Description

Generally speaking, however, flat-woven pieces resemble in color and/or design the pile rugs known to have been produced in certain general locations. This is particularly true of kilims, so that pieces from the Sehna and to a lesser extent the Shiraz areas in Persia are easily recognized. The 16th and 17th century silk Kashan kilims also have Designs and colors similar to Persian rugs of the period. Turkish prayer kilims are Readily identified by the mihrab, or prayer arch, and by their coloring, although the exact local origins of most of these pieces has yet to be satisfactorily determined. Bright and bold coloring and sharply angular designs distinguish kilims from the Caucasus, and the few available Turkoman kilims are rendered unmistakable by the famous Turkoman madder red. Nevertheless, unanswered problems remain in regard to the considerable number of pieces which were evidently made by nomadic or semi-Nomadic peoples unrestrained by the borders of Turkey, the Caucasus, and Persia, and which possess characteristics of more than one country. These are sometimes referred to as Kurdish, a catch-all and often meaningless label since many nomadic tribes in addition to the Kurds inhabited wide areas of all three countries depending upon where the political borders happened to be fixed at any given time. Kilims were also produced throughout the Balkans. Examples from Bosnia, Serbia, and Bulgaria have their own coloring, while employing designs used in Anatolian and Caucasian weaving.

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