SpongoBongo
and Persian Carpet Guide
Antique Kaitag Embroidery
Antique
Embroideries of the Kaitag People
The Kaitag are a small Northern Caucasian ethnic group
numbering about 8,000 people. They live in the mountains of Southern
Dagestan. Ethnographers usually place the Kaitag in the Dargin group
but there is debate over whether Kaitag is a dialect of Dargwa the
language of the Dargin people or if it is a separate Northern Caucasian
language. The Dargin only amount to a total of 510,000 people of which
the Kaitag amount to no more that 5 or 10 thousand people. Kaitag is
also a
small district in the mountainous south of Dagestan and is a
historically remote area. The people are Sunni and Shia Muslim but
there are still vestiges of the pre-Islamic belief system remaining as
local folk customs.
Some mythologists see “Byzantine, Fatimid, Mongolian, Timurid, Mamluk,
Chinese, Ottoman and Celtic’ influences in Kaitag embroidery. That
strikes this writer as farfetched. While I freely admit that some of
these groups did have interaction with the region and that the Mamluk
drew slaves out of the region but to suggest a correlation is as likely
as seeing designs in the clouds and thinking that anything other than
chance influenced them. Still I have to note that this notion comes
from www.textile-art.com by Michael Frances a textile dealer who was
involved in the questionable “Mother Goddess in Anatolia” controversy
of years
gone by.
The Kaitag are a part of the Northern Caucasian people. There are 39
distinct ethnic and language groups in the Northern Caucasian group.
They have no known history before coming to the Caucasus and their
origins are lost in the mists of time. In the 13th century the
IL-Khanid Mongols drove north taking in all of the Greater and Lesser
Caucasian Mountains. This put Kaitag into the Persian sphere of trade
and influence until captured by the Czarist Russians in the 18th
century. Still the sway of the Persians and the Turks was very tenuous
in the Greater Caucasus and these people maintained relative
independence. It was only in the mid 1800 when the Russians cut the
forests and built roads that any great amount of influence or control
could be exerted by outside forces. By the end of Shamil’s revolt
August 25, 1859 the Russians had a firm hold on the region.
The technique of Kaitag embroidery is couched needlework on a backing
that is usually both cotton and rectangular. Heavy silk thread is sewn
to the face in straight lines so that almost all of the thread is on
the front and very little is visible from the back. Then the silk is
couched or tacked down to hold it in place by opposing silk threads
spaced at regular intervals. As such the embroidery is completely
decorative and not a wear surface at all. With this constution we must
assume that these were meant as decoration and most likely as a
decorative cover.
Silk was an important source of income in this region. A woman could
make enough income in sericulture that rug weaveing is rather scarce.
These pieces were embroidered by hand by women for the important events
of their lives such as betrothal,arriage, birth and death.
because the surface has little ability to resist wear I
suspect that these were special use objects. By that i mean thet I
doubt they were in daily use for most people and were brought out for
significant occasions. |
Antique
Kaitag Embroidery |
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