileless.

Pileless ones include palas, kilim, sumakh, zili, shadde and verni. Palas and kilim are simply woven, while sumakh, zili, shadde and verni have an intricate weave.

Piled carpets require especially sophisticated techniques. Here one should master an entirely different technique, with a pile knot applied to every two warp threads, making it possible to bring out a host of designs of any shape or size.

This catalogue acquaints the rea­der with all types of carpets of the ethnographic fund, giving a graphic idea of their technological and artis­tic merits.

A distinguishing feature of the Azerbaijan piled carpets is a very close arrangement of knots. The density of a carpet is determined by the number of knots per square decimeter. It varies with localities from 1600 (40 x 40) to 4900 (70 x 70) pile knots.

Azerbaijan carpet makers use yarn dyes of basic seven colours of varying shades. Over centuries they have developed compositions of dyes obtained from local plants. Unlike chemical dyestuffs, natural colorants do not erode the structure of wool fibers, but lend them sheen and succulence. Having mastered manufacturing techniques to per­fection, Azerbaijan carpet makers began producing sets (dast) consis­ting of a large central carpet, two side rugs and one head piece, all united in a single composition; prayer rugs (namazlyg); pictorial and other types of carpets.

Carpets were to meet both aesthe­tic and utilitarian requirements. As an object of household use, which was its main purpose, the carpet served to keep the house warm. Carpet bags and coverlets, of varying types were widespread. These included pileless mafrash, khurdjun and kheiba (travelling bags); chuval (sacks for holding loose products); chul (all kinds of coverlets); yakhar ustu (saddle cover) and other objects.

The best specimens of Azerbaijan carpet making art are displayed at major museums of the Soviet Union, Europe and America, which testifies to the high level of the old but never ageing culture of the Azerbaijan people.

Text by M. Kuliyev Photos by G. Guseinzade