Turkish rugs and carpets - brief history

The first known carpet

It is widely accepted that the “Pazirik Carpet”, discovered in the excavations in the Pazirik fortress, one of the Turkish fortress graves in the foots of Altay Mountains where the Central Asian Huns had lived, and known as the first sample of woven carpet, was woven by the Central Asian Hun tribe in the third century B.C. Details of horses and cavalries in the motifs on the border of the carpet, descriptions of saddle covers and binding forms of the horses’ tails determine the identity of the carpet as important details in connection to Hun culture and traditions of Turkish communities in that period.

Though it is not possible to illuminate the history of a weaving culture by examining a single carpet sample, it is possible to say that Turkish communities have been able to weave carpet and kilim and have had cultural landmarks, presenting the most beautiful samples of carpets and khilims since the early periods of history.

Home of the rug and carpet weaving

The carpet pieces found in Buddha temples in Lou-Lan and Lop-Nor in Eastern Turkistan, dated back to third and fourth centuries A.D and the carpet piece found in Kizil near Kuca during the Turfan excavations, - among the oldest carpets in the history - reveal that the region of Central Asia between the latitudes of 35 and 45 degrees has been the homeland of carpet culture.

The carpet pieces, dated back to ninth century, found during the excavations in the city of Samaria which was built for the lodging of Turkmen border masters and their families in the Abbasi period, and the carpet pieces, dated back to eleventh century found during the excavation works in Ancient Cairo city of Fustat should be considered as the elegant and unique contributions of the Turkish rug and carpet culture and weaving traditions in chronology of carpet and rug art.

This great culture, which reached to Samaria in the south, to Anatolia and Konya in the west in the thirteenth century with the migrations of Turkish communities in Central Asia to west, carried those noble pieces along. The Turkmen carpets, found among the donations in Konya Aladdin Mosque and Beysehir Esrefoglu Mosque, granted to Istanbul Museum of Turkish and Islamic Works of Art, dating back to twelfth and thirteenth centuries are the first examples of the same culture in Anatolia.

Turkmen tribes spread Turkish rug and carpet art all over the world

Those colorful smooth and knotted woven carpets and kilims woven for centuries by Turkmen tribes or clans settled in Anatolia as of the twelfth century have continued their presence till today and are now among the most valuable and expensive works within the collections in foundation mosques and museum collections in Turkey and around the world.

As of the thirteenth century, rich churches and aristocratic families in Europe were proud of having Turkish rugs and carpets imported from Anatolia, and they documented their prestige by posing with those carpets brought from Anatolia. Therefore, Turkmen tribes or clans have continued this ethnographic and noble art during the periods of history in every place they immigrated, and presented Turkish rug and carpet art to the civilization of the world.