navigator9
Well-Known Member
I'm wondering if there might be anyone knowledgeable about kilim rugs? I've always loved them, for their designs and their incredible colors. I can't afford a rug, but I have splurged occasionally on some pillows. I recently bought a couple, and I'm intrigued by something that I've never seen before in a kilim. At first, I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at, but then I realized that it's backwards. It's a name and a date, "MAHIR 1970". The letters are about an inch and a half tall. When I googled Mahir 1970, the first thing that came up was this. "Mahir Çayan (15 March 1946 in Samsun - 30 March 1972, Kızıldere) was a Turkish politician and the leader of People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi). He was a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary leader. On 30 March 1972, he was killed by soldiers with nine friends in Kızıldere village." So I'm wondering if maybe it might not have been politically prudent at that time to be a supporter of this Communist leader, and perhaps the weaver of the rug that this pillow was made from, wove his name backwards, to show his support, but discretely? I've never seen a name woven into a kilim before, but then again, I'm no expert. Or am I just romanticizing this whole thing? Maybe it's just the weaver's name, after all...but why backwards? Any ideas? I'm always curious about the story behind things.