KURDISH RUG

floor covering that is handcrafted by people of Kurdish stock in Iran, eastern Anatolia, or perhaps to a limited extent in Iraq and in the southernmost Caucasus. These rugs are stout and solid in structure, usually made in Ghiordes knotting upon a woolen foundation. Among older examples, created in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Garden carpets and those in the harshang design, with its repeat of flaming palmettes, are outstanding for their range of exuberant colours. Jaffi Kurdish rugs and saddlebag faces, from the Turko-Iranian borderland, show diamond grids, each lozenge containing a latch-hooked figure. Bijar carpets are Kurdish products, as are the surprisingly delicate rugs of Sanandaj.