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“Where my carpet is, there is my house.”

Introducing business skills to an ancient Azerbaijan tradition

February 20^th, 2019

The intricacy, precision, and complexity of Azerbaijani carpets makes it difficult to believe they’re the work of human hands.

Kamala Nesrullayeva, a third generation carpet weaver from Lahij in the mountains of Azerbaijan, was taught to weave when she was five. She set up her loom on her mother’s dowry rug, which was made by her grandmother. When her son sits at Kamala’s loom to show his weaving skills, four generations of Azeri culture is captured in the moment.

“Where my carpet is, there is my house.”

A carpet with no equal

The traditional art of Azerbaijani carpet weaving dates to the 2nd millennium BCE and is mentioned by Greek historians Herodotus and Xenophon, as well as travellers from across the Middle East and Asia, including Xuan Tes Ank and Al-Movsudi.

In the 5th century BCE, Herodotus, a contemporary of Thucydides, Socrates, and Euripides, and known as ‘The Father of History’, spoke of the advanced skills of Azeri rug dyeing.

The 10th century BCE Arab historian Al Mugaddasi wrote;

“their carpets have no equals in the world.”

In the 13th century, Marco Polo talked about the unique fabrics produced in Tabriz. He also said that fabrics, carpets, and weaving techniques unseen anywhere else were being made and sold in the markets of Azerbaijan.

THE GREAT SILK ROAD

Azerbaijan is on one of the main Silk Road routes, at the crossroads of civilisations, cultures, and religions. Joining Europe and Asia, the road had enormous influence on Azerbaijani carpets, which are complex, multi-layered products of intra- and intercultural interactions that have developed over many centuries.

Azeri towns were long known as centres of culture, science and education. Oil, carpets, raw silk, silk fabrics, cotton, weapons, dried fruits, salt, precious stones, jewellery, alum, saffron, natural dyes, polychrome pottery, wooden utensils, non-ferrous metals, sturgeon and caviar, and ironwood were the main exports.

Network of Silk Road Cities, 300 B.C. - A.D. 100, UNESCO

Weaving together these disparate strands of raw materials and classical motifs, Azerbaijan carpets are a beautiful emblem of multiculturalism. In 2007, the President of Azerbaijan signed a presidential decree that said carpet weaving was a cultural asset and a great national interest for Azerbaijan: “I think that by common efforts we need to promote the values of multiculturalism. I know that there are different ideas about that—sometimes, pessimistic ideas. But there are positive examples of multiculturalism. Azerbaijan is one of them”.

In 2010 UNESCO added Azerbaijani carpet weaving to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Through centuries of development, the Azerbaijani carpet has incorporated the social, cultural, and artistic values of various periods in the history of the country; a tangible symbol of cultural and historical continuity.

Family business

Carpets are widely used in daily life; they cover floors, walls, and the roofs of houses. Special carpets are often woven for prayer, wedding ceremonies, mourning rituals, or the birth of a child. Because of their intermingling of the classical and the quotidian, the foreign and the familiar, carpet weaving comprises a unique, central part of Azerbaijani communities’ life and customs. ‘Xalçam harada, yurdum orada’--‘where my carpet is, there is my house’.

Carpet weaving is done mostly by women during the winter, when extended family members assemble, each to perform their portion of creative work, with girls learning from their mothers and grandmothers, and wives assisting their mothers-in-law.

From mountains to market

Unfortunately, rural families face serious problems marketing and selling their work. Compounding the difficulties is a lack of certification and marketing skills.

Faced with the stiff challenges of maintaining their competitive advantage, the rural communities of the Ismayilli and Shamakhi regions continue to rely on animal husbandry for their main income. One consequence of this heavy dependence on cattle breeding is overgrazing, which is what the Global Environment Facility-supported Sustainable Land and Forest Management project is addressing by introducing sustainable land management to protect the soil and prevent erosion.

The project offered smallholder family businesses new ways to deliver locally-produced goods to market. Through ABAD (Azerbaijan State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations - Support to Family Business) and its wide range of sales and distribution channels, these families will be able to sell to Azerbaijani and international markets.

Sixteen families received business support, six of these in the rug and carpet manufacturing industry. Carpet-making tools and machinery, including weaving supplies and accessories, were given to carpet making families.

ABAD helped with legal compliance for health and safety requirements, logistical and equipment support, quality control, identifying expansion opportunities, highlighting certification schemes such as organic or fair trade labelling, training on technical and legal requirements, branding development, and laboratory analyses for quality control and certification.

Hands on history

Before the project, Kamala Nesrullayeva remembers: “When the factory where I was working suddenly shut down, we started to randomly sell our carpets to tourists who happened to be in the area. However, since our village is located high in the mountains, tourists do not come that far up here all year round, which makes our sales a realistic possibility only during a certain season of a year. The rest of the time we have no other options but cattle breeding, which is a very exhausting and time-consuming activity. However, now that ABAD and UNDP opened up a new window of opportunities for us, villagers, they help us all day every day for 365 days a year and really try their best to make sure that we move forward with our business aspirations.”

Kamala now has a year round market for her handmade rugs and has begun teaching her nine-year old son, Asef, the valuable trade.

“I love making the pattern come to life. I love what I do and I am never fed up. I always hope for more time to do it.”

Yegane Eldarova, another local carpet-weaver said: “I have been weaving carpets since I was ten. This started just like a personal hobby and a well-rooted family tradition. I have never thought this will turn into something bigger, something that will help me provide for my family financially. But after I joined a group of villagers who were receiving support from ABAD and UNDP, I was able to establish a small business that now has about 100 employees.”

A sustainable future

UNDP teamed up with ABAD to help families build their production potential with logistical support, certification, marketing, and branding. The project taught business development, marketing, basics of production management, and logistics for the agricultural industry. At the same time they reduced land and forest overgrazing.

The villagers now have the skills to sell their products to domestic and international markets and an invaluable cultural tradition continues to thrive and grow.

For more information on the project, view the project profiles for the Sustainable Land and Forest Management in the Greater Caucasus landscape and the Climate East Pilot Project in Azerbaijan. For more information on ABAD: abad.gov.az/en

Footnotes

Story by Andrea Egan, David Angelson, Arzu Jafarli, Zaur Aliyev, Eltekin Omarov / Photos: UNDP Azerbaijan / Andrea Egan; ABAD / Elgun Alizade and Elkhan Ganiyev

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FootNotes

Story by Andrea Egan, David Angelson, Arzu Jafarli, Zaur Aliyev, Eltekin Omarov / Photos: UNDP Azerbaijan / Andrea Egan; ABAD / Elgun Alizade and Elkhan Ganiyev

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“Where my carpet is, there is my house.”

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