Quarterly Scientific-Research Goljaam

The Ziloo, as an ancient Iranian hand-woven textile, expresses its own history in its varied and rich motifs. This variation and richness are especially discernible in Mehrab (Saf) design Ziloos from Maybod, especially made as floor coverings in mosques. Because of this close connection with the mosque as a sacred and religious location, it has assumed a symbolic religious meaning and is considered a part of the mosque complex. Mehrab (Saf) design Ziloo is thus a symbol of the ranks of the faithful in collective prayer with all of its religious implications.

Bakhtiari carpet has been less studied and introduced in art studies. Compared with other carpets, its rich designs and forms are overlooked by researchers. In this study an attempt is made to investigate the value and significance of trees in Bakhtiari carpets, with emphasis on variety of its designs and forms.

Carpet experts consider nobility of a Qashqai rug in properties like use of suitable wool fiber, herbaceous dyeing, mental designing and bald painting. These principles were used in a variety of samples of Qashai tribe’s hand-woven carpets. On the other hand, production system in that period was based on the use of existing sources and facilities and motivated by providing financial support for the family. In this traditional period, production did not have commercial and public uses. Carpet ownership was limited to well to do families and was basically used as gift and present. However, in an industrial society several aspects of tribe life were influenced by the technological developments. The impact brought some limitations and obligations. Factors such as territorial reforms and trainings of different types changed carpet weaving and production. With the arrival of ready made factory hanks and chemical dyes quality of Qashqai products was threatened and carpets were massively produced. Merchants, dealers and intermediators’ played an important role in marketing the products. Different tribes and families produced their own carpets and a variety of designs and forms emerged. All in all, industrialization did not add to the nobility of the product in this period. Some products, however, were exceptional and represented the true value of Qashqai carpet. They made best use of the new possibilities provided by technology and industry to produce the best quality carpets, relying on the traditional elements of Qashqai carpet at the same time, incorporating some innovative elements. This opened new horizons for the carpet weavers.

 Nomadic "salt bags" are a group of nomadic textiles which are less known in comparison with other nomadic weavings such as carpets, rugs, kilims, etc. These functional bags are generally found among other nomadic products. They have special features in form, structure, texture, color, pattern, motifs, and decoration which all make their examination significant besides studing other nomadic products. Afshars of Kerman -as an example in here- having a long history in weaving, are among those nomads which have various and noteworthy salt bags. Afshari salt bags are generally woven by women and are expressive of Afshars’ characteristics, though the effects of outer cultures are discernible in them. For this reason, in this article, it is tried to study Afshari tribe, their weaving history, as well as their former geographic realm, and eventually the influences of the other regions on their weavings. Therefore an overall recognition and understanding of their products -especially salt bags- may be built up and the originality of patterns and other properties may be determined. In this connection, the aesthetic and physical aspects of salt bags were studied and analyzed, and the acquired information was compared with weaves of other tribes as well. 

It can be said that a part of our cultural-artistic identity and even national identity is interwoven with carpet. Persian carpet history has been glorious and brilliant,and the artisans of the field, relying on rich and prolific past and the road which has been taken, can inspire innovation to keep it alive. Thus, one of the tasks of the researchers in this context is introducing the rich past of Persian carpet and its historical identity. This paper is based on desk and fieldstudyand aimed to study historical-artisticproperties and semiotics of one of the most famous motifs in carpets,i.e. Harati motif within the geography of Iranian carpets. The questions which are to be answered include: What is Harati motif? What is the origin that motif? And what are the types of Harati motif?

Despite the fact that many branches of art and craft were affected by the ideas of Western modernity in the Qajar era including painting, architecture, poetry, literature and handicrafts, carpet-weaving art preserved its cultural traditions and mainly represented its traditional motifs and designs. The present paper aims to study the economics and the situation of carpet-weaving in the Qajar era, to understand how production relationships and the presence of foreign companies affected the development of the traditional carpet weaving of Qajar era, and also to know what the role of consumer markets of the West was in the preservation of traditional design and motifs of carpets in this epoch. This research is a historical-descriptive- analytical research in terms of nature and method, where desk study method has been used for data collection. The research reveals some results which show that an increase in the exports of Qajari carpets as well as the presence of foreign investments in the carpet-weaving areas of Iran, resulted from the impact of the Western consumers markets, were decisive factors in maintaining and the preservation of traditional designs and motifs of Qajari carpets.