Weavings of Nomads in Iran

Book excerpt: 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. AUTHORS: 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. SELLING POINTS: * This is the first book devoted exclusively to the hand-woven bands made by the nomadic peoples of Iran * The publication features many previously unpublished weavings of great art-historical and anthropological importance 200 colour and 10 b/w images