Quarterly Scientific-Research Goljaam

Since 13th century (A.H.), we have been encountering the so-called pictorial rugs in Iran. These rugs have their own styles and sizes and reflect two major points: first, a kind of change in fabrication and consumption taste and second, the influence of other types of art and social reformations. Iranian pictorial rugs artists have designed and woven these rugs using themes such as ancient or contemporary Iranian kings’ portraits. Among which, King Hooshang (Hooshang Shah) is one of the figures who can be seen in these fabrics and weavings very often. Studies show that King Hooshang stands on a peculiar position among Iranian mythical kings. He is supposed to be the discoverer of many of the instrumental and influential elements of the human life and civilization in Iranian mythology. On the other hand, he is believed to have so many praiseworthy and humane traits. These traits and features can justify the presence of this mythical king’s portrait in art works and particularly rug weavings.

Globalization as a part of modern economy has been of huge controversies in different countries including Iran. Since Iran is attempting to increase its non-oil exports and its presence in global markets. Enduring in this competitive worldly market necessitates evaluation of tastes and creation of new markets for the products. Accordingly Iranian hand-woven carpets are among the top exports of the country is looking for a proper position in global trade. Traditional production and concentration on out-dated designs beside blind-weaving and neglecting the customers taste in target markets are the main reasons of the recession in its trade that are in an urgent need of reconsideration. Although carpet is of a great artistic value, its commercial value ought to be kept in mind as well. Studies show that there is a huge gap between carpet production in Iran and its marketing and evaluation of potential customers' taste around the world. It seems as if lack of interest in utilizing modern information technology tools among Iranian carpet traders abroad has caused them not receive enough information about customers' taste and as a result fail in relating the tastes and domestic production. This survey type descriptive study attempts to collect data through field, libraries and internet.

East Azerbaijan is one of the most important centers of production and trade of hand-woven carpets in Iran. Several cities in this province participate in the production of this artic-industrial commodity. Heriz is one of these cities that has been well-known for weaving precious and beautiful rugs. Considering the unique characteristics of design, motif, color and texture, Heriz rugs are of great fame worldwide. The main purpose of the present study is to thoroughly examine samples of contemporary rug designs of the region and to identify their design structure. It also attempts to find answers to the questions of how these rugs are designed and what their patterns are. Subsequently, it scrutinizes the main features of rugs in this region and introduces and explores their design structure. Finally, particular styles dominating the design of Heriz rugs are discussed. The study is a self-explanatory one and the collected data was analyzed qualitatively. The data for the study was mainly collected through field studies and in some few cases library references have also been used. The study revealed that there has been and are fixed principles and structures in the design, color and texture of contemporary Heriz rugs and currently rugs in Heriz region are woven according to them.

Kurds of Khorasan regions live in its northern regions and are called kurmanj. During the rule of the Safavid dynasty, Kurds of Turkey, Syria and Caucasus in west Azerbaijan were moved to Khorasan to evade invasions of the Ottomans and were settled there. This movement of Kurds from Western Iran to northern Khorasan and their adjacency with Balooch and Turkmen people influenced their carpet weaving traditions. The present paper attempts to investigate the structure of designs and motifs and diversity of genuine Kurdish rugs in Khorasan region. This descriptive analytical study takes a qualitative approach to study the elements like Medalion, corners, field and border motifs in designs and motifs of Kurdish rugs of both Northern and Razavi Khorasan provinces. The statistical population of the study was both Northern and Razavi Khorasan provinces and its main concentration is on Kurdish provinces. As a result, our towns and 13 villages in Razavi Khorasan province were investigated along with 6 towns and 21 villages in northern Khorasan. The data for the study were collected through library studies on the history of this ethnic group and rug samples were collected via field studies conducted by the authors. it was concluded that designs and motifs in Kurdish rugs of Khorasan are highly varied; yet, the structure of designs and motifs are similar. Motifs used in these rugs are taken from everyday objects, plants, flowers and, in some cases, even abstract concepts of human nature. The study also revealed that some of the designs and motifs in Kurdish rugs of Khorasan region are genuinely unique products attributed to specific individuals and their motifs are geometrical and mental shapes modeled after nature and beliefs. However, these motifs have changed compared to Kurdish rugs from northwestern regions of Iran.

In the domain of rural and nomadic carpet weaving of Fars Province, there are various common patterns and designs. One of these famous patterns is called Yeksar Nazem which, in the past, solely belonged to Qashqai and Kashkouli tribes but, at present, is popular in other areas of Fars Province as well. The main feature of this pattern is its general structure and elements which have been skeptically categorized by researchers in different contextual forms. This pattern has been studied by some researchers among Mehrabi carpets and Darghahi pattern which opens to a garden. The aim of this research is to study the main features of Yeksar Nazem pattern and to identify its main elements in Fars Province carpets so that its pattern of change from Qajar to the present period can be obtained. This study is descriptive-analytic which qualitatively analyzes the main elements of Yeksar Nazem carpets of Fars Province in two groups of old and new carpets.  The method of data collection is field and library study. 50 samples of Yeksar Nazem carpets were considered as the main data pool, out of which, and based on the available frequencies, 10 carpets were purposefully (non-randomly) selected as old carper samples and 10 carpets as new ones. The results indicate that the structural form of the pattern and the main features of Yeksar Nazem carpets have observed changes in the structure and the attitude towards the content of this pattern from Qajar era to the contemporary period. This pattern has recently appeared among new carpets with diversity in overall composition and simplicity in the form of elements. Its weaving place has also been extended from a particular geographical area to wider areas in Fars Province.