My interest started when I was first sent to Egypt, though Egypt is not, in my opinion, really a good oriental carpet market unlike Iran or Arabia Felix and the trade route between Damascus and Mecca via Amman. At first I noticed the carpets in people's homes and how they were treated like heirlooms. Carpets are given as a wedding gift or when a boy becomes a man at age 12, he would receive a prayer rug. Many homes had carpets that were 40 to 60 years of age, various colors and patterns, carpets would be put down in the fall and warm the house in winter and then rolled-up in the spring and put away during the hot season. Beating them regularly and airing them was done every so often. Carpets are not like furniture or drapes, they have an history and who had given them and how they were acquired. They are individuals, like a person or a member of the family, they come from a region, they are hand woven and the dyes are natural made from vegetable extracts, some are tribal carpets, others told stories in their pattern and displayed symbols or forms, some had verses of the Coran, they were hug on a wall. Contrary to popular belief few are made of Silk mostly from wool. Silk carpets are a market,a niche for the wealthy, for display or the foreign tourists. I much prefer hand woven wool carpets and never considered buying a silk carpet.
I also learned to differentiate a hand made carpet from a machine made carpet and I learned that if you go into a store to look at purchasing a carpet take your time, it may in fact take hours, the whole afternoon, several visits. Purchasing a carpet is serious business conducted by men, its men business, women are not involved.
In Egypt the tourists on their way to the Pyramids at Gizah are usually bused to ''my cousin carpet shop, no cost to look'' outlet, mostly machine made carpets or if hand made, of so so quality for outrageous prices. A good carpet does not cost a lot of money, usually anything from $200 to $600 dollars tops depending on size. Many tourists even 25 years ago would pay thousands of dollars for a perfectly ordinary carpet worth no more than $300 dollars, ignorance is bliss!
I never actually bought a carpet in Egypt, never liked what they had on display and the merchants at the Khan Khalili in central old Cairo were con artists, selling carpets by the meter, each meter worth about $300 dollars. I bought all of my carpets in Syria, Turkey or Iran, spending afternoons looking at them and feeling them. I would remove my shoes, which is customary and walk bare foot on them, touch them and examine them closely as you would a painting or a fine object and do not forget to flip them over to see the hand work and the weaving, look at it closely, see how the weaver during the process used unequal amount of effort for every weave giving you the human touch a machine would be unable to give. Look also at the knots and count them, knots do vary depending from where the carpet comes from and do not be put off if a carpet is not perfect, what makes its beauty is the imperfection, though small and almost invisible they are there. Some will tell you that this adds value and interest to a carpet.
Carpets like humans are not perfect, despite their great beauty. An old carpet merchant one day told me while I was in his shop in Damascus that only God makes a perfect carpet and they do not exist in this world.
Oriental carpets are named in the following ways:
The name of the city or town where it was woven.
The name of the area in which the weavers lived where the design was first created, now being woven somewhere else entirely.
The name of the tribal group known for incorporating that particular design into many of their rugs.
Oriental carpets should be only washed in cold water with a stiff brush and let to dry in the bright hot sunshine on the roof of the house. Beat them face down on the clean snow and then let them air out in the sun. Never use chemicals or modern carpet cleaners, never put them in a machine to wash or use a steam cleaning machine or vacuum on them.
Buying carpets led to a lot of interesting adventures, meeting people and the merchants, hearing what they had to say, Often the merchant will offer tea and if you appear serious and ask to see more carpets and expand on what it is you want he will offer to send for food so you can have a little bite to eat while he displays even more carpets to you. In those conversations I learned a lot about the culture of carpets and a lot more than any book could show me on how to buy a carpet or the best carpet. On that subject there is no such thing as the best carpet, the best carpet is the carpet that appeals to you.
Like all things carpets are negotiable, you never pay the price quoted at first nor do you say anything even if the price appears outlandish. The art of negotiation is very important and one has to study the rules and play carefully, a bit like a card game, look at your cards, what is a strong card what do you have in your hand.
Same with carpet purchase, there are steps to follow and protocol to respect, if you are careful and thoughtful you may in fact gain the respect of the merchant and get the price you want for the carpet you chose. I remember once a lady in a shop who was looking to buy a rug for a relative back home. Bossy type, walks in with husband following and announces to the boy who was basically there to help with the display of rugs that she wanted to buy a rug but did not want to pay a lot of money and was looking for a good bargain like her sister got the last time.
Mistake number one, was speaking with the help and ignoring the merchant-owner, mistake number two was announcing she wanted a bargain and mistake number three gave the impression she knew it all when in fact she knew nothing. I was just looking at her thinking she made a big mistake. The owner came up to her and asked her if she had something in mind, what size and color or patterns maybe, hand woven or machine made. Just show me what you got and I will decide she answered, the only problem with that answer was that the store had thousands of rugs of different regions and style. So the merchant asked her what type of rug her sister bought, the lady did not know really, it so big and with all sort of funny designs, looked real different back home, you know. But this time she wanted a rug to match the color of the room and the couch. At that point the merchant started showing her carpets for the tourist trade at $50, camel saddle bags and other cheap rugs used as runners. She did not buy a rug but a couple of cheap looking runners and other items made for the tourist trade.
Tip no.1 never run into a story thinking that you can buy a carpet in 10 minutes flat and get what you want because you have money to blow.
Tip no.2 never go into a store as if you were in a shopping mall looking for stuff to buy at discount. A carpet store especially old family run stores in old markets are like famous expensive jewellery stores, show some sense that you know where you are. The merchant or his sons will watch you and they have a keen eye for body language, they know if you are a serious buyer or are knowledgeable or just the silly tourist ready to be fleeced.
Tip no.3 Ask first about the store and what they have in stock, if you know they have been around for a while or the store was recommended to you by a local friend say so. Do not look like you are in a rush and by all means never start by saying how much is this or that one and I want a good price and give me a discount if I buy more than one carpet. In other words do not try to bargain before you have seen the merchandise and decided on what you want. Look, appreciate, put aside some carpets and then go on eliminating those you don't really want and keeping those you are really interested in. The merchant at this point will probably try to engage you into a conversation to see how serious you are and what appeals most to you. It is the biggest faux pas to talk price first and one too often made by Western tourists.
One trick I use to muddle things a bit is to turn the conversation to another topic, asking more about the shop and where the rugs came from and maybe even asking what the merchant known of the carpet I might, I say might be interested in. Only once I am sure in my head of what I want to buy do I then indicate that my choice is made. But still I will not ask about the price, talk some more and even compliment the merchant on his shop and the quality of what he has, this may pay off in the end.
Tip no.4 once you indicate that you are willing to buy the carpet or carpets, ask the merchant how much he wants or would consider accepting for the carpet. He will name a price and then you have a choice to make, either accept to enter into negotiation or withdraw immediately. The merchant then may then turn to you and ask you how much you want to pay. Name the price 30% below what you want to pay in the end, leaving room for you to go up but not too much. Just wiggle room and this way neither you nor the merchant will loose face. Then it is a matter of politely bringing the price to a mutually agreeable final price. You must never once you have agreed on a final price change your mind and say that you don't want to purchase or pay that price in the hope of forcing the issue to a lower price. Unfortunately women make this mistake, I have seen it too often. It will not work and the merchant may simply throw you out of the shop for causing him to loose face by revealing to you his final price, agreeing on it and now trying to change the deal.
Here are some of the names of Carpets by country of origin, this is not an all inclusive list. I have highlighted the ones I have about 30 in all.
IRAN
Tabriz
Ahar
Mishkin
Heriz
Ardebil
Bijar
Kazvin
Kalar Dashi
Teheran
Varamin
Senneh
Hamadan
Feraghan
Qum
Kermanshah
Malayer
Kashan
Isfahan
Abadeh
Shiraz
Yazd
Kerman
Birjand
Mashhad
Baluchi Region
TURKEY
Hereke
Bergama
Kosak
Ghiordes
Kula
Izmir
Milas
Yalcibedir
Ladik
Kirsehir
Kars
Yuruk Region
TURKESTAN
Khiva
Bukhara
Kerki
Samarkand
Tashkent
AFGHANISTAN
Herat
Maimana
Alubolak
Aksha
Mazar-i-Sharif
Karkin
Kunduz
Kabul
CAUCASUS
Lenkoran
Saliani
Baku
Akstava
Gendje
Fachralo
Borjalu
Soumak
Chichi
Kuba
Derbent
No comments:
Post a Comment