About Gelims:
The word gelim means a flat woven rug, or rug without a knotted pile. There are many variations used in different languages: gelim in Iran, kelim in Afghanistan, kylym in the Ukraine, palas in the Caucasus, bsath in Syria and Lebanon, chilim in Rumania and kilim in Turkey, Poland, Hungary and Serbia. Flat weaving is found in some form all over the world, from the Great Plains of North America to Scandinavia and Indonesia. Often there is only a structural similarity in what is produced, but the disciplines imposed by the materials and techniques often result in strikingly similar designs and compositions.
Historically, gelims, together with jewellery, clothing, tent furnishings and animal trappings, helped to form the identity of the village or nomadic tribal group. Gelims were made for use on the floors and walls of tents, houses and mosques and as animal covers and bags; most were made for family and personal use, although some villages and towns of Persia and Anatolia became famous for their fine commercial production in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Family wealth was stored up in gelims, knotted rugs, precious metals and animals and during times of famine or crisis any of these possessions could be bartered for grain, or exchanged into local currency for use in the nearest market town.
Gelims were used in the traditional manner in the home, as floor coverings, cushions, storage bags, bedding covers and for ceremonial and welcoming purposes; the display of wealth was ostentatious, with valuable dowry gelims and textiles piled about the room. This simple, pre-industrial, nomadic and village lifestyle has ensured an abundant supply of traditional gelims, with different tribes weaving their own distinctive designs that have evolved over many generations.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tribal groups began to lose their cohesion in the face of commercial and government pressures. Once tribes became sedentary and had to survive by trade and barter, they copied whichever designs were fashionable and saleable, and certain nomadic articles, such as storage bags, were no longer made. Marriages between tribes became more common, increasing the intermingling of often totally different cultures, and confusing the heritage of traditional arts but also resulted in exquisite and unusual gelims which have appeared on the market during the last thirty years.
Text and photo credit: Kilim; The Complete Guide by Alastair Hull and Jose Luczyc-Wynhowska, Chronical Books,U.S.,1993.