Weavings of Nomads in Iran: Warp-faced Bands and Related Textiles

There is a rich tradition of hand-woven bands made by the nomadic pastoralists of Iran. They have a large and detailed design vocabulary, and were executed using weaving skills that were not exceeded by any other weaving tradition. No study of nomadic life and weavings in Iran is complete without them. Among Qashqa'i tribal weavers in particular, the warp-faced bands used to attach loads to pack animals were a key symbol of their nomadic life. These bands carry a large repository of motifs that may be a source of archaic design elements. Bands illustrate a connection between and among groups of nomadic pastoralists, as great distances may have separated their ancestors for hundreds of years. Although the overwhelming majority of weavers were illiterate, they possessed a different form of literacy in which they were capable of transferring an image into a woven structure. This is the first book devoted exclusively to these weavings. Contents: Introduction; The Functions of Warp-faced Bands in Nomadic Life; Structure and Construction; Buckles & Fastening Systems on Bands; Dating Textiles; Design & Structural Changes on Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Warp-faced Bands; Imagery & Design Elements; Tribal Confederacies; Plates; Bands, Ropes, Braids, and Tassels among Qashqa'i Nomads; Glossary; Bibliography.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Warp-faced Bands and Related Textiles, Fred Mushkat 12 Foreword: Genesis of the Collection: Iran in the 1960s and 1970s, John T. Wertime 16 Acknowledgements 18 Introduction 22 The Functions of Warp-faced Bands in Nomadic Life 28 Structure and Construction 36 Buckles and Fastening Systems on Bands 40 Dating Textiles 44 Design and Structural Changes on Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Warp-faced Bands 48 Imagery and Design Elements 56 Tribal Confederacies 68 The Plates 266 Technical Analysis 280 Glossary 282 Bibliography 284 Endnotes 289 Technical Details 289 Postscript Part 2 Bands, Ropes, Braids, and Tassels among Qashqa’i Nomads Naheed Dareshuri and Lois Beck 294 Introduction 298 Bands, Ropes, Braids, and Tassels 316 A Special Qashqa’i Band 334 Another Qashqa’i Band 340 Living with Woven Bands and Braided Ropes 346 The Yellow Gelim 354 The Social History of a Qashqa’i Saddlebag 360 Glossary 370 Bibliography 372 Endnotes Part 3 Shahsevän and Qaradagi Bastırıkh, Örken and Bezekh Peter Alford Andrews 390 Shahsevän and Qaradagi Bastırıkh, Örken and Bezekh 396 Endnotes

About the Author :
Dr Fred Mushkat has been collecting and diligently studying the warp-faced woven bands of Iran since the late 1980s. His work is supplemented by detailed commentary co-written by the socio-cultural anthropologist Professor Lois Beck of Washington University in St. Louis, (the world expert on the Qashqa'i nomads in Southwestern Iran), and Naheed Dareshuri, a Qashqa'i nomadic pastoralist currently living in the United States. The book also includes a contribution by Professor Peter Alford Andrews, the world's foremost authority on the architecture and use of nomadic tents of Eurasia.

Review :
"The book is illustrated with photographs of nomadic pastoral life, photographs of beautifully organised tents which were adapted to all climates and occasions." - Esther Fitzgerald, Selvedge