TREASURES OF GARABAGH

Recently, the Carpet Museum of Azerbaijan received a status of a national museum for its exceptional services in protecting and promoting the art of carpets in Azerbaijan. This is a result of fruitful and tireless activities of the museum staff to popularise Azerbaijani carpets as a distinctive and unique phenomenon, included in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO in 2010.

First in the world

The Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum was established in 1967, and became the first specialized museum in the world to collect, preserve and study carpets. In 1967-1993, the museum was called the Azerbaijan State Museum of Carpet and Applied Art. In 1993-2014, it became the Latif Karimov State Museum of Carpet and Applied Art. In, 2014-2018 the museum was known as the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, and recently it became the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum. Its first exhibition of carpets took place in 1972 in the Juma mosque, which is within the ancient fortress walls of Baku, Icherisheher. The museum is a treasury of the Azerbaijani national culture, showing the carpet in close relationship with other types of traditional arts in Azerbaijan. The collection contains about 14,000 exhibits, including carpets, embroidery, clothing, copper-chased products, jewellery, modern works of glass, wood, felt. The museum is also a scientific centre for the study and development of Azerbaijani carpets. It has a track record of organising a number of major international conferences on Azerbaijani carpets. The first such event was held in Baku under the auspices of UNESCO in 1983. The next three events took place in 1988, 2003, 2007, the last of which was held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. In 2008, in accordance with the decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the construction of the modern building of the Museum of Carpet began, with its new exposition opened in August 2014. The museum is actively developing relations with many influential international organizations, such as the European Textile Network, European Museum Forum, International Council of Museums, UNESCO and Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation of the CIS Member States.

Visiting home

Authors of the magnificent building made as a rolled-up carpet are Austrian architects Franz Jans and Walter Marie. The building is really luxurious: spacious, bright, multi-functional. Along with traditional demonstration of Azerbaijani carpets, the museum periodically organizes and conducts exhibitions outside the country that provide the visitors with additional information to promote Azerbaijani art of carpet making. This time, the museum hosts an exhibition titled The Cultural Heritage of Azerbaijan in the Louvre Museum. This means that a very sensitive and fragile cargo arrived from Paris to Baku, from the Louvre Museum to the National Carpet Museum: three ancient Azerbaijani carpets made in the 18-20th centuries in Garabagh and Shirvan, homeland of traditional style of Azerbaijani carpets. These are Chelebi, Khanlyg and Azhdahaly.

As a rule, such exhibits rarely leave their 'place of residence' because transportation conditions of ancient items of textile, as well as the space in which they will then be located can cause irreparable harm to centuries-old textiles. However, the conditions of our museum, equipped with the latest technological requirements, provide the necessary and reliable conditions for the display of these unique objects of national art. Negotiations between museums have been conducted since 2016 and ended with the opening of the exhibition in early July 2019. The exposition is visited by tourists from different countries, to whom qualified guides speaking in Russian, Azerbaijani, English, Arabic, French languages tell about the art of carpet weaving in Azerbaijan, continuity of traditions, hidden messages of our ancestors encoded in ornaments, modern carpet weaving technology and young artists and craftsmen who continue to develop this traditional art of Azerbaijan​​. Museum also offers the visitors with audio guides. But the journey through the back streets of the history to witness the emergence of Azerbaijan’s carpet traditions with a guide is much more interesting than with an audio guide. You can always ask a question, clarify, ask again, and they will patiently explain to you the details, as does Aygun-khanym Abbasova, head of culture and education department of the museum.

Khanlyg

The name stems from the village of Khanlyg in Gubadly district. Carpet weaving in this zone has an ancient history and traditions that continue to this day. Created in the times of ancient Turkic tribes, the composition using the traditional elements Göl, Mihrab, Bashlyg, Gotazy Buta, Jah, Ashig is typical for Garabaghi carpets. As the colour scheme with the use of white, red, ocher, maroon, pale pink, blue, green, blue tones. In the border, there are elements showing a dragon. In the frame of the main composition, we can see a dancing buta. If you look closely, it seems it really dances! Between the elements of such a bottle is a floral ornament of flowers. It seems that flowers and buta, holding hands, dance yally!

Azhdahaly

The name means of dragon type. In the centre, there is a dragon buta (azhdaly buta), which symbolizes the power of the protector and the guardian of life. Nearby is a water lily (su zanbaghy), symbolising the abundance and origin of life. Carpets of similar type were usually made in Shusha, Barda, Nakhchivan and Shirvan. Ornaments along the rims of the carpet symbolize a dragon defender: yarlag, shamdanly, meshel. The colours range from carmine, white, yellow, blue to ocher. If you look closely at the two extreme medallions, you can see the features of a male face with clearly eastern signs: a beard, eyebrows, an oval face, a headdress. I wonder what the person who made this carpet was thinking about? We do not know exactly who created it. But the carpet was destined to outlive both its creator and its owner, and to find itself in a distant overseas country in order to deliver aesthetic pleasure to people of another culture.

Chelebi

This is the brightest and most elegant carpet of the three presented at the exhibition. Bright tones are traditional for this group of Garabagh carpets ranging from dark blue, blue, green, red, black to white and yellow. These carpets were made by our ancestors in the villages of Garabagh and in the village of Chelebi (10 km east of Barda). The characteristic elements for this carpet are Göl located in the centre of the middle field. Elements of chelebi (gunesh), symbolising sun, are traditionally and widely distributed in the carpet weaving of this region of Garabagh. Border rims consist of star-shaped elements of the same colour range, which forms a large field of carpet, advantageously framing the central composition and enhancing the feeling of joy of life, coming from the colour solution of the product.

Their story

Obviously, the carpets brought from France have their own “personal” history. Someone once took them from Azerbaijan to Europe. We do not know exactly who, when and why. Perhaps this is hidden behind a romantic story, perhaps a criminal or routine commercial or household one. Whatever it was, the fact is that carpets from Garabagh still delight the tourists from around the world in the very centre of Paris, in the Louvre Museum, in one of the most prestigious European museums with their unique beauty, as if telling them stories about ancient tradition of carpet weaving in Azerbaijan, as well as the ancient Garabagh land, which is an integral part of Azerbaijani culture. A culture that has not disappeared in the dust of past, but is preserved and developed today. The proof is permanent demonstrations and expositions organised at the National Museum in Baku, which represents the carpets from all regions of Azerbaijan made in the 17-20th centuries. It gives us a comprehensive picture of the process of preserving and developing the traditions of carpet weaving as a type of ancient national arts and crafts. Composition of carpet products "Chelebi" of the 19th century artist Farid Rasulov is an example of the artistic continuity of generations. Bright carpets and rugs are attractive, as they create an atmosphere of quiet joy and peace, confirming the idea of ​​genuine art, which does not leave anyone indifferent and will never do.

In 2018, President of Azerbaijan signed a decree on the approval of “State Program for the Conservation and Development of Carpet Art in Azerbaijan in 2018-2022”. The project of the exhibition entitled Cultural Heritage of Azerbaijan in the Louvre Museum is the contribution of the National Carpet Museum to the implementation of this program. The exhibition will last until September 30.