74 
House Garden 
ALL SORTS anr/ CONDITIONS of BOKHARAS 
Because of their Rich, Dark Beauty Bokharas Have Been 
Aptly Described as the Rembrandts of the Eastern Looms 
A. T. WOLFE 
N ot all the rugs that are sold as “ Bokha¬ 
ras” have been made in that city; 
far from it. The term has come to be loosely 
applied to a large proportion of all rugs and 
carpets made in Western Turkestan. 
Strictly, this is incorrect; still, the designa¬ 
tion has been so long accepted and so widely 
used that it cannot easily be set aside with¬ 
out risk of pedantry and misunderstanding. 
All Eastern rug nomenclature is confus¬ 
ing, and few there be who can differentiate 
accurately between the production of the 
various nomad weavers of the Middle Asia. 
They do differ, but through all there runs a 
strong family likeness, and 
though each is recognized 
and distinguished apart, still 
the generic term is “Bo¬ 
khara” when any doubt 
or difficulty arises. 
It is easy to see how this 
came about. The old Tur¬ 
kestan capital has always 
been one of the largest rug 
markets in the East. Here, 
before the Trans-Caspian 
railway was built, the tribes¬ 
men gathered from the wild 
mountain regions, plains 
and wastes, with the prod¬ 
ucts of their year’s weaving, 
for sale or distribution. 
These were made up into 
huge bales, and when they 
reached Constantinople or 
Tiflis they bore the name of Bokhara—the 
city whence they were dispatched, rather 
than that of Tekke, Yomud, Ersari, etc., 
from the Turkoman tribe that made them. 
The old city, famous for Mohammedan cul¬ 
ture and knowledge since remotest times, 
is still the greatest trading city of Middle 
Asia; piled up, stored with gorgeous silks, 
and overflowing with rugs and carpets, the 
bazaars of Bokhara surpass in scale and 
splendor anything Western capitals have 
to show from the looms. 
The following divisions are the best 
known and most distinguished: Tekke, 
Yomud, Ersari, Beluchistan, Afghan. All 
these have in common red as the dominant 
color, and for design octagons, diamonds 
and some form of the tree of life, geometric 
and rectilinear in arrangement. This pat¬ 
tern falls into two types; in one the octagons, 
slightly flattened, cover the field, set closely 
in rows; in the other, two bands cross the 
field, dividing it sharply into panels, oblong 
and square. The prevailing red color is deep 
and dark, lurid, sombre, almost savage in 
tone; it turns to purples, browns, and blood 
red shades rather than to the rose colors of 
the Persian carpet. Bloodshed and savagery 
have always been part of 
the fierce life led by these 
primitive tribesmen, and 
something of this wild and 
fierce spirit would seem to 
be woven into their rugs. 
The weaving is excellent, 
often marvelously fine and 
close; the sehna knot is 
used and the geometric pat¬ 
tern is accurate in every de¬ 
tail. This means that the 
knots have to be industri¬ 
ously counted, since a mis¬ 
take in these close repeating 
patterns would put the 
whole design out of gear. 
A web at each end, some 
lo" or 12" long, is a char¬ 
acteristic though not an 
invariable feature. No rug 
{Below) The Khiva prayer 
rug is divided into four 
spaces for the hands and 
knees of the faithful. Geo¬ 
metrical forms are less 
rigid in this specimen 
{Above) This Khiva saddle 
bag—sagged in the middle 
because much used—is pe¬ 
culiarly forceful in its 
clear-cut design and vivid 
in its bright red coloring 
On this and the opposite 
page are shown some of the 
decorative designs used by 
weavers of Bokharas. Dia¬ 
monds aiui octagons were 
the most favorite devices 
{Below) Latitude has been 
employed by the weaver of 
this prayer rug of purple- 
red. The niche above the 
center always points 
at prayer towards Mecca 
