A DIFFERENT USE OF THE TURKISH KNOT IN SİVAS ŞARKIŞLA CARPET

Abstract

Carpets, one of our traditional arts, are woven with a double knot system called Turkish knot. In this system, weaving is performed by connecting two warps side by side with a knot rope. However, in the researches, it has been seen that the Turkish knot is always applied on alternative warps instead of the same two warps in some carpets.

On a lozenge-patterned piece between the carpet fragments from the 3rd and 4th centuries which was found by Russian archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein in East Turkestan between 1906 and
1908, it is understood that a different technique is applied with the Turkish knot knotted on alternative warps.

This technique, which is also used in Central Asian Turkmen carpets, is kept alive in Anatolia as an old tradition.

In Istanbul Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, Istanbul Foundations Carpet Museum, Ankara Foundation Works Museum and Sivas Gök Madrasa Foundation Museum and in the Stockholm National Museum, the Berlin Dahlem Museum, the Rijks Museum and the Washington Textile Museum there are carpets in which the slipped Turkish knot is applied.

Alternative knot is a technique that is more suitable for weaving diagonal lines, shapes such as triangles, rhombuses and filling the areas within them. It provides the formation of smoother lines and a stronger carpet, away from the gradual effect of the Turkish knot in normal practice.

This technique, which is applied in carpets woven by the Salur tribe in Turkmenistan, is also seen in the regions such as Manisa, Konya, Sivas, Malatya and Erzurum where the Salur tribe settled in Anatolia. The hexagonal medallions on the carpets are similar to the lake motif of the Salur Turkmen, and the unity of technique and pattern is kept alive by the carpets woven in Anatolia.