 |
|
|
TTCC's Blog
|
|||||||
|
© 1994-2011
Roman Trading Int. DBA The Turkish Carpet Company. All Rights Reserved.
|
This is an interesting subject that I have personally only recently researched to find out more
information on. To start with a little history lesson, I'll be brief; for nearly 2000 years there were Byzantine Greek
orthodox christians living in Anatolia. This real estate we know of today as Turkey, has only been that for the last 90 years
or so, prior to that it was owned by the Romans, Tartars(Alexander the Great), Selcuks, Ottomans, Greeks and then finally
in 1922 became the Turkish Republic. In essence until the 1914-1922 displacement of Greek populations from Anatolia to Greece
and Turkish from Greece to Turkey, the Ottomans governed both peoples in Anatolia, even handedly, even though 1 people were
Christian and the other Muslim. Yes, they lived seperately but they cohabited nicely without genocidal violence, until the
end of the First World War, which occasioned the Turkish wars of independance from Greek rule and eventually the Republic
of Turkey was born. Both sides carried out monsterous atrocities against each other and the Armenians. So, history lesson
over, its way more complex than this but lets get back to rugs. Now, this rug is from the village of Yahyali (Greek Yahyali)
made by Greek weavers who took Anatolian weaving techniques and embelished them with their own motifs, dyeing practices and
skillful workmanship and produced such beauties as this Zile Yahyali, for that is what they are called. There were also 2
Kayseris, 1 Greek 1 Ottoman, and a rug I will be soon displaying is one such. This Zile Yahyali is old, between 100-120 years
old, and yet in absolutely superb condition, the knotting very fine, the sides (selvages) very intact, pile is low but uniformly
even and best of all the 100% vegetable dyed wool is still vibrant and alive, with even some abrash. The motifs are gorgeous,
and complex and quite different from an Ottoman Yahyali rug. Feast your eyes upon this one because this is a very, very rare
specimen. For more information on this rug follow this link to