The annual meeting of the International Conference on Oriental Carpets is always an exciting event, but when it is held in Istanbul, one of the most exotic and romantic cities in Europe, and a center of carpet production and commerce for the past five hundred years or more, ICOC is simply “carpet heaven.” I stayed in the lovely Sultanahment district, the oldest part of the Ottoman city, where there were a number of related exhibitions. The TIEM (Turk ve Islam Eserleri Muzesi) mounted a spectacular show of early carpets from the Seljuk period, as well as various other oversize court carpets, Ushaks, etc. It was simply divine. The TIEM also put up an amazing selection of Ikats from the collection of Mehmet Cetinkaya. The Vakiflar Museum had two exhibitions of their incredible collection of early rugs as well, one on pile carpets, and one just for kilims. In conjunction with all this the Yildiz Palace held a memorial exhibition of kilims from the personal collection of the renowned expert Josephine Powell, who passed away last March.

However, wonderful all these official events may have been, the world-famous carpet dealers of Istanbul were not to be outdone. Understandably, there was a strong contingent of Turks at the Dealers’ Fair, but there were some Europeans and a few Americans as well. For me the high point here was the outstanding exhibition of Turkmen rugs presented by Seref Ozen of Istanbul’s Cocoon Gallery. For the really serious carpet enthusiasts, there was a wonderful program of lectures held at the Swiss Hotel, including a presentation by the pioneer scholar on Turkish village weaving and founder of Project DOBAG, Rainer Bohmer. What ever the nature of your interest in rugs, there was really something for everyone this year, and with the magic of Istanbul itself as the final ingredient, it was just about the best ICOC ever.

Antique Milas Turkish Rug #8297

Turkey has one of the most venerable and distinguished carpet weaving traditions in the Middle East. It was largely the Turks and related peoples from Central Asia who introduced the knotted pile carpet to the Islamic world. The largest and oldest body of early Oriental carpets comes from Turkey, the so-called geometric or Seljuk carpets of the thirteenth century preserved in the mosques of Konya and other towns in Central Anatolia. These are probably the carpets remarked upon by Marco Polo in his travels.

Antique Konya Turkish Rug #3093

The early Turkish animal carpets are a century or so later. During the Ottoman period in the later fifteenth century Turkish court production began to emulate the carpets of the Timurids and early Safavids in Iran, creating the Cairene type and the so called Star- and Medallion-Ushak carpets which continued to be made up though the seventeenth century. Within the same general period a rich tradition of local village rug weaving also developed all across Turkey. This process gave birth to the various types that are known almost down to the present time – Bergama, Ladik, Konya, Ghiordes, etc. In the late nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries Turkish production stepped up to commpete for the western market with Persian carpets at centers like Sivas, Oushak, Hereke, and Sparda. Although kilims or plain tapestry weavings were produced in most regions of the Near East, Turkey is probably most well known and celebrated for antique flatweave carpets of this kind.

Antique Konya Turkish Rug #3091

Antique Kilim Carpets #699