The Arab Baluch
The pile rug weaving group of the so-called Arabs
also needs to be mentioned, more because of geographical proximity than
because of similarities of their carpets with those of the Baluch.
These Arabs are almost without exception villagers, who became
sedentary a long time ago, and who derive their name -- maybe out of
reasons of prestige -- from those Arabs who Islamized their homeland in
the 7th century. Their main settlements are in the area of Ferdows with
Ayask, Arisk, Dohuk, Seghale, and Serayan as the most important pile
rug weaving centers in 1951. Motifs, structures, and colors of those
farmers' carpets seldom resemble products made by Baluch from the same
area2. Apart from a few exceptions most of the pieces are coarsely
knotted, had a long pile and were very colorful. They were a favorite
among the rich Arabs from the emirates of the Persian Gulf, who
preferred the summer in Iran to that of an even hotter home country.
The demand caused an almost assembly-line type of cottage industry , a
general degradation of the product, and to a very superficial
reproduction of the patterns. We see very crude Afshar designs in the
central field and even more so in the borders. These pile rugs must,
however, not be confused with other carpets that also have a distinct
Afshar influence, that were without doubt made by Baluch in Sistan,
about 500 kilometers from Ferdows. In contrast to Arab products, these
Sistan Baluch rugs have central fields rich with small, carefully
designed motifs and a stepped and/or incised central medallion, similar
to those on runners made by southeast Iranian Afshar (Fig. 2.). The
main border has an alternating latch-hook pattern, which is favored by
some Baluch groups, but is originally a Turkoman pattern (Fig. 3).
As a rule the fabric structure of these rugs
points to Baluch weavers. Some fabrics from very small groups, who were
semi-nomadic at least until 1960, and who call themselves and are
called by their neighboring Baluch, Arabzadeh, descendants of the
Arabs, show how difficult it is to classify the rugs. In 1955 a group
of 50 Arabzadeh could be in close neighborhood to the Moreidari and the
Said-Mohammad-Khani in the eastern Djulghe Khaf. The few small pieces
they had woven, however, were not distinguished from those made by the
Moreidari (Fig. 4). Wegner's
Pile Rugs of the Baluch and Their Neighbors
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