Johnstown Weekly Democrat

ABOUT ORIENTAL RUGS
THE LOVELY PRODUCT OF
EASTERN RELIGIOUS LIFE

Every Worshiper an Artist—The Prayer Rug of the Turk—A Great Institution with Both Moslem and Christian—Patient Industry and Consummate Skill.

In all sizes and in all possible colors, with figures fantastic or designs most exquisite: soft and glossy as a seal fur or thick and shaggy as a bear skin; fresh from the looms of Persia or old as the empire of the sultans, and bearing the dust of the Caucasus, come the oriental rugs to the marts of western civilization.

The oriental rug is the product of eastern life. The mountain sheep supplied its material, nature taught the design and gave the coloring, and the religion of the people became the impulse and guiding spirit of the deft woman fingers that through many centuries spread the knotted mystic covers in the homes and shrines of the orient.

Eastern life is religion. The people eat, drink, work and think according to the dictates of their traditional faith; and though the idea of utility may have some time largely entered into the production of rugs in the orient, the dominant spirit of the work has been religion, and the rug is thus sacred in the eyes of the people.

In the prayer of the Islam center various sacred ideas. He bows down before his Maker, and the material on which he rests his hands must be susceptible to spotless cleanliness; he wants to find himself in an atmosphere of high thoughts and sacred suggestions, and as he looks down in kneeling he sees the living green and crimson—symbols of life and power—mingled in all mystic figures with blue and gold that carry to him faint ideas of love and glory. At home in the rooms where the morning sun looks in, the pious Turk finds in his prayer rug the associations of the mosques in his native city, or of the holiest of holies where he prayed in his pilgrimage to Mecca, in the form of domes and panels and the designs of encaustic tiles, and peculiar arrangements of stone and brick in the walls: so that wherever the worshiping Turk may be found, kneeling upon a prayer rug against the eastern sky, the soul finds itself in the midst of sacred associations and breathes the holy atmosphere of the temple where it has prayed with the faithful.

Thus dignified, the oriental rug became a great institution among the peoples of the orient, both Moslem and Christian, and industry and talent have been devoted to it for centuries. By reason of the high value thus put upon a good rug, the mothers and daughters of the people who set themselves to the arduous task of "tying up" a rug spared no pains in procuring the best materials, and their zeal developed the highest talent. In many cases they were made for votive offerings to mosques and shrines; then nothing was to be spared. Ruskin's "lamp of sacrifice" was there in all brightness; it is a gift to God, and must be costly. The finest wool, the best of dyes and the highest talent were put upon the altar, and some of these old Kazak and Daghistan rugs that stray out of a Turkish mosque or shrine are splendid works of art, with an exuberance of rich, soft coloring and bold design that delight the eyes and call forth the admiration of appreciative minds.

There is no complicated machinery in the manufacture of an oriental rug, the warp being stretched on a simple frame, and all the rest of the work done by tying the colored yarn across the warp in a line, in a peculiar strong knot, combing it down hard and cutting it the necessary length. Where each particular tuft of yarn had thus to be tied in a knot by the skillful fingers of the artist weaver, a medium sized rug of good quality required the labor of months or years, according to the simple or elaborate design which the artist carried in mind.

Considering the fact that there was no machinery to save labor, no chemicals, no shadow of an art school, an antique oriental rug of fair quality, that in color and texture has defied the tread of centuries, is no mean proof of the patient industry and consummate artistic skill of the daughters of the orient.

Professor William Thomson tells of an oriental rug which the family had in his boyhood in Syria. It had done service of all kinds long enough to be torn in two, and the half rug used to go to the sea shore with the boys to receive no gentle treatment. When soiled with earth it would be washed in salt sea water and thrown on the burning sands to dry under the Syrian sun, that can bleach anything: but the only effect of the ordeal on the half rug would be to give the colors new life.

What is the intrinsic value of an antique oriental rug? Answer, he who can. That soft, glossy Anatolian prayer rug, with fine, intricate design bordering the rich gold ground, is the handiwork of a passionate maiden, who spent years of patient toil on it, while before her mind there stood the distant visions of her—self, a mother, kneeling on that rug in ardent prayer for her children. That rug could hardly be produced today for its own weight in gold, for not only the artist and the dyes are gone forever, but the patriarchal days of peace and quiet prosperity that made such art and labor possible are no more to be found under Turkish skies.

Turkish rugs of the highest quality have always been made in the region of the Caucasus mountains by Turks, Armenians, Turcomans and Kurds, the latter two being nomad races. "Daghistan" (which means mountain region) is a generic name given in the native country to all close woven, heavy, fine wool rugs, which would naturally be made in a region where a large portion of the people are occupied as shepherds rearing flocks of fine sheep. The term "Daghistan," however, has now come to be universally applied to the finest quality of short nap Caucasus rugs, made generally oblong in shape.—Herant M. Kiretchjian in New York Mail and Express.