Turkish Rugs
Turkish rug making stretches back as long as the Persian tradition. An associated rug type is Anatolian rugs: Anatolia is the name for an ancient region of Turkey. The term Turkish rugs can refer to both types, but due to subtle variations it is worth dealing with Anatolian carpets separately.
Turkish Carpets
Turkish rugs tend to depict repetitions of geometric patterns, ranging from simple to complex motifs. Human and animal figures are not represented on the rugs due to the Sunni Muslim beliefs of the vast majority of inhabitants of the region. Turkish rugs are considered to be a middle ground between the floral Persian rugs and the geometric Caucasian rugs.
Red dominates the field of Turkish carpets, with browns, greens, blues and yellows also seen in the motifs of the rugs. The red colour represents wealth, joy and happiness.
Ghiordes Knot
All Turkish rugs use the Turkish or ‘Ghiordes’ knot. Yarn is passed over two warp threads, which creates a loop around each of them. This leaves the two ends of the yarn emerging from the warp through the centre of the two warp threads. The Turkish knot tends to create a more block-like image compared to rugs created using the Persian knot. The Turkish knot also reduces the number of knots found per square inch.
Prayer Rugs
Turkish rugs are particularly famous for their prayer rugs. These rugs typically have a prayer arch, or mihrab, at the top of the rug. The arches are created to be similar to those in mosques, and when praying this arch points towards Mecca. The prayer niche is the area below the mihrab, and it is often surrounded by detailed borders. Flowers or lamps sometimes hang from the prayer arch.
History
The earliest existing Turkish carpets were made during the period when the Seljuk Turk Empire settled in Anatolia. They settled into Turkey in the 11th-12th Century. Three large complete carpets and five carpet fragments survive from this period. Only two of the fragments are similar in style to each other, showing the large creative potential during this time.
The three large surviving carpets are different in style to each other. One carpet has red motifs resembling arrows on a light red field. The rug also contains small blue lozenges and a blue border. The second carpet contains eight point starts arranged in rows. The final carpet has a cream field, with red octagons. Only one side of the border survives, but this contains stylised Kufic motifs. Kufic is an old form of Arabic writing.
Turkish carpets were often depicted in European paintings, and the Holbein patterns are famous from these pictures. Holbein patterns were carpets with octagons and lozenges arranged in rows. These Turkish rugs often had Kufic borders. In larger Holbein carpets the space between the octagons were filled with smaller medallions. The colours of these carpets were red, blue and yellow.
After the period of the Seljuk Turks, Ottoman palace carpets and Usak carpets dominate Turkish carpet history. Ottoman palace carpets had naturalistic floral motifs, and often used the Persian knot. Usak carpets also used floral motifs, but these were more stylised, and medallions were important in some of these rugs.