Yomut (Turkoman)

(Posted on 31/03/17)

The term ‘Yomut’ is very often used as a convenient label rather than as the identification of a historically accurate tribal group.  Despite numerous attempts in the past, it has so far been impossible to work out a precise classification system.  With some types of Yomut weaving it is even certain whether they are Yomut at all.  This is made more difficult by an unusually broad range of shapes, design types and very different technical characteristics.

Numerous more or less definable and related groups of the largely settled Yomut have been mentioned in the literature: the Atabi, the Jaffarbai, the Imreli and the Ogurjali, to name only a few.  It seems more sensible to restrict oneself to the definition of clearly groups of pile weaving’s without making tribal attributions.

The image showing is a comparatively early Yomut main carpet with the well-known kepse gul used in the field; an early ancestor of this design type is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.