Soumak Mafrash (bedding bag) panel, from Borchali, Georgia, late 19th century. The pattern includes motifs used on kilims, such as the eye, cross, and hook, to ward off the evil eye; the central diamond-shaped motif represents the dragon. Soumak (also spelled Soumakh, Sumak, Sumac, or Soumac) is a tapestry technique of weaving strong and decorative textiles used as rugs and domestic bags. Baks used for bedding are known as Soumak Mafrash.
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The tapestry is made of a mixture of linen and wool and woven in soumak technique; it is one of the last examples of soumak weaving technique in medieval Swedish textile art. Approximately of the original tapestry's right side has been lost. The subject matter that the tapestry depicts has been lively discussed. Notably, it is the depiction of three prominent figures that has caused debate.
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Soumak is a type of flat weave, somewhat resembling but stronger and thicker than kilim, with a smooth front face and a ragged back, where kilim is smooth both sides. Soumak lacks the slits characteristic of kilim, as it is usually woven with supplementary weft threads as continuous supports. The technique involves wrapping coloured weft threads over and under the warp threads, adding strength and embroidery-like pattern.
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Soumak products are made in the Caucasus (especially the Shirvan region), Southern and Western Persia including Luristan, Turkish Anatolia, by the Shahsavan tribe and the Kurds in north-western Persia, and by the Baloch people on the Persia–Afghanistan border.
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Diagram of Kilim slit weave technique, showing how the weft threads of each colour are wound back from the colour boundary, leaving a slit A Turkish kilim is a flat-woven rug from Anatolia. Although the name kilim is sometimes used loosely in the West to include all type of rug such as cicim, palaz, soumak and zili, in fact any type other than pile carpets, the name kilim properly denotes a specific weaving technique. Cicim, palaz, soumak and zili are made using three groups of threads, namely longitudinal warps, crossing wefts, and wrapping coloured threads. The wrapping threads give these rugs additional thickness and strength.
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Samples of hand woven material from the nomadic tribes living in the Taurus mountains including kilims of various styles such as cicim, zili, sumak or soumak, ilikli and plain weaves, rug, saddle bag, prayer rugs and pillows. There are also felt prayer rugs and trousseau bags.
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Shamakhi () is the capital of the Shamakhi Rayon of Azerbaijan. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city's estimated population was 31,704. It is famous for its traditional dancers, the Shamakhi Dancers, and also for perhaps giving its name to the Soumak rugs.
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The richness and cultural diversity of rug weaving were gradually better understood. More recently, also flat woven carpets (Kilim, Soumak, Cicim, Zili) have attracted the interest of collectors and scientists. The art and craft of the Anatolian rug underwent serious changes by the introduction of synthetic dyes from the last third of the 19th century onwards. The mass production of cheap rugs designed for commercial success had brought the ancient tradition close to extinction.
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Pannier-style bags are sometimes fitted over a pack saddle used for packing gear on a horse or other pack animal (often, a mule or donkey) rather than for carrying a rider. In Turkish Anatolia, Iran and Baluchistan, saddlebags are traditionally woven in wool, with a front face decorated with Soumak and a plainer flatwoven back. Slits are left along the opening for a rope to close and secure the bag to the pack animal.
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A flatweave carpet is created by interlocking warp (vertical) and weft (horizontal) threads. Types of oriental flatwoven carpet include kilim, soumak, plain weave, and tapestry weave. Types of European flatwoven carpets include Venetian, Dutch, damask, list, haircloth, and ingrain (aka double cloth, two-ply, triple cloth, or three- ply). A hooked rug is a simple type of rug handmade by pulling strips of cloth such as wool or cotton through the meshes of a sturdy fabric such as burlap.
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The name Soumak may plausibly derive from the old town of Shemakja in Azerbaijan, once a major trading centre in the Eastern Caucasus. Other theories include an etymology from Turkish sekmek, to skip up and down, meaning the process of weaving; or from any of about 35 species of flowering plant in the Anacardiaceae or sumac family, such as dyer's sumach (Cotinus coggygria), used to make dyestuffs. If this last is the source of the name, then it is derived from the Arabic and Syriac word summāq, red.Etymology of Sumac at Etymonline.
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Flat-woven rugs are made by tightly interweaving the warp and weft strands of the weave to produce a flat surface with no pile. The technique of weaving carpets further developed into a technique known as extra-weft wrapping weaving, a technique which produces soumak, and loop woven textiles. Loop weaving is done by pulling the weft strings over a gauge rod, creating loops of thread facing the weaver. The rod is then either removed, leaving the loops closed, or the loops are cut over the protecting rod, resulting in a rug very similar to a genuine pile rug.
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Pile woven as well as flat woven carpets (Kilim, Soumak, Cicim, Zili) have attracted collectors' and scientists' interest. Following a decline which began in the second half of the nineteenth century, initiatives like the DOBAG Carpet Initiative in 1982, or the Turkish Cultural Foundation in 2000, started to revive the traditional art of Turkish carpet weaving by using hand-spun, naturally-dyed wool and traditional designs. The Turkish carpet is distinct from carpets of other provenience in that it makes more pronounced use of primary colours. Western Anatolian carpets prefer red and blue colours, whereas Central Anatolian use more red and yellow, with sharp contrasts set in white.
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Carpet weaving still plays a major part in the economy of modern Iran. Modern production is characterized by the revival of traditional dyeing with natural dyes, the reintroduction of traditional tribal patterns, but also by the invention of modern and innovative designs, woven in the centuries-old technique. Hand-woven Persian carpets and rugs were regarded as objects of high artistic and utilitarian value and prestige from the first time they were mentioned by ancient Greek writers, until today. Although the term "Persian carpet" most often refers to pile-woven textiles, flat-woven carpets and rugs like Kilim, Soumak, and embroidered fabrics like Suzani are part of the rich and manifold tradition of Persian weaving.
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Modern production is characterized by the revival of traditional dyeing with natural dyes, the reintroduction of traditional tribal patterns, but also by the invention of modern and innovative designs, woven in the centuries-old technique. Hand-woven Persian carpets and rugs have been regarded as objects of high artistic and utilitarian value and prestige since the first time they were mentioned by ancient Greek writers. Although the term "Persian carpet" most often refers to pile-woven textiles, flat-woven carpets and rugs like Kilim, Soumak, and embroidered tissues like Suzani are part of the rich and manifold tradition of Persian carpet weaving. In 2010, the "traditional skills of carpet weaving" in Fars Province and Kashan were inscribed to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.
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