Since Kerman province is far from boundary areas, it hosts some tribes, who emigrate, or even some tribes, that were obligated to accommodate. Around Kerman city and some western areas toward Persian gulf, many tribes live, who originate from various parts, and all live with rustic people. There, you can find a place called “Shul” whose people are from Lorestan, who immigrated to Fars and then to east, and then were dominated by Qashqai and Khamsa tribes, in 13th century. Thereby, Soleimani people immigrated to Kerman. Soleimani is a populated farmer tribe who once belonged to “Bulverdi” in Fars. Around their accommodation, one can find Kutlu and Karai tents, which are Turkmen tribes and immigrated to Kerman following Seljuki army.
Nowadays, there even some Beluch tribes around Kerman, though majority were forced to leave this part in 10th century. Near “Bam”, you can find “Sarbandi” tents, as well as Beruhi tents in north east of Kahnuj, as well as Asnushirvani tents near “Jask” and also Taherzehi tents near Hormozgan. Nut the most important and most populated tribe in Kerman, has been “Afshar”” .
Afshari people are originally from Azerbaijan and once they were involved in powerful Qazel Bash group. Safavid kings forced tribes to accommodate in the undesirable climate of Kerman to hinder any invasion from autonomic and independent groups. Afshari tribes in kerman are divided into 3 groups: Jahanshahi , Amui, Buchaqchi. The jahanshahi and Amui tribes came there in 17th century , while Buchaqchi grou immigrated to Zanjan after King Nader request ( 1736-1747). King Nader was originally from Afshar. Knowing their traits, King Nader used to feel a danger from them, therefore he forced them to organize several immigrations, first he sent them out to Fars near Qashqai tribes which was still near Kerman.
Some Buchaqchi Afshar people stayed in Fars and joined a small Qashqai tribe called Kashkuli. Currently, Afshari people are in Saidabad district.
In afshari villages, there are a number of small workshops for weaving rugs. In these workshops, the rugs are sometimes weaved by the tribal method, as it is made totally of wool and has just one weft, however, sometimes they use urban methods in which the warp is of cotton yarn and the weft is folded 2 or 3 times. The knot type can be symmetrical or unsymmetrical, depending on the current method of each tribe, also the knot density is low. The wool is of high-quality, made by the Afshari people. Afshari women weave on horizontal loom, and use a special sickle comb. They use traditional methods to dye wools, using less artificial dyes.
They use madder, walnut, indigo and henna dyes. In order to make a yellow color, in addition to pomegranate, they use reseda, grape and straw. The rugs often have a dark blue or brown background, so by using bright colors, the patterns and designs would be bold and more visible. Usually, these rugs are weaved in small size, while most weavers tend to make wide and rectangle rugs. The patterns show the close relationships between Afshar and other tribes even urban ones. Also, there are some unique simple patterns which are weaved repetitively in rows:
Diamond-shaped medallions that are attached to a subtle small web of designs like crab ones, flower and paisley, which seems to be inspired and imitated of urban patterns used in scarfs and rugs.
The most common type involves two paisley, called “Mother-daughter” and weaved curvely in small size, and the background is covered by large diamonds. In addition to paisley, the hen-design is current. The margins play an important role to make a nice appearance by using bright wool. The patterns are fantasy and has no specific order, often using apple flower with leaves and stalk, every other ones.
In the two ends of Afshari rugs, you can see same ribbons as in Kilim, sometimes one of them is weaved in a colorful way with subtle designs. The Afshari productions are known as Sirjan and ShahreBabak which are the major centers.
Shahrebabak rugs always involve two medallion in a hexagone on a red ground decorated by small paisleys. In the north of ShahreBabak, there is a village called Dehaj, which is the center of paisley-designed rugs.
In “Neyriz” which is a city between Kerman and Shiraz, there is a unique method, by which the rugs are weaved with Qashqai patterns and in which you can see medallion (hook-like) with mihrab design of mille-fleurs type.
Also, the bright colors used in Neyriz rugs caused that these rugs resemble more to Fars production than Afshari ones.
Read our other blog posts on Afshar Rugs:
