| Over the years there has been a controversy
over what is a Kurdish rug. I tend to take the
inclusive view. Put simply a Kurdish rug is a rug
woven by a weaver whose milk language is a
dialect of Kurdish. The other view point has
been championed by Michael Wendorf. This argument
is that Kurds may weave Kurdish rugs or they may
weave non-Kurdish commercial rugs. Michael has
presented this theory ever more eloquently over
the years. I used to unfairly characterize
Michael's argument as "I like Kurdish rugs
so rugs I do not like are therefore not
Kurdish". It was neither fair nor kind and I
must note in Michael's rug morning at the TM he
has tempered and refined his argument
considerably.
I still disagree with Michael, I suggest that
he takes a narrow viewed confined to a small
group of related Kurdish dialect groups. I
certainly respect the Kurdish homeland argument
and the frequent references to both Ambasador
Bill Eagleton and James Burns. So I mean in all
respect that the Kurdish homeland argument makes
for a beautiful target for collectors it is not
nearly large enough to accurately represent all
the various Kurdish peoples who weave rugs that I
can only call Kurdish rugs.
I note that I had the chance to closely study
a significant portion of the Wendorf Kurdish Rug
collection a number of years ago as well as rugs
that Michael purported to come from the Burns
collection. So while I have not closely examined
the Wendorf collection in a while I did see it at
Michel's TM morning and many of the rugs were
very familiar. Michael's collection is more of a
statement of Michael's taste rather than a cross
section of all Kurdish rugs.
I must also note that part of the confusion
rests squarely on my shoulders. Early on I
attributed too many rugs from the greater Hamadan
region to the Kurds and I now think I was wrong.
|
