Folklor Akademi Dergisi

Öz

Although carpets are used in daily life as floor coverings in interiors, covers on couches, ornaments on walls or prayer rugs for prayer, they have a special place in Turkish culture that reflects the aesthetic and artistic understanding of the period in which they were made. In the history of Turkish culture extending from Central Asia to Anatolia, we encounter a rich carpet art that is shaped according to the geography and lifestyles lived and provides information about the sociocultural understanding of the period in which it was produced. The Turks, who lived a nomadic life and subsisted on animal husbandry, met the shelter and clothing needs required by the mobile life from the wool fibers obtained from the animals they raised. They added their artistic understanding by coloring the weavings they produced over time and decorating them with various motifs. The Turks who migrated from Central Asia to Anatolia continued to produce carpets suitable for the living conditions in their new homeland by carrying their cultural accumulation with them. The Ottoman Empire, which was established after the Anatolian Seljuk Empire and the Anatolian Principalities period, expanded its borders and became a Jahan state and became stronger, paving the way for new developments in Turkish carpet art. One of the production areas organized in the Ottoman Palace was weaving. The workshops established to meet some of the needs of the palace brought distinguished masters from important carpet production centers within the borders of the empire. From the 16th century onwards, while the palace developed motif, pattern and composition designs for art productions by skilled craftsmen in the workshops it established, it also outsourced some of its needs. During this period, carpets produced in some regions of Anatolia outside the palace also found buyers abroad and were in great demand. In the last period of the Ottoman Empire, weavers and craftsmen from Anatolia were settled in Kumkapı district. The masters working in the palace also opened workshops in Kumkapı and made production. The carpets of the masters who produced in the Kumkapı neighborhood stood out with their unique production and were called “Kumkapı Carpets”. These carpets, which are known to have been produced in limited numbers, were mostly marketed to collectors and carpet traders. Today, Kumkapı carpets, which are exhibited by local and foreign collectors and museums, change hands at auctions with very high prices from time to time.
In this study, the historical development, artistic and technical characteristics of Kumkapı carpets will be discussed and the place of these carpets in Turkish weaving culture will be evaluated in detail.