Identifier: orientalrugsanti1922hawl ()
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waves of conquestand the minor struggles with Persians, Greeks, and Romans, thatleft their impress on the country, each of the several classes ofTurkoman rugs, including even those made two centuries ago, showa remarkable conformity to definite types, however much may betheir modification in small detail. Their nap is invariably short; inall of them some shade of dark red is the predominating colour; and inmost of them some form of an octagon appears. They are, moreover,the best woven and the most beautiful of the Central Asiatic rugs. Though the Turko-Chinese rugs are made in places subject tothe influence of Turkomans and far removed from the culture ofChinese, they are unlike the rugs of the former and resemble those ofthe latter. Not improbably this is because Tamerlane had gatheredat Samarkand noted artists and artisans from China, whose influencecontinued long after his death. And as traditional patterns havebeen transmitted for centuries, there is little doubt that some of the
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CENTRAL ASIATIC RUGS 235 modern rugs, even though falling far short of the standard of theirearly prototypes, more closely resemble them than they do any otherrugs of Asia. In these pieces Turkoman simplicity of geometricfigures is replaced by an elaboration of conventional floral forms andby designs associated with early philosophies; sobriety of colouryields to the bright and even gaudy tones not infrequent in moderntextile fabrics. The Beluchistans, which are regarded as a subgroup of the Cen-tral Asiatic rugs, show a closer relationship to the Turkoman rugs thanto any others. A few of them have octagonal patterns suggestive ofBokharas, and all have the long webs at the ends and the heavygoats hair selvage at the sides peculiar to Afghans and Tekkes.On the other hand, many of the patterns both of field and borderresemble Persian workmanship; so that placing these rugs in thesame group with the Turkoman and Turko-Chinese rugs, which arenot made in an adjoining territory, is slightly

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