A Project which was conducted

Revival of History of Fars Handmade Carpet by Oral History

Maryam Asadi Jafari
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2018-10-16

Aiming at preventing oblivion of this Iranian art, Shiraz University of Arts implemented the research project of "Oral History of Fars's Rural and Nomadic Handmade Carpet" ordered by Iran National Carpet Center. According to Seyedeh Akram Oliaei, executor of this project, many of untold and historical ambiguities and narrated about Fars' handmade carpet were taken into account and cleared during gathering oral history of practitioners of the field.

According to Iranian Oral History Website, Fars province and city of Shiraz have a long history in field of knitting carpet; from Qashqai carpet to Khamseh rugs and the handmade of villages of Fars. Nomadic women wearing local colorful clothes are engaging Kilim weaving and knitting warp and weft of history and art which remains for future generations.

All stages of producing a handmade carpet, which begins with shearing sheep, washing and spinning of it, and continues with dyeing, Chelle Keshi (Wrapping the looms) and texture, involves process of producing a carpet in order to eventually decorate houses of domestic and foreign buyers. Written sources on handmade carpets in different regions of Iran, especially Fars, are scarce, and what has been recorded does not include full range of required concepts and information. Also, except for a specific group of producers and researchers, there has not been any discussion of the strata related to hand-made carpet.

In 2017, Iran National Carpet Center, proposed by Hamid Kargar, the previous head of the center, planned in its research plans for project of "Oral History of Carpet of Different Regions of Iran" in order to prevent forgetting and then trying to preserve it in history. Seyedeh Akram Oliaei Tabaie, a faculty member and director of department of carpet art of Shiraz University of Arts, became executer of the project in Fars after giving proposal to Iran National Carpet Center and evaluating and approving it.

He commented on progress of conducting of "Research Project of Oral History of Fars's Rural and Nomadic Handmade Carpet", "The project was contracted on April 3, 2017 between Shiraz University of Art and Iran National Carpet Center, and lasted until March 2017. Finally, it was defended on May 6, 2018 and all documents were delivered to Iran National Carpet Center."

Director of Cultural Affairs in Shiraz University of Arts added, "About Fars handmade carpet, Dr. Sirous Parham has compiled two books titled "Fars Masterpieces of Carpet Weaving" and "Fars Nomadic and Rural Handcrafts". Other authors also have some research, but oral history has considered untold of Fars carpet."

Oliaei emphasized importance of oral history in preserving art of carpet weaving and stated, "Information which is not recorded or not in books are recorded through oral history and preventing them from oblivion. In fact, oral history deals with recording of the untold and marginal notes of production of handmade carpet and complements available resources including books and films. The oral history of Fars's rural and nomadic handmade carpet will be used for academic researchers, especially Shiraz University of Arts."

Head of carpet department in Shiraz University of Arts explained process of conducting interviews, "domain of Fars handmade carpet was so vast that we worked more on nomadic part. We first categorized people based on their jobs. Weavers, dyers, darners, repairers, manufacturers and exporters were our statistical population. But, given that weavers in Fars worked more mentally and from memory, we interviewed fewer designers."

The organizer of the oral history project of Fars's rural and nomadic handmade carpet said, "The study was conducted on the basis of an interview with 43 people. After classifying people, some general questions were asked such as: biography, how to enter carpet profession, family background and questions related to impact of political and social issues of the province on field of carpet. Then a specialist question package for each job was also asked."

Seyedeh Akram Oliaei further noted impact of oral history on clarification of some historical aspects and misconceptions about Fars carpet weaving and stated, "Fars is one of provinces that accepted chemical dyes later than other provinces, and often used natural dyes. But the same natural dyes were also different in different regions of Fars. For example, eastern carpet weavers like Qashqaees tended to be more dark colors. At first we thought that the different taste in color has been perhaps depended on type of available dye in the region, or taste of weaver and producer. During the interviews, it became clear that Kashkooli tribe believed that high financial status of this clan compared to other Qashqai tribes was reason of using happier colors by them; while the same question was answered in a different way by dyers. They believed that dyeing plants that were on their migration path to was cause of tendency of Kashkooli tribe to happier colors. The same subject of dark color textiles in eastern part of Fars which include Arabs in comparison with western part of the province that have bright and brilliant colors, rise questions and problems."

Head of Carpet Department of Shiraz University of Arts added, "Before conducting the project, it was supposed that there hasn't been any concentrated carpet production workshop in the province. But after some queries, we realized that in the past, about 90 years ago, Ardubadi factory in Shiraz with a number of about 150 to 140 machine produced large textile carpets. Some also thought that silk was not used in Fars carpets and they worked only with wool. But we found that in Qashqai carpet of old Kashkooli people, silver silk was used in carpet weft. All these untold were extracted and restored through oral history."

Addressing protagonists of field of Fars carpet weaving, Seyedeh Akram Oliaei emphasized, "Two or three months before dying the late Abbas Sayahi, one of the famous Fars dyers, we met him. Although he was ill, we were able to record memories of his relatives. Mrs. "Iran Gharbi" was also one of the oldest weavers in Shiraz. She, who was 97 years old, provided us with information about Arduhbadi workshops. If this information were not recorded, it would definitely be forgotten."

"Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Mirza Amini", "Mozhdeh Gholamzadeh Fard" and "Fatemeh Rajabi" are from colleagues of Seyedeh Akram Oliaei in "Research Project of Oral History of Fars's Rural and Nomadic Handmade Carpets". This project will be published in form of a book by Iran National Carpet Center.