Materials

IN ISLAM an art object is underestood without question as a blend of form, decoration and function in an integrated whole. The kilim is the perfect expression of this idea; the tructure, pattern and purpose of a woven kilim, bag or saddle cover reflect the pastoral or nomadic lifestyle of the weaver perfectly.
Until the twentieth century many tribes were utterly self-sufficient in their weaving, a situation unknown in Europe since the Middle Ages. The source of the wool or animal hair, the streams to soak the fleeces, the plants and compounds for dyeing and the timber to make the frame for the loom were all found within their tribal boundaries, whether they were nomadic or semi—nomadic. Kilims from different geographical, and hence tribal, areas show startling variations in colour and texture, and this is in part due to the very specific localized sources of these basic raw materials. Weaving is a craft of extraordinary antiquity. The weaving of blankets and mats using reeds and grasses can be charted back to the palaeolithic period and the use of animal »- wool or hair for weaving coincides with the domestication of sheep and goats, around 8000 B.C. Throughout Central Asia the dominant source of yarn has always been the domesticated sheep, of which there are three types, fat-tailed, long-tailed and fat-rumped.
The fat—tailed sheep are found throughout Asia and their tails can develop to an enormous size — 30 or 40 pounds has been noted. This pendulous tail not only sustains the sheep throughout the dry season but also forms a platter-like source of food for the pastoralists. The quality of wool from all sheep depends entirely on climate and pasture, and the wool from the fat-tailed sheep is famous for its hard, coarse and long staple that gives a lustrous shine with excellent dye-taking qualities. Up in the mountains of Asia, the cool, dry climate gives rise to a fleece that is much finer and silkier than that from the hot, dusty plains. Long-tailed sheep are found on the southern borders of Afghanistan and fat-rumped sheep in Turkestan, a tribal area that is now part of Central Asia. Unlike flocks in the more developed world, where breeding has produced fleeces of uniform colour, sheep are found throughout Asia which are brown, black, white and a misty red, all in one flock, and sometimes all on one animal. Camels, goats and horses also provide a source for yarn. Goat hair is trimmed next to the skin, from beneath the unkempt fleece, and is used for its strength and itsattractive, high sheen. The warps of saddle and donkey bags, animal covers and some of the kilims of Central Asia are made of goat hair, or of goat hair and sheep's wool combined. The sides of the kilims, the selvedges, are often of goat hair, and those made by the desert tribespeople of Balouchistan are frequently seen with fine goat hair stitching down the centre to join two narrow strips together as one rug. The tents of the Balouch people are made from a bent-wood, barrel-vaulted frame, wrapped in sewn strips of woven goat hair a tough, if aromatic, structure.
There is a Persian proverb that says: ‘The camel eats useless weeds, carries heavy burdens and does no one harm’, to which should be added — ‘and provides hair as fine as silk’. A better insulator than sheep's wool, camel hair is shorn from the neck, throat and chin, and plucked frome the coat during the spring moult. Camel hair is used for both the weft and warp in kilims, to rich and subtle effect, especially when it is left undyed. This is typical of the older kilims of Persia and Afghanistan, Although camel hair is still used today for twining ropes and bands.
Horse hair from the mane and tail is often tied in tassels on bags and, like goat hair, it gives added strength in binding and finishing a kilim. White cotton has always been used by certain tribes, and is becoming increasingly popular as a way of highlighting designs and patterns. Unlike white wool, cotton does not turn cream or ivory in colour with age.
lts structural qualities are also much valued. Very fine kilims from Senna in north—west Persia, originally made for the court in a workshop environment, used cotton warps, as wool of an equivalent delicacy would have been very brittle. Since the turn of this century cotton has tended to replace wool in the warps of both Anatolian and Persian kilims. This
is a good indication of how commerical zeal can influence traditional practice.Previously, there was no alternative to wool or local materials and a weaver would never have parted with cash for cotton to weave into a kilim that she was not intending to sell for profit. Cotton and wool mixtures are found in nineteenth-century kilims, and the spinning
of the materials together results in a fine, strong yet supple yarn.
Silk is rarely woven into kilims and only the fine Safavid kilims of over two hundred years ago were woven in silk, interlaced with precious metals, for the fashions and ephemeral desires of the Persian court. Silk thread is used, however, as very fine brocade or decoration on storage bags of the Turkoman tribes of southern Central Asia, the Tekke and the Yomut. Precious metals and silks were coveted as the finest kilim decorations over many centuries, and it is amusing today to see their glitzy modern counterpart, lurex, in the most fluorescent colours, woven with pride into the contemporary, but traditionally functional, kilims of eastern Persia and west Afghanistan.