PALAS

plural Palasy, flat-surfaced handwoven floor covering from the Caucasus, Turkistan, or parts of Iran. In the rest of Iran, the Balkans, and Anatolia, the name for similar pieces is kilim. The Caucasian palas is a slit tapestry in technique. The Shirvan variety is designed without a border as a series of transverse bands carrying bold polygonal ornaments in vivid colouring. A Karabagh rug may be planned with diagonal rows of highly geometric palmette forms within a narrow border on all sides. A Kurdish palas might have a honeycomb pattern of ornamented hexagons with no real border or a set of transverse bands much narrower than those in the Shirvan palas. Turkmen palasy, usually of Yomut workmanship, are brocadings of several types, the most common showing a diamond grid with a narrow border on all sides and long aprons at both ends. Much of the ground shows through between and around the brocaded motifs.