Turkish Rugs
Turkish Rugs
If you are looking for Turkish rugs for sale, you are going to love all the choices that are available to you thanks to our ongoing Turkish rug sale. As you will see when you scroll through our Turkish rugs, we offer Turkish rugs cheap, which makes them affordable options for many home and business owners, as well as interior designers who are shopping for their budget-conscious clients.
Kinds of Turkish Rugs
Given the variety of Turkish rugs in the marketplace, it is not enough to simply want a Turkish rug for your home or office. You have to put some thought into the kind of Turkish rug that will work best in the space you are decorating. Keep in mind that you do not necessarily need to put a Turkish rug on the floor. Certain rugs, including many Turkish Kilim rugs, resemble tapestries in both thickness and beauty, which make them ideal for hanging on the wall and using as sofa covers.
As a general rule, there are two primary kinds of Turkish rugs: Kilim rugs and Hali rugs. A Turkish Kilim rug is flat-woven while Turkish Hali rugs are knotted. It is widely believed that the oldest Kilim rug originated in Çatalhöyük around 7,000 B.C. near the middle of Anatolia. Many experts agree that Turkish tribes introduced Hali rugs to Anatolian inhabitants some time during the 12th century.
During your search for cheap Turkish rugs, you will likely encounter several kinds of other Turkish rugs. These rugs include:
1) Turkish Ladik Rugs:
These rugs are typically made using a prayer rug format. Some of the most prized Turkish Ladik rugs boast an eye-catching rose/burgundy color that was derived from dye made from beetles found in the West Indies.
2) Turkish Yuruk Rugs:
Yuruk rugs are noticeably loosely woven and often have a distinct, sometimes eccentric design.
3) Turkish Melas Rugs:
hese rugs are typically more conservative in terms of design compared to Yuruk rugs. Turkish Melas rugs normally have geometric designs that are simply captivating. These rugs normally come in either prayer rug or meditation rug format and are sought-after because they often have light- to mid-tones of green that are highly desirable.
4) Turkish Bergama Rugs:
Bergama rugs usually show off designs that involve multiple medallions, which make them easy to identify.
5) Turkish Mudjur Rugs:
Turkish Mudjur rugs are usually the most formal option among Turkish town rugs. These rugs are often decorated with austere fields of red or fields that showcase a blossoming tree of life or a lantern.
Characteristics of Turkish Rugs
While Turkish rugs may have different characteristics based on the region where they are made and their intended use, they share some general traits that make them very popular with consumers. These shared characteristics include:
- High-quality construction
- Attractive patterns
- Investment worthiness
- Natural materials and dyes
Turkish rugs are something you really have to experience to appreciate their full beauty and utility. With that in mind, we invite you to view our wide selection of Turkish rugs online now. We also encourage you to contact us with any questions you have about the rugs we have for sale. If you need help making a selection, we’ll be thrilled to help you find a Turkish rug that reflects your personal tastes and lifestyle. Give us a call or send us an email today.
Gabbeh
Gabbeh Rugs are Part of a Rich Persian Tradition
The traditional Gabbeh Persian carpet – known as gava in Kurdish and Luri and called khersak in Bakhtiari – is a simple, hand-woven pile rug traditionally made by the nomadic Qashqai tribes who dwelled in the Zagros Mountains of southern Iran, near the city of Shiraz. Other tribes, such as the Lurs, the Kurds and the Bahktiari also weave these carpets.
In Persian, the word “Gabbeh” means “fringe” or “in the rough.” Gabbeh rugs are rough cut and long piled rugs of rich color and the best quality wool. Most Gabbeh carpets are medium size – up to 3’ x 5’ – and feature abstract designs where shapes and color dance playfully with one another.
Variations of the gabbeh rug – such as the “Loribaft”, “Amaleh”, “Kashkuli” – may reflect the heritage of the tribe by which they are woven or the name of the city in which they are most often traded, such as “a Shiraz Gabbeh.”
The 19th century gabbeh rugs were very coarsely knotted (40kpi or less), often with shaggy pile. The name of Gholam Reza Zollanvari is synonymous with modern Gabbeh rugs. Zollanvari learned the rug business from his grandfather, a merchant in the Shirazi rug bazaar. Zollanvari pioneered the construction of fine-weave gabbehs with knot counts of 200+ kpi. Today, Zollanvari rugs are among the most popular styles of Persian rugs.
The Making of a Gabbeh Rugs: A Craft Shared Across Generations
Most Gabbeh carpets are made by women, and many are one-of-a-kind works of art. Some patterns are passed down thru the generations as mothers and grandmothers teach their daughters the art of Persian rug making. Many patterns reflect the weaver’s observations of the environments through which the tribe has passed. Some rugs are even made by the hands of many weavers.
Traditional Gabbeh rugs were woven on makeshift ground looms. These looms are built with materials are carried long distances by the nomadic tribes, or materials found where the tribe settled. Since each loom is unique, each rug is unique; this is how Gabbeh rugs get their distinctive irregular in shape.
Woven with the Wool of Mountain Sheep
Gabbeh rugs are woven from high quality wool from the tribe’s own sheep. As the tribe herds its sheep over hundreds of miles, the nomads reach high altitudes. In the summers, they stay in the highland pastures north of Shiraz in the Zargos Mountains; by winter they sojourn to pasture lands near the Persian Gulf. Sheep grazed in high altitudes produce more lanolin, giving their wool a luxurious softness and resistance to stain.
Rich, Colorful Dyes Give Gabbeh Carpets a Remarkable Color
The Qashqai people find the dyes used in Gabbeh carpets or purchase them in towns where they trade their finished carpets. Often, they use all-natural vegetable dyes to give the wool vibrant color while retaining its lanolin.
Hand-Knotted Rugs with Turkish Symmetrical Knots and Persian Asymmetrical Knots
Most of the wool used in the construction of Gabbeh rugs is handspun using a drop spindle. After the wool has been dyed and handspun, the weaver uses the loom to hand-knot the rug using Turkish symmetrical knots or Persian asymmetrical knots, or even a combination of the two. Because the all the Qashqai tribes use both types of knots, it is difficult to tell from which individual tribe any one rug has come from.
Gabbeh Rugs Are Small – Often Just 3’ x 5’ in Size
A typical size for a Gabbeh carpet is 3 feet by 5 feet. It can take 18 to 25 hours to weave even a small Gabbeh rug. Tribal Gabbeh rugs usually have lower knot counts compared to other types of Persian carpet. This low knot count and the high quality of wool makes Gabbeh rugs famous for their exceptional durability.
Durable Floor Coverings, Wraps and Bedding to Protect from the Mountain Cold
Gabbeh rugs are often floppy because they have wider rows of multiple wefts. This made the soft, pliable rugs ideal as wraps or bedding to insulate against the bitter cold of the mountains.
Gabbeh rugs are often not symmetrical due to the nomadic lifestyle of their creators, and color variations within a rug are common. Often, the variation in color in a rug tells a story of the tribe’s migration, the climates and environments it encountered, and the tribe members who contributed to its creation.
Where to Buy Gabbeh Rugs
Unless you plan to travel to Iran to shop for Gabbeh rugs in the marketplace, we’d suggest buying a Gabbeh rug online from RugSource.com or visiting our showroom. We’re proud to bring these highly coveted rugs to you – please contact us if you’d like to know more.
