Carpets

Today is a rainy day or another rainy day, we have had quite a few so far this Spring and Summer.
So not being able to go outside given the steady and heavy downpour I decided to look into our storage room and open the 6 large packages containing all my Oriental rugs which I bought many years ago in Damascus and Tehran. They were all packed when we left Rome and not yet opened.

Damascus has always been a good second hand and old carpet market. The best carpet shops are or should I say were, in the old Souk (Market Place) near the Omayyad Mosque and the old ruined Roman temple. I wonder what has happened to this market place and the people I use to know there. The Civil War in Syria has certainly turned everything on its head and we are now looking at a very bleak future for Syrians.

Tehran and Iran also has a rich carpet culture, many designs from various regions and tribal areas, each with its signature style in colours and patterns, beautifully hand woven in wool with natural dyes.

The origin of the carpet market in Damascus goes back to a time many centuries ago when travellers would bring with them carpets to sell so they could finance their trip to Mecca in the Hejaz. Carpets could easily be sold, sometimes for lots of money if the carpet was a rare design or of a particular high quality weave and so it went to this day, prior to the Civil War.

Travellers came from as far away as Central Asia and by way of caravan would go all the way to the Hejaz, covering several thousand kilometers in the process. Today the trip is done by truck, the whole family piles in and travels for weeks. I remember each year when pilgrimage time came for Muslims, you would meet families on the side of the road selling their carpets. Many would stop in Damascus where they would meet the merchants who had a keen eye for the best quality. Carpets would be bought after lenghty bargaining, it is all a bit like poker, who has the best cards. You could be sure that the merchants did not pay a lot of money for the carpets, the trick is to know not to pay too much because you know that in the shop your customers may be just as difficult in what they think is the correct price.

This is where you can tell a Westerner from an Asian, how many times Westerner show their hand too quickly by asking right out, how much is it. Big mistake, you just lost the game and will probably pay far too much. Another rule was that if you asked how much, you were committing yourself to buying the carpet and once that done you could not back out, unless you saw another rug which was, by agreement of all parties present, of better quality.

Another source of amusement was when Western tourists would walk into a store, husband and wife with kids, wife did all the talking and bargaining, husband looks bored and does not participate or worse find an excuse to step out, leaving is wife to be the man in the family. Merchants know how to reel in that sort of tourist. Later you would here the wife explain how she got a real good bargain by only paying thousands of dollars for a rug worth maybe a few hundreds at most.

When in a carpet market observing and respecting cultural differences is very important. Don't play the affirmative action scenario, won't work and you will be the one loosing.

Merchants of course in a place like Damascus which saw a lot of tourist knew all the angles and how to play Western tourists. After all one has to remember it is exactly like a game of cards and the rules are the rules. I quickly learned from my Arab friends what to say and how to play the game.

If the merchant asked me what I would like to see, I would explain that I was looking for something specific without saying what exactly. What dimensions do you want, a big rug, a small prayer rug, maybe a silk rug.  I never bought a silk carpet simply because I do not like them. They are meant to be hung on walls as far as I am concerned.

In a carpet shop there is no need to explain where you are from or what room you will put your carpet in or for that matter that your cousin Betty Sue has one just like that and how cheap it was. Too much information and you are giving away the game.

The merchant would then start showing me some rugs, one, two, three or more, all the time observing my reaction. Silence is best during this period, showing too much interest and you are again giving away your intentions, showing your hand as it were. Always remember that this is going to take time, maybe the whole afternoon, no one cares about time. You will be offered tea with lots of mint and sugar, too hide the fact that it is not of very good quality. Food may also be offered, don't worry no one will ask you to pay for it.

It is also best to sit while the merchant is showing you rugs, he usually has one or two helpers who do all the manual work while he speaks with you. He will off course ask you how much you would like to pay, it is best to say that it all depends on the carpet and then maybe we can agree on a mutually fair price, NEVER give an amount, you will ruin the game.

After looking at 20 or more rugs all piled up on the ground, you may say to the merchant that one rug did catch your eye, Oh! he will say surprised. Where is it, I just saw it, at this point the merchant will have his helpers sort out the carpets quickly.
So that we can find the one you wanted. At this point I would say that in fact I was looking for maybe 2 or 3 carpets not just one. So I raised the stakes, making this game even more interesting. Funny how merchants love for Westerners to play the game with them, it is more interesting for them than the usual Arab customer.

It is also important to be somewhat aloof and formal, always polite and pay compliments on the quality of the carpets being shown, this will score points with the merchant. Being overly friendly and laughing loudly, talking to much, is not going to work, you are there for a negotiation. So many Westerners have absolutely no patience for this and cannot be bothered, preferring to pay too much instead of playing the game. It is also pointless to ask if the carpets are made by child labour and give the usual speech about child labour. You will only get the usual prepared response to Western concerns.

I would then narrow down which carpets I wanted and slowly start talking price, but first I would do what all serious carpet buyer does, take off my shoes and walk barefoot on the carpet, kneel on it to feel the weave and ask that it be turned so I could examine the weave underneath by running my fingers on it and asking about the number of treads. If you do this without being prompted by the merchant, this will show that you are serious. I heard some Westerner say, oh no need to do that, I trust that it is good quality, obviously not understanding that no one buys a carpet on the word of the seller.

Carpets are bought by men in the Middle East, like meat or sea food at the grocery store. It is just one of those traditions, its a man job. Again it flies in the face of what we believe in the West but you are dealing with ancient cultures and norms change slowly and some do not change at all.

When we finally came to talking price, I would not say how much I was willing to pay, instead making a point that I wanted quality but had limited means and beg the merchant to understand my position again complimenting him on the quality of his shop, quickly adding that I would be paying in cash on the spot if we could agree, God Willing!

The merchant would then announce a price, I would of course say I was surprised and protest that I simply could not afford it. After all I wanted to buy maybe 3 carpets and how could I if I gave all my money on one carpet. Please give me a better price. The merchant now clearly has the ball on his side and he has to know what to say to close the deal. He too will protest that he has children to feed etc...
It is all a big game, keep smiling and pile on the compliments while saying at the same time, what should I do and look a little worried.

Ask again for a better price, never give an amount out because this will be the defacto price and the bargaining will be over. Finally, I would simply say that I will buy this and that carpet but we must reach a good price. The merchant sensing that the sale is imminent will state what he will call his last price, but remember this is not the absolute last price, it is just a last price. Finally you can now announce how much you are willing to pay, remember again to give an amount 15% lower than what you are actually willing to pay being careful that the amount you name does not insult the merchant. If he said 100 you can say 75, for sure he will then lower his price to 90 you can raise to 80 making sure that he understand that you have little room left. Take your time at this point, stay very calm and cool.

Finally you will probably agree to 85 as the absolute last price, at that point you cannot back out of the sale, to do so would show you have no honour and the merchant would loose face, something that must not happen ever. It did happen once to me, I accompanied friends to a shop and at the last moment the wife of said friend decided to walk out of the deal, I was mortified, this may work in Canada but does not work at all anywhere else. She simply did not understand how insulting her behaviour was.

You can be sure that if you concluded a sale in one store, you will always be welcome to return and next time probably treated like family, but that does not mean the prices will be much better, just a little better.

I really enjoyed my time buying carpets and have very fond souvenirs of those days. Something you simply cannot replicate here in North America.

I love oriental Carpets

Through my travels in the Near East, I developed a taste for oriental carpets, the other is for my lead soldiers, I posted earlier that I now have about 200 of them in the 54mm size from all countries and regions where I have been.

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