Nakchivan Carpets
Carpet weaving in Azerbaijan dates back to antiquity. Family tradition and techniques pass from one generation to the next by word of mouth. Men sheared the sheep and women dyed and weaved the carpets.
Most use wool, a combination of green, red, yellow, cream and blue form complex motifs and patterns, each unique and with its own story. Pile-weave and flat-weave carpets and carpet products included in Nakhchivan carpet group were woven using Gordest style in the territories of Babek, Julfa, Kengerli, Ordubad, Sederek, Shahbuz, Sharur districts of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.
For a long time, these carpets had been studied as part of Karabakh and Ganja carpet groups. Nakhchivan carpets and carpet products are different from the examples of these groups by their artistic and stylistic features and they are famous as the art products of Turkic tribes like Kengerli, Kolani, Sedli, Karabakh, Khelej, Beydili, Demirchi, Gazanchi, Yayji, Garkhun, Yurdchu, Muganli, Efshar, Bayat, Gushchu that were settled in this territory. Being geographically close to Southern Azerbaijan, Western Azerbaijan and Eastern Anatolia, Nakhchivan carpet weaving developed through benefiting from centuries old carpet weaving traditions in these districts. Different elements like camel, horse, bird, flower, arrow, star, stepped, rhombic, evil-eye catcher, cherkhi-felek (ups and downs of life) were employed in the design-composition of big-sized, high-pile pile-weave carpets and flat-weave carpets like felt, palaz, jejim, kilim, shedde, zili woven here. National dye techniques were developed in Nakhchivan, and carpet yarns dyed by white, black, red, navy-blue, purple, blue, yellow, and green colors obtained from various plants sustained their colors and brightness for a long time. International experts highly assess the Nakhchivan carpet samples on international categories like pattern, form and size, and material.