Guide to Ersari Rugs & Carpets
First time published in Oriental
Rug Notes. This short extract of the original
article is republished by courtesy of the author J. Barry
O'Connell.
What
is an Ersari?
Since tribal confederations are pretty well extinct the only practical way
I can find to define Ersari is on a linguistic basis. I propose that
anyone who speaks Ersari or an Ersari dialect as his native language is
Ersari. How those Ersari think of themselves is not particularly germane
to the discussion of how they are Ethno-linguisticly grouped.
Who are the Ersari?
I suggest that the Ersari are in fact the direct
descendents of the Oghuz Turks. That the Seljuk Turks Turks that conquered
Iran and Turkey were an offshoot of the Ersari. The reason why there is
such diversity in Ersari weaving is that they are not a tribe such as the
Salor or Tekke are they are the remnants of the Seljuk/Oghuz
confederation.
The Ersari Question (or Ersari I asked)
One of the great rug scholars. Murray Eiland Jr., has been
known to make the point that he could not find anyone in Northern
Afghanistan who identifies themselves as an Ersari. See Oriental Rugs A
Complete Guide page 210.
I had a chance to discuss this with Murray Eiland Jr.
years ago. Murray was looking for Turkmen who considered themselves
Ersari. It is an interesting approach. Still I suggest that if Murray
asked what language they spoke he would have found at that time hundreds
of thousands of Turkmen who speak an Ersari dialect.
I suggest that Ersari is Azeri and that it is Turkmen. I
propose that all the other Turkmen dialects are actually dialects of
Azeri/Ersari. As long as we are at it I suggest that Northern Azeri spoken
in the Caucasus and Southern Azeri spoken in Iran are dialects of Ersari.
The Beshir Rug Question
Over the years there is a dichotomy in Beshir weaving that has bothered
me. There are Turkmen looking Beshir and then there are large city Beshir
rugs that I suspect are Uzbek. For now, I am going to sort them into
Ersari Beshir and City Beshir.
I am not sure if this sorting will hold I
suspect it may be Turkmen Beshir and Uzbek Beshir with the Uzbek divided
into city and village. I welcome any ideas on if this group or how this
group may be subdivided.
Read more
at Oriental Rug Notes.
Ersari rugs at Jozan Educational
Gallery.
