KAZAK RUG

also spelled Kazakh Rug, floor covering handmade by seminomadic people of Turkic stock living in the Gnc district of the Caucasus in Azerbaijan. These handsome rugs in bold designs and colour contrasts continue the spirit of Dragon rugs. The field patterns differ, however, offering triple-medallion schemes and centralized layouts, such as an octagon surrounded by four star-filled squares, which are reminiscent of much earlier arrangements native to other districts. Some rugs have diaper patterns of abstract forms or are exercises in the employment of latch-hooked shapes borrowed from the Yrks. Small prayer rugs, with relatively simple designs, often have a square intrusion into the base of the prayer-niche pattern. Kazak rugs normally are all wool and are made, as are almost all other Caucasian rugs, in the Turkish, or Ghiordes, knot. They have the longest and most recumbent pile among the Caucasian rugs and are comparatively coarse; but, to compensate, they are lustrous.