Beluch

Beluch rugs, are so much simple and dark-color. These rugs are distributed in TorbateHeydarie, Mashhad, Kashmar, Neyshabur, and Sarakhs bazaar.

Another important commercial center is TorbateJam, which is a center to distribute many weaved productions of urban areas; this city is located between Mashhad and Harat. In their rugs, some specific tribal designs are used, in which you simply see the Turkmen and Afshari patterns, as well as some simple Iranian classic designs, such as Harati and Minakhani ones.

In this area, in addition to rugs, there are some hand-weaved items, made on looms such as bags, saddle, salt-container, pillow, or any long bags which are used sometimes as travel sack or even used as pillow. These weaved stuffs are sometimes soft and without piles, and sometimes these have piles. In addition, among Beluch productions, there are some subtle naps and “Shamad” of rectangle Kilim, which are sometimes weaved according to rug-weaving. These items are called “SiahKar” (darkjob) because they have dark colors: before some decades ago, only natural dyes were used, among which the red color made of madder and henna, is mostly utilized. Beluchi people used to utilize fixer and a salt of iron and potassium to make dark dyes which is extracted with alum, in case it is used excessively, it eliminates the brightness of the wool. Beluchi weavers sometimes use camel wool and its natural color instead of sheep one. The scarcity and the value of this wool lead to strict preservation, which is used to make the item for the bride who intended to take them to groom’s tent. Beluchi people also used to weave on horizontal looms, just like other tribes, as such looms are so much easier to carry.

Often, these warps are from dark sheep wool, and sometimes it is combined with goat wool to increase the thickness. The cotton yarn is rarely used, only in some recent samples you can see in sedentary areas, in which the weft is made of cotton yarn and the warps are so much rarely made of cotton yars and in the newest productions, two wefts pass through the warps, which are always loose. The samples which had 3 or 4 wefts, was so much scarce. The knot is not symmetrical and is open in the left side. Of course it involves some exceptions, specially among Beluch tribes who are connected with 4 Aymak groups. The knot density is low. The wool used for pile, is bright and similar to silk wool.

The Beluch rugs have two ends of ribbons which are decorated by subtle designs, having weaved or gathered roots. The backbone is made of goat hair and is dark. The small dimension rugs are more weaved and the long rugs are rarely made. Among the used patterns, you can see often traditional simple Iranian ones like Minakhani or Harati which is made by Seyed Mohammad Khani tribal women and they named this patterns, as “Keshmiri”.

The paisley pattern is widely seen in beluchi rugs in the TorbateHeydarie parts, and tribes call this design as almond. In Khorasan’s Beluchi rugs, some flowers are weaved imitated according to Turkmen ones. Also, “Salor” flower, with saw-toothed, is weaved among tribes in Djulghe valley and the northwest areas of TorbateHeydarie. While near Zabol and Nehbandan, the “Tekke” flower is weaved curvely, called frog pattern and some other ones were prevalent such as “Tauk nuska Gul” and “Ersari”.

On some Beluchi rugs belonging to Qain, some patters are observed inspired of Afshari, among which you can see hen-pattern especially on bags and pillows. But the very common desing is on Beluchi rugs belong to prayer rugs. You can see a Mihrab design on the background, which is bright and you can see some designs of hand palm in the corners which are a priceless symbolic pattern as the five fingers represent the five principals of Islam; and the mihrab is often decorated by a tree with a central stalk and branches of leaves. Beluchi weavers are known as realistic ones as they use natural elements such as leaves and branches which are used so simply.

Among the designs utilized by Beluchs, we can point out the netted ones, with lines and column of medallions with geometric shapes. Also, another pattern called “Memling gul” which is a polygonal shape and Beluch calls this as moon pattern.

In the cornet parts of the rug, you can see often some designs of simple leaves or inspired of the patterns on the margins of Turkmen rugs.