SENNA RUG

Senna also spelled Sehna, handwoven floor covering made by Kurds who live in or around the town of Senna (now more properly Sanandaj) in western Iran. The pile rugs and pile kilims of Senna are prized for their delicate pattern and colouring and for their fine weave. They are by far the most sophisticated of the Kurdish rugs. The designs usually involve some repeat pattern, or diaper, such as the herati, in which a diamond lattice pattern peeps through a tangle of rose blossoms and leaves or through intricate versions of the buteh, a leaf with curling tip. The entire field may show such a pattern, or a medallion scheme may introduce a hexagonal centerpiece and straight-arched ends. The borders are full of fine detail, often featuring paired arabesques known in the trade as turtles. The entire design is elaborated to the point of fussiness. The finely woven Senna kilims are slit tapestries of the highest quality. Their small-scale borders are carried around the ends, as they are typically in pile carpets but rarely in such weavings. Senna seems to have been a favourite place of manufacture for saddle cloths, those in pile usually provided with a two-slope arch. Although the town of Senna has given its name to the Persian knot, it is the Turkish, or Ghiordes, knot, that is actually used there.