WHAT WE LEARN FROM TURKMEN CARPETS

Despite an ever-increasing interest in Turkmen carpets in the West, little information was available about them until recently. Most studies are about the aesthetic and technical aspects of the carpets and rugs. This article looks at these carpets from a linguistic point of view. Initially, the article deals with the etymology of the word hal？ meaning ‘carpet’ which has been the subject of an ongoing dispute between Turkic and Iranian carpet experts who are not linguists. While studying the Turkmen verb yügürt- meaning ‘to begin weaving’ in carpet terminology, we found the root of the word yurt originally meaning ‘abandoned tent site’ in the word used as yügürt > yüwürt in Turkmen dialects. This term also helped us find the root of the archaic Türkic word yur？ meaning ‘the husband’s brother’. For getting married or tying the knot in some Turkic languages the term nikah k？ymak ( nikah k？sm？k) is used. Nikah is an Arabic word meaning ‘marriage’ and Turkic words k？ymak and k？sm？k mean ‘to cut, to slice’. No one has ever paid attention to this anomaly about nikah being cut. The equivalent of nikah in Old Turkish is tügün which means ‘knot’. Therefore, to get married in Old Turkish is to cut the knot. The fact that the act of cutting the knot is related to carpet weaving, could be observed in Turkmen marriage rituals; when a mullah is conducting the marriage ceremony, a woman constantly opens and closes a pair of sc？sors as if cutting a knot. The most important pattern of the Turkmen rugs and carpets is called g？l meaning ‘lake’. Every Turkmen tribe has its own g？l. This pattern is related to the yir sub ‘earth and water’ cult of Shamanism. The concept of earth in Shamanism is expressed by the mountain that is regarded as a sacred place. Animals that live in the mountains are thought to be awliyas or saints. For example, the mountain ram called Konurba？ is an awliya and it bears the name of a mode in Turkmen folk music called konurba？ mukam？. In Turkmen carpets mountain is used as a pattern in the form of an Old Turkish runic letter t/ta. For the pattern of home which is also a sacred place, the letter b/eb is used. In the Turkmen Sahra region of northern Iran, at the foot of the mountain called G？k？e Da？, near the historic graveyard of Halid Nabi, there were watermelon-shaped tombstones with symbols on them. These symbols are similar to some of the patterns seen on the Turkmen carpets. Many carpet experts have written about the relationship between carpet and music, but no one has reached a concrete conclus？on. This article proves that the name of the