Moud

Moud and neighbouring Birjand are two small adjacent towns south of Mashad, in the province of Khorrassan. They have no buildings of interest and their chief product, apart from carpets, is barberry, which is used when dying with cochineal. Several villages in the surrounding area, the Rud-e-Shahrud valley, also produce carpets.

The hand knotted carpets of the area are characterized by consistency of design and quality. They always have a ground of the Mahi or Herati design (the town of Herat lies some 300 km north-east in Afghanistan) on a cream background and sometimes there will be a circular medallion. The predominant colors are ivory, blue, red and brown. The warps and wefts are cotton, the pile wool. The borders are a version of the traditional Persian turtle border. All sizes are produced. The area is exceptional for regularly weaving square carpets of 2 m x 2 m—only Moud, Kerman and Abadeh make this size frequently. Because of their extreme regularity, Moud carpets are frequently copied in India. Other weaving centers which come within the general category of Birjand are Khorasan, Kashmar, Sazevar and Semnan.

Iranian Fast Food Restaurants

In this video (Click Here For Video) from Iran Program PressTV he goes to 4 different fast food restaurants in Iran. M&M Fast Food, Restaurant Culinarian, Burger Land, and a little Iranian restaurant the size of a food truck. (name isn’t said in the video)

By watching this video I noticed that in Iran most fast food restaurants use fresh beef and vegetables. In Iran they also provide other parts of the cow that western fast food places don’t such as brain, heart and liver just to name a few.

If I ever get the chance to go down to Iran I plan on eating at every single place they listed.

Thanks for reading.

Kerman

Kerman carpets (sometimes “Kirman”) are one of the traditional classifications of Persian carpets. They are named after the city of Kerman, which is both a city and a province located in south central Iran, though as with other such designations the term describes a type which may have been manufactured somewhere else. Kerman has been a major center for the production of high quality carpets since at least the 15th century. In the 18th century, some authors considered the carpets from the province of Kerman, especially at Siftan, to be the finest Persian carpets,  partly because of the high quality of the wool from the region  known as Carmania wool.

Kerman carpets are often constructed using the “Vase technique” characterised by three shoots of weft between rows of knots. The first and third are typically woolen and at high tension, while the second one, at low tension, is normally made of silk or cotton. Warps are markedly displaced and the Persian knot is open to the left. This technique distinguishes Kerman carpets from both the Safavid (1501-1722) and subsequent (1722-1834) periods.” Most Persian carpets, in contrast, used the “Turkish knot”. Kerman carpets of the 18th century and later very often use “lattice” patterns, with the central field divided by a lattice design giving many small compartments. The dye process for Kerman carpets occurred while the wool was still in flock and before spinning, allowing for uniform color. The palette for Kerman carpets is as brilliant as it is varied. Tones can range from ivory, blue and magenta to a more golden and saffron cast.

The design pattern of Kerman carpets are also a distinct feature. Vase carpets, a type of Kerman rug distinctive of the 16th and 17th centuries, are characterized by an allover pattern of stylized flowers and oversized palmettes with vases placed throughout the field.

Another rare and distinct variation of Kerman carpets is the Lavar or Ravar Kerman. Although Lavar is the improper name, some are still labeled as such. These carpets were produced in Ravar village next to Kerman city in the northern region, and are known particularly for their fine weave and elegant, classically derived design of allover and central medallion formats.

Kerman rugs and carpets were woven in all sizes, some extending out to 10 feet. Typical manufacturing used an asymmetrical knot on cotton foundation, but rare examples include silk or part silk piles, or silk foundations with wool pile.

Kerman carpets include a signature, either that of the weaver or to whom the carpet was woven for.

Gabbeh

Woven for centuries Gabbeh are tribal rugs woven in the south central Zagros mountain range and their plains.

In Farsi (the language of Persia), the word Gabbeh means something raw or natural, uncut or “in the rough”. Gabbeh are the world’s best-known coarsely woven Iranian tribal rugs. Traditionally, the knotting and weaving of nomadic carpets are a woman’s domain and area of expertise. True nomadic rugs such as the Gabbeh are almost exclusively knotted for personal use, and often the woman’s spirit and natural artisanship are quite apparent in these personal interpretations of their life in art.

Gabbeh rugs are very thick pile, woven in a relatively low knot density. Designs are typically geometric and symbolic in shape and style. Gabbeh weavers may be telling a story, depicting a landscape or scene, or even conveying an emotion. Most commonly Gabbeh will be asymmetric and woven to tell a story, with figures and symbols depicting parts of the weaver’s “tale”. It is this subjective and random process that renders a genuine Gabbeh a completely unique work of art, distinct from other Persian rugs and from many other types of weaving or knotting in general.

Beware “knock-offs” from Turkey, India, China and Egypt, to name a few… these cheap imitations are not always handmade, and usually contain inferior wool and chemical dyes on a cotton foundation. You can usually tell by the white fringe that the rug’s a cotton-foundation knock-off.

Bidjar

Bidjars are hand knotted on a vertical loom using a cotton warp or, more rarely, wool.  Thin wool threads and thick cotton ones form the weft; usually as many as five threads, four loose wool ones and a taunt cotton on in the center.  This is the chief characteristic of Bidjars.  The warp threads are beaten in with two kinds of tools – the usual comb beater, and a special one, which resembles an enormous iron claw.  The craftsmen insert the claw between the warp threads and beat in the weft threads many times over.  This special technique makes Bidjars the most compact and heavy of the Persian carpets, giving it the title of ‘iron rugs of Persia. The close-cut pile is of high quality, lustrous wool knotted together using a Turkish knot with densities of between 100 to 210 knots per square inch.

Bidjars, like Saroughs, are often decorated with floral motifs in a formal interpretation, which betrays their primitive and semi-nomadic style.  The result is a less sophisticated version of the classic Persian specimens such as Kashans, but decidedly more restrained and attractive.  There is often a medallion in the center, while the rest of the field is decorated either with floral designs or with the herati motif reproduced in a small size and repeated to cover the whole background.  Other examples have only a central medallion standing out against a self-coloured field.  In these Bidjars the four quarters have a floral ornamentation.  Bidjar borders are often composed of five bands, four narrow and one central wide one.  The main band is often decorated with border boteh, while the guards contain a succession of rosettes alternating with stylized floral motifs.  Another common border is made up of two very narrow guards and a central one, which, although wider than the guards, is small in relation to the carpet.  In this type of border, a rich floral decoration is often added to the border herati.

Bidjars are identifiable not only by their unusual technique but also by their very beautiful colours.  The ground shades are dark: dark blue, cherry red, and bottle green are common, while the colours used for the designs are very vivid and often include a delightful turquoise.

Balutch

These carpets, contrary to the name, do not come from Baluchistan, which is on the border between southwest Persian, and Pakistan.  They are hand knotted, in fact, in the eastern part of Khorassan and in a large area of western Afghanistan, along the Iranian border.  Balutchis are almost exclusively nomad work and are woven, for the most part, by Balutch tribe.  As with all nomadic carpets, Balutchis are made on ground looms.  The warp is mainly wool though recently cotton has cone into use as well.  With a few exceptions, the weft is a single thread.  The pile is of good quality wool but is lacking in luster and is not very deep.  Natural camel wool has also been used.  The Persian knot has a density of between 60 to 100 knots per square inch.  Balutchis are typically small, like prayer rugs.

The most common type of Balutchis is prayer rugs.  Often the only common feature is the oriented form of the design.  The differences lie in the multiplicity of motifs used, which differ greatly from carpet to carpet.  The most frequently found design has a cupola on either side of the niche.  In other Balutchis, the field of the niche contains a tree of life.  Yet other examples have a more formal decoration, which is frequently reduced to a simple division of the ground into diamonds of different colours.  Even Balutchis with a normal decoration use quite varied motifs – the typical ones used for carpets from this region as well as ones borrowed from elsewhere, such as the Bokhara gul or the floral mina khani.  Balutch borders are usually composed of a succession of narrow bands, almost all of the same size.  The border decoration is very simple and inspired by geometric designs, particularly the Greek key and diagonal wedges in alternating colours.  Different colours are often used for each of the narrow bands but the wide one is always the same colour as the ground.

Balutchis can usually be recognized by a tendency to enclose motifs within a lattice, and by the use of strong white or yellow ochre outlines, particularly in the border.  However different in design, Balutchis have one point in common – the colours.  Red and dark blue predominate, both of them used for field, motifs and borders. Some Balutchis have a beige background – this is nearly always the result of the use of natural camel.  Yellow and orange are also quite common in the border and motifs.

Shirvan

Shirvan is one of the principal weaving areas of the Caucasus stretching from the central east coast some 400 km inland and encompassing towns which produce particular design variations common to the Shirvan group. These include Bidjov, Marasali, Khila, Surahani, Baku and Saliani. The Shirvan rugs are noted as being some of the finest rugs from Caucasian. They are usually thin and densely knotted. The warp threads are usually light and undyed brown sheep’s wool spun together. The wefts are light and thin, and selvages are usually white over double or triple threads. Cotton wefts are also seen, as are silk wefts.

Kuba rugs and carpets are named for a town that is located within the Daghestan region of Caucasus not far from the Caspian Sea; therefore, making Kubas a sub-division of Caucasian carpets.

Shirvan rugs are attractive from their quiet, agreeable tints, and fine, even texture. They are made in large quantities, and readily sold. The best are of white wool, but the inferior ones may hold cotton or goat’s hair. Often blues and whites are the colors employed, with markings of red or yellow. Sometimes there are stripes in the border, one wide stripe followed by a series of narrow ones. The hook is a frequent design, and may be found in the field, incasing some geometrical figure. Sometimes a conventionalized floral design is observed in the border.

 

Prior to the coming of the Russians Daghestan was only the Mountainous area of what is now Daghestan and the flat area near the sea was Derbent. When the Russians set up their administrative districts they combined the two and called it Daghestan. The key to identification is that the Daghestan rugs have a deeply ribbed back. On a Kuba rug look for warp depression of about 45 to 70 degrees and Daghestan trugs to be over 70 degrees.

 

Chobi Ziegler

The word “Chobi” means something that has color like “wood” (in Farsi (the language in IRAN and Afghanistan) “Chob” means “Wood”). The majority of the Chobi rugs and carpets have light brownish color. You can find different designs in Chobi rugs, however the majority of them have light brownish color. These rugs have a high demand due to their beautiful coloration.

In 1883, ZIEGLER and Co. of Manchester, England, established Persian carpet manufacture in ARAK (SULTANABAD), IRAN, employing designers from major Western department stores, like B. Altman & Co. and Liberty of London, to modify fanciful 16th- and 17th-century Eastern designs for the more restrained Western taste. Using highly developed dying techniques (which ZIEGLER futilely attempted to copyright) and the best artisans from the region, ZIEGLER created rugs with bold, all-over patterns and with softer palettes than the more vibrant Persian counterparts. ZIEGLER rugs developed an almost immediate following, especially among newly Western industrialists; early collectors included the Guinness family, the owners of the stout-beer brewery, who laid them in Elveden Hall, their Suffolk, England, estate.

 

Lori

The Lori are one of the most important nomadic tribes of Iran and inhabit the western and southern parts of the country. In much of their territory they live in areas adjacent to the Ghashgai. Unlike the Ghashgai who speak Turkish, the Lori are of Iranian origin and their language is similar to Persian. Various pressures in the 20-century have forced many Lori to abandon the nomadic life and settle down in villages.

There are two main types of Lori rugs on the market. The first are the nomadic carpets produced in the south; these we generally call Lori Behbehan. They are similar to Ghashgai rugs and made entirely of wool, but they use a different range of motifs and are fond of bright contrasting colours. A strong red is particularly prominent. The other type of Lori rug is marketed in the town of Khorramabad and is called Dozars. These are squarer and more restrained in appearance; a reddish-brown is the main color. The Designs are varied; all-over patterning predominates. The fringes are often beautifully braided.

Nain

Nains are hand knotted on a vertical loom with a warp and weft of very fine cotton. The weft is often passed twice between the rows of knots thus giving this carpet durability. The pile is normally of wool and is always very closely cropped. Silk is often used in the pile, serving to heighten the effect of some parts of the decorations thus giving it a certain gleam. Some rare examples exist which are made entirely of silk. Nains incorporate a Persian knot with very high densities ranging from 300 to 600 knots per square inch. There are varying sizes but the medium and large-size carpets are most common.

The central Persian town of Nain was renowned as a weaving centre of high quality and costly woolen cloth. When this craft fell into decline around the turn of the century, rug-weavers were imported from Isfahan, and by mid-century the town had established itself as one of the foremost carpet-weaving centres in the world.

In appearance, quality and structure, Nains are very similar to Isfahans, but they tend to contain more bird and animal motifs in their infill decorations and the majority of their designs are outlined in silk. The field is decorated with an interlaced pattern of flowering branches or what is often referred to as Shah Abbas designs. The border is traditional, one of a wider central band flanked by two guards, which are sometimes framed by two narrow bands. All the bands are decorated with a floral motif, often enclosed in cartouches along the main one. The colour scheme is very light with a lot of blue, beige, azure, ivory, red and white.

Master workshop items are often made in much larger sizes than standard workshop items, but they usually employ a similar range of designs and, although wool or wool and silk carpets are most common, some items are made entirely of silk. A large proportion of Nains are for the home market where they are much prized by the Arab states. As such they are often hard to find outside of the Middle East.