An image that equals 1000 words.
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Ahmad Elias 2
Some of my favorite works by distinguished Syrian artists.
The Original Digital Images
When I posted my confessions about the infatuation I have for carpets, I normally expected that not all readers of my blog would share this particular interest. Readers of blogs are supposed to be more oriented to this modern world: contemporary issues, current affairs and worldly matters. Not carpets.
Yet, a most unexpected comment came to me from none-other but Camille Alexander, the creator and webmaster of Creative Syria.
The surprise was that he first admitted that he was not planning to continue reading my entry on carpets, for a simple reason: “I have no interest in carpets”. However, he liked the excerpts I selected from the book, and from there he went into writing about carpets. Can you believe it? Very soon he might start exploring the universe of the oriental carpet.
(Kamil Otrakji)
Here is what Camille wrote to me:
I really enjoyed reading that piece! At first, I did not think I wanted to read it as I have no interest in carpets, but you picked some really nice quotes from the book. I loved this one: "these carpets show the perfect hand of God and the imperfect hand of man in trying to follow it".
Funny how now I realize that carpets are the original "digital" images. They are indeed made out of pixels. Lower knot count is like a low resolution digital image that makes it sometimes (when curves are prominent in the pattern) difficult to preserve the original design. Therefore, despite being not an expert on carpets, I will disagree with the experts and claim that "knot counts" should indeed make a difference. This is analogous to using a lower
I like the natural, continuous, or "analog", imperfections that come from variations in dye color for example. These are additive imperfections; they carry with them more "information" (the subtle differences in color in this case) that make it a richer piece of art. On the other hand, lower knot counts are subtractive; they take away information from the original design.
Ahmad Elias
Some of my favorite works by distinguished Syrian artists.
The Root of Wild Madder
Brian Murphy
When Rafif was still getting to know me, she couldn’t resist mocking my infatuation with carpets. Had she met me few years earlier, she would not have noticed in me the faintest interest in the world of carpets and kilims.
If she wants to hold someone accountable for this, it is to my friend Mouin Hamzé that the blame should be directed. Dr. Mouin Hamzé was the Secretary General of the Lebanese Council of Scientific Research, when we first met, I was the Secretary General of the Arab School on Science and Technology. Within a very short span of time, our professional relation turned into a friendship that transcended our scientific interests. At one point Mouin asked me: “How come that you incessantly search for beauty everywhere: in literature, in music, in architecture, and in art, but you totally neglect the great aesthetic value of the carpet”. I had no answer at all, for I was totally ignorant about carpets and their magical world.
Mouin was a great connoisseur of carpets and kilims, and very soon I became his ardent disciple. Whenever he would come from Beirut to Damascus for a professional meeting, we will have lunch together and precipitate to Souk Al-Hamidieh, where he knows all the hidden caches of the carpet traders and merchants there. He was my guide and my mentor in the world of carpets. I remember one day I was in the Bazaar of Fez, Morocco, when I fancied a carpet that I saw there, but would not buy it before calling Muin in Beirut, describing the carpet to him, and getting from him the ultimate advice.
As with everything else, to truly appreciate carpets, one has to read a lot, and learn considerably. And once I entered this realm, I became ever more interested in increasing my knowledge this most beautiful of handicrafts-an endless source of pleasure and joy.
One day, I was perusing the bookshelves at the Smithsonian’s book store when I discovered The Root of Wild Madder, Chasing the History, the Mystery, and Lore of the Persian Carpet, a most captivating title, written by Brian Murphy, a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and a lover of carpets.
The book is a mixture of many things: a travelogue through Iran and Afghanistan, a political analysis of their regimes, a socio-anthropological treatise of their people, but most of all, it is a book about carpets, and about those who weave them, those who dye them, those who trade them, and those who adore them. Brian Murphy uses a very poetic language to present all the above. And the book itself is a pleasure to read, with lots of stories, information, human conditions, and knowledge.
I would have never imagined that on finishing the book, I would have this envious desire to go and visit the inner parts of Iran and Afghanistan. Iran: plausible, but Afghanistan! I can’t believe this.
Here is a particularly poetic paragraph that verges on the mystic, in which Brian Murphy actually tells us that carpets embody man’s striving for unattainable perfection: “See this?” he said, his finger down the motifs, often called guls, after the Persian word for flower. “See how they are all slightly different: the lines, the number of dots? This is the hand of man. In a handmade carpet, the kind you seek, there can be no design exactly the same. Even if you try, agha, it’s impossible. The wool thread may be a different size and they could make only five knots when before it was six. Or the dye is a slightly different color. Small things, but important. This is the beauty you must see. There is beauty in these inconsistencies. It is human. It is life. But the gift of imagination and creativity comes from God. So you can see, these carpets show the perfect hand of God and the imperfect hand of man in trying to follow it".
Lest you think that the book does not offer practical advice and valuable skills, here is a very different excerpt: Knot counts appear in almost every carpet book, catalogue, and auction guide. It’s a convenient yardstick to compare the intricacy of the work. Carpets can range from a bumpy weave of fewer than thirty knots per square inch to two thousand or more in some exceptional silk carpets to create a finish as smooth as sanded wood. But it’s a seriously flawed method to assess quality or beauty. Most experts and experienced collectors pay little attention to the knot count, and, instead, look for the originality of design, the balance and interplay of colors, and the dyer’s craftsmanship-among other factors. One expert described using knot count to determine the quality of the carpet as like counting pixels to critique a digital photograph.
When Murphy reached the Afghan Turkmen belt in Bala Murghab, he was taken to see weavers in a mud-and-straw house. Three girls from the Saryk tribe were at work in a room connected to the main house by a corridor too narrow for his shoulders. He sat there for days watching the girls work. One or two days later, the following conversation took place between him and the eldest of the young weavers: “Asli,” I said, “ do you know that some people think there is something very sacred about carpets? “ If you mean do I think I am special in God’s eyes, then no. That is not right,” she cut me off, clearly becoming tired of my odd questions. “If you mean do I sometimes sense God while I am working, then the answer is yes. There are times when I finish a difficult border or gul and must stop just to look at it. It is like a small world all alone and separate: perfect and peaceful. God must be guiding our hands, I think. This is how he gets us to look beyond this world. This is what I feel sometimes.” I was stunned. This girl, illiterate and unexposed to any culture beyond her village-was mulling the very questions of metaphysics and theology that have occupied such seekers as Aristotle, Immaneul Kant, and Martin Heidiger. When you compare carpets to other masterworks of art, you realize that almost all the great achievements in the world of carpets are anonymous. Brian Murphy believes that weavers have woven into their carpets a hidden narrative that stems from their spirituality, culture, allegory, and mystery. “Every carpet carries its own distinctive voice. Suddenly I wanted to hear them”.
But it is not only the story of weavers. The title of the book reminds us of the major importance of colors, dies, and the plants used by dyers to make the carpet what it is. The madder plant has been used since the earliest weavings to provide carpets with the whole palette of the red color. The power of the madder red is also threatened along with the traditional dyers’s industry with the advent of modern dying techniques. And Brian Murphy is unequivocal about glorifying this wild plant and singing its praise. According to a carpet merchant from Tehran, “A carpet is poetry itself. You just have to learn to read them”. And so began the journey in chasing the history of the Persian carpet.
Kinda Hibrawi
Some of my favorite works by distinguished Syrian artists.
The ADC Conference
Once our Spanish vacation ended we were back to an exceptionally busy schedule in Washington. The same day we returned from Madrid, the Syrian Minister of Expatriates Dr. Buthaina Shabaan arrived in town to attend the annual conference of the Arab American Antidiscrimination Committee (ADC).
Usually, when the ADC conference convenes, with a large number of prominent Arab Americans arriving in town, as well as a number of prominent American scholars and politicians interested in the Arab American affairs, I become quite busy, add to this the visit of Dr. Shabaan and you can imagine the sort of week we had.
While attending the conference presentations, numerous side meetings take place, and lengthy political discussions ensue when Arab friends and acquaintances from across the United States get this rare chance to meet in one place. Naturally, Rafif and I took this opportunity to have as many guests as possible at our house for dinner every night. This included the prominent political pundit and former Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, the chairman of the Middle East Studies Association Professor Juane Cole, the author and film maker Saul Landau, the political analysts Edmund Gharib and Munzer Suleiman, the political writer/commentator Farah Hassan, the outstanding lawyer and academic David Kheirallah, as well as the two prominent Arab scholars: Halim Barakat and Clovis Maksoud.
Early next morning, the ADC invited its members to a Breakfast with Buthaina Shabaan where she talked about the Western media and how it deals with the Arab affairs and the situation in both Iraq and the occupied Palestinian territories. In the afternoon of the same day, I presented a speech on US-Syrian relations, and addressed the numerous questions of the audience, and in the evening we had yet another dinner, but this time with some prominent Lebanese Americans to discuss Syrian Lebanese relations.
Next day, we had a joint interview with the correspondent of Reuters, which coincided with an interview with me that Counterpunch had just published.
Three hectic days after our return from Spain, and I felt that the memories of our Andalusian trip seemed so far away that I couldn’t believe it only happened less than a week ago.
with Buthaina Shabaan, Asaad Jbara, and Omar Sharif
