Aspects of Iraqi Folklore

Rug Weaving in Iraq

By: Majed El-Najjar

Abridged and Translated by : Kadhim Sa’adedin

1. Nature of the Craft:

Rug weaving is generally done by villager women at their own homes on simple old-fashioned hand-looms and tools , whether in spinning, dyeing or weaving.

There are three kinds of fabrics of this kind:

a) “Al-busut” which is also called “busut el-ragum” that means “rugs”. They are the same on both faces in their decorations and have no pile. This kind is the subject of our study.

b) “Al-Sajajed” or “Zwali” which means carpets.

c) “Al-uzur” are made of two pieces; each one is called “fijjah” which are then sewn together to make one square piece.

2. Material:

The material used for weaving rugs is the wool which it sold in the form of “jizzah” i.e. the fleece of one sheep, or by weight. The longest the fibers of wool, the best. Each piece of wool is called “ameetah” which is made up of fibers, each called “utub soof”.

3. Preparation and spinning of wool:

The wool is washed well with water and soap. When it gets dry, women comb it with a special comb, figure (1) for cleaning it from thorny plantations.

The wool is then spun with a “moghzal” (spindle), figure (2) of various kinds. The spindle is made up of two parts: a rod and a round or rectangular piece. They are made of mulberry or Jawi wood. The rod has a groove winding to the left at the upper end. It is called “khurm el-maghzal” through which goes the spun wool to make the yarn. This kind of spindle is 25-30 cm. Long. The women holds the spindle with her right hand and the piece of wool fiber in her left hand and turns the spindle left wards with her thumb, index and middle fingers. The thread is then made into balls called “kowar”.

4.Twisting the yarn:

There is a special spindle for twisting the yarn. It is called “al-mebram” which is little longer than the ordinary spindle: 30-40 cm. Long, and has a groove towards the right at the lower end figure (3).

Two balls of yarn are put in palm-leaf basket. The woman matches the ends of the thread into one twisted thread through the groove and turns the spindle while she is sitting on the ground, and winds the new thread on the spindle until she finishes the two balls.

5. Making Shuttle’s or Rolls:

The woman wraps the yarn on a thick copper ring called “matwah”. Each of these rolls is called “wishiah”. They count to six or eight ones on each ring. The woman then sprays water on them and hangs the ring in the sun to dry. After that the yarn is made into long reels which can easily be dyed.

6.Quantity of Yarn for each Rug:

Each rug, seven cubits, equaling 48cm 5 7 and four spans equaling 24 5 4, is 336 cm long and 96 cm wide. It needs about six hoggahs (a hoga is 1½ kg)) of yarn, and takes 15-20 days to finish.

7.Dyes:

Powder dyes:

Powder dyes are called ‘sobog toz’. They are five colors in addition to the natural white and black wool.

1. lemon.

2. red.

3. carmine.

4. violet.

5. green.

8.Fixing dyes:

Women use the leaves of eucalyptus or poplar trees boiled in a large copper pot. They add alum to the liquid and then it is put into a metal strainer. A little of this material is added to the dye solution before putting the yarn into the solution pots.

There is another way to fix the crystalline dyes by adding half a tea spoon of tartaric acid to each five grams of the dyes.

9. Dyeing:

After heating the water in copper pots a lot of dye is added and then the solution is stirred with a ladle. The yarn in the form of shuttles or reels is soaked into the pots and stirred inside the pots for 15-30 minutes. The yarn is taken out to hang on lines to dry up.

10. Weaving:

(a) The Parts of the Loom:

The handloom for weaving rugs is called “Sidah” or “natto”. It is a primitive kind of loom constructed horizontally on the ground. It is made up of the following parts:

1. “al-misdat” is a strut 8 cm in diameter and a little longer than the width of the rug. It is used to connect the wrap threads.

2. “Al-haffa” is a thinner strut, as long as the “misdat” used to separate the upper layer of the wrap from the lower layer.

3. The threads of the warp are connected round the two misdats.

4. Four wooden pegs are fixed in four corners to support the misdat. Each peg is called “thabit”.

5. wild hemp ropes are used to tie the ends of one misdat end to the pegs when the weaving goes on after conveying the misdat out of the pegs.

6. al-neera is a pole like the “haffa” and laid on two apposite bricks on both sides of the warp. A string is wrapped round the ‘neera’ to hang the threads of the lower warp so as to make the two layers of the warp inverted on the side of weaving.

7. “Jaz” is a pole on both ends of which are fixed two to control the width of the rug.

8. a log called “takhta (seat) 8 cm. High and 16 cm. Wide and as long as the misdat laid under the warp for the weaver to sit on while working.

9. al-midhrab is made up of three parts:

a. a wooden handle like that of a table tennis racket.

b. a flat round mass of bitumen into which the handle is fixed.

c. seven to ten iron teeth at the upper part of the bitumen. It is used to stretch tightly the threads of the warp and weft.

(b) Stretching the Warp and Weaving Process:

A rectangle wider and longer than the pegs is drawn on the ground. The four pegs are fixed down so that 25-30 cm. Come up. The two misdats are laid behind the pegs on two bricks. Then the weaver puts the white yarn of the warp round the misdats in a distance of 2 cm. Between the two layers. The threads of the lower are hung to the string of the neera in the middle to invert the two layers. The woman sits on the “takhtah” and puts two “haffas” to distinguish the two layers then inserts the threads of the weft among the wrap and beats them gently with the “midhrab” and goes on like this to the end.

11. Designs and Ornaments:

Designs and ornaments can be classified according to the three parts of the rug itself.

a. al-dayir (the long side border).

b. al-gossah (front border).

c. Wastiyah (the middle field).

A. Ornaments of the Dayir :

The long side border may contain one or more stripes:

1. “Shrab” or small pottery jar stripe : it is made of regular or isosceles triangles in the upper angles rest lozenges.

2. “Abu gedhab” or dagger’s handle: This band is made of triangles on which rests the head of a spear, this stripe may be filled with bwaitat (the form of little houses).

3. “Awairjan” means streaked band. It is made of long straps crossed by other short straps.

4. ”Shad el-fishag” means the bullet belt and it is made parallelogram joined at the corners with three lines up and three down the stripe with teethed lines.

5. Chocolate stripe is made of two triangles of different colours put together to make a square with teethed sides.

6. the Swallow is made of triangles filled with small colours oblongs or triangles.

Note: Methods of using ornaments for borders:

one or more than one rows of motifs similar or different in design and colour.

B. Ornaments of the Gossah:

Ornaments of the “gossah” may have one or more stripes:

1. Al-Alam (or the flag) may be made of a zigzag stripe filled with teeth zigzag lines, or these may have a hexagon motif filed in the middle with a lozenge which is itself filled with a “bwait” (little house) and round the hexagon is a teethed border line.

2. Mowacheel (pl. of machla) means the filled motifs added to the sides of other motifs. Each “machlah” is made of three joined triangles in a straight line. Two joined motifs can be used inside a triangle. This motif can fill the empty place between the flags.

3. Baqlawa (or lozenge) is made of joined lozenges in a straight line, or it may be made in another method by putting two lozenges one above the other.

C. Ornaments of the Wastiya:

The method of ornamenting the middle field of arug can be divided into three types:

First: the middle filed of a rug can be filled with repeated large main ornmanets occupying the whole filed. The ornaments are of three kinds:

1. Al-alam (flag).

2. Al-quindeel (lantern).

3. Gubbah and manayir (dome and minarets).

Secondly: filling the middle filed with two or three main designs while the empty areas are filled with secondary motifs, either small or medium.

Thirdly: filling the middle field with similar secondary ornaments joined together, or filling it with different not joined ornaments.