KILIM

pileless floor covering handwoven by tapestry techniques in Anatolia, the Balkans, or parts of Iran. In the rest of Iran, the Caucasus, and Turkistan, the name for similar pieces is palas. In most kilims, a slit occurs wherever two colours meet along a vertical line in the pattern, but in a few Karabagh or South Caucasian pieces, interlocking methods are employed in order to minimize these slits. The finest and most beautiful kilims known are silken 16th- and 17th-century pieces from Kashan; the tightest-woven and most delicate recent kilims come from the Senna (Sehna) neighbourhood. The Turks have produced the largest kilims, usually in two narrow pieces joined, as well as small ones and a multitude of prayer kilims. As a prayer rug, which is carried about with the worshiper, the light and extremely flexible kilim offers obvious advantages. In Turkish kilims, cotton is often used for the white areas, and small details may be brocaded. The kilims of the southern Balkans began as close copies of Anatolian types but have gradually developed into individual styles, such as the black, red, and white kilims of Pirot. In Romania, also, there are varied local fashions, progressively less Oriental in colour and pattern as the distance from Turkey increases. The name kilim is also given to a variety of brocaded, embroidered, warp-faced, and other flat-woven rugs and bags.