The Secret Language of Kilims Rugs

I am looking at out beautiful kilim that we bought from Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and wondering if I could read the language of the kilim. I am dreaming of going to the days that our old kilim is weaved and finding out what secret feelings are spelled out through the kilim’s knots. Only if I could talk to kilim and find out what it will talk to me.

Then I wondered whether there is a dictionary to teach me the languages of the kilims. While I was surfing around the pages, I come up with the following story:

One day a Y�¼r�¼k tribal chief saw a kilim rug cast on the ground by a tent. Looking at it brought anguish to his heart, so he called on his men to find the father of the girl who had woven that kilim rug. When the father of the girl was brought to the tent the chief asked:

“You have a daughter, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do” replied the father.
“As I understand it,” continued the chief, “you want to marry the girl to someone she doesn’t want. She has set her heart on another.”

At first the father was stunned – how could the chief know of this – but then his tongue was loosened:

“That’s true, I’m a poor man and the man who wants to marry my daughter is rich, so I promised to give him her hand in marriage. My girl, though, lost her heart to a poor young manâÂ?¦but how could you know of this?”

The chief pointed to the kilim rug on the ground saying:

“Didn’t your daughter weave this kilim rug?”
“Yes, she did” said the father, to which the chief replied:
“So I knew about it from the language spoken by this kilim rugâÂ?¦I’ll give you a horse, a camel, go and marry the girl to the one she loves. Oh! and tell her thisâÂ?¦she wove it well, but she should put a bit less of a green accent by the redâÂ?¦as it is, I was almost misled.”

(Translated from “Anadolu’da Kilimler de Konusur”, an article by Dr. Mehmet Onder in issue No. 11 of the magazine “Kultur ve Sanat” published by Turkiye Is Bankasi, Sept. 1999, Ankara, Turkey.)

This old romantic story was a beautiful explanation of the language of communication spelled out by the kilim weavers. Girls weaving kilim rugs use this secret language of kilims to express their hopes in life such as children, good fortune or a strong and handsome husband. If the kilim is weaved by a married woman, she might be showing her frustration for mother-in-law!

Ancient languages may also be expressed through symbols whose meanings are now perhaps forgotten but still kept in designs by some mysterious impulse of the subconscious. The meanings of kilim motifs, designs, their changing colors is as rich and complex as the combined heritage of cultures that contributed to kilim’s long history.

I am now happier for bringing our Anatolian kilim from Istanbul. Now it is talking to me and giving me all the secrets in each knot.