Стр. 19 - Azərbaycan xalçaları

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Shirvan’s fascinating natural beauty, fresh air, and flowery
meadows created fertile conditions for the development of agri-
culture. One of the major occupations of the agricultural popu-
lation was breeding sheep, which led to the development of car-
pet weaving. Different species of sheep were raised in Shirvan.
The population brought lambs from different districts when the
local sheep species were insufficient, in this way paying great
attention to increasing the value of the raw materials for carpet
weaving. Here, the production qualities of wool varied accord-
ing to each sheep species. Since Shirvan was one of the main
centers of Azerbaijani carpet weaving, white sheep were raised
more widely since white wool was easy to dye with any color
and was considered more convenient. Compared to the wool
from lowland sheep, the “mountain wool” of the sheep raised
in the fresh and cool mountain air and alpine grasslands of Shir-
van was highly valued for the weaving arts. Widespread devel-
opment of sheep breeding resulted in an abundance of rawma-
terials made out of sheep wool. This development allowed the
population to obtain of plenty wool fiber from the wool during
shearing. Since sheep “guzem” (wool sheared in fall) was more
suited for beam thread, it was not used for “argaj” or “ilme”
(knot), which required long wool sheared off the sheep’s back.
Traditional raw materials for dyeing (“boyaqchiliq”) were col-
lected from the forests, the endless meadows (Pirgulu, Ismayil-
li, Talish, Jengi, Khaltan, Alpoud), and the mulberry gardens
(tokhmajar) of Shirvan.
Shirvan weavers skillfully created dye so-
lutions out of plants to use in coloring wool
thread, cotton, paper, and other materials.
For thousands of years, experienced dyers
Carpet fragment. Wool. Pile-weave. 1850. Shirvan group.
Azerbaijan. Private collection.
Wool for yarn. Chalov.
Khurjunuzu (Saddlebag cover). Zili. Wool. Flat-
weave. 19th century. Shirvan group. Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani carpets / SHIRVAN GROUP