Language of Motifs in Turkish Carpets and Rugs
Passed from mother to daughter geometric symbols were
the basis of comunication among the Anatolian women
kept iliterate under Islam
Birds for the soul, stars for eternity and marriage; eyes, hooks and amulets to protect against evil ;roses for happiness; running water for long life;swasticas and dragons to protect the tree of life, apple blossoms for fertility;pinwheels symbol of heaven,fortune and hands for protection.
"TO WEAVE WAS TO WRITE AND TO WRITE WAS TO BE UNDERSTOOD."
Using one symbol of a combination of several, a Muslim woman was safe to express herself, channelling her creativity into a body that would survive her long after the Prophet had stripped her of her tribal solidarity.Insuring the only possesion she clould own.
Possesing Rugs women owned part of themselves that not fundamental law could ever compromised.
Some time ago newspapers reported that there is only one man left in the world who speaks a certain language and when he dies the language will be forever lost. It will not be, the first or the last language to be lost, but it is sad to know it happens. Turkish weavers are not quite so close to the loss of the language of motif and colour but there is concern that the end may not be too many years hence.
Most new carpets and kilims are produced in factories or in cattage industry situations where the motifs and colours are dictated by producers and distributors. The colours
and motifs are being changed to suit the western market and its influence. To be a
success in the market place, the product must suit the colours and furniture styles used
by a different culture. Small woven signs or simbols are called motifs and overall pattern
is called the design.
As one deciphers the symbols of a small prayer rug one discovers, for example the unbearable agony of losing a child; the grief is as real and as fresh as when the weaver knotted the patterns of her sorrow over forty years ago and one becomes intenesly
aware of the human expression in the carpet or kilim. Working on such a carpet becomes therapeutic. The carpet becomes a kind of supreme cominication reaching out to
God and men in one spontaneous proclamation.
There are also happy kilims and carpets telling of joy and dreams of lasting happiness though always with an understanding of fate's fickle ways. There may be embedded in the carpet or kilim a motif the evil eye repeated throughout the carpet or kilim. Whether an
eigth square meter kilim for the long winter or a shopping bag to carry to market. The kilim
is always an expression of the artistic skills of the weaver and a public message to the
outer world of the family's own history.
The nomad women did not have to leave home or change her life still to find herself. With her weaving she could make a statement that would outlast her own lifetime and posibly those of her children and grand children. It would be seen by family, friends and visitors for generations and might even end up in the home of some Western stranger. She would have been proud to have them exclaimed over her clever design, colour sense and weaving skill. If they could not read the message she had written so clearly in the colour and motifs she had used, they could at least apprreciate her betiful work.
To own a carpet or kilim means two things. Firstly, it is having a beatifully crafted piece of art, with harmonious colours and exciting patterns, with which to decorate the house. Secondly, it is like taking a page out of an Anatolian native's life a page out of a history
of a rich, though sadly dyeing tradition. For those who enjoy the art of old nomadic
pieces and would like to learn a little of their language, the following basic motif vocabularry is provided.
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