BAKU RUG

also called Chilia Rug, handwoven floor covering made near Baku in the eastern Caucasus. It is a variety of Dagestan rug in modified Persian design, the ground pattern usually bearing rows of the pear or leaf forms of the Seraband rugs but larger in scale and more geometric and complex in form. Stepped medallions and stepped cornerpieces may show a toothed outline, resembling the corners of the field of many Ferahan carpets, producing a raylike effect. The border may display a myriad of narrow diagonal stripes, as in some of the rugs from the Sh iraz area. The colour scheme may be more muted than is usual in the Caucasus, presumably a concession to the taste of Russian customers. These rugs, with warps and pile of wool, are apt to have wefts of cotton. Sometimes also ascribed to Baku are certain finely woven Dagestan prayer rugs with rows of pears or leaves, each of which has a serrated outline, as if it were on fire. In these prayer rugs, the warp and weft may show combinations of cotton and silk or wool and cotton strands plied together.