The long-haired beauty of Zakatala rugs

During Milan Design Week, Altai Gallery held a spectacular exhibition of its collection of Zakatala rugs. We celebrate the event with an adapted extract from a recent article in HALI magazine by Cosima Stewart, who has been working with Elisa and Raffaele Carrieri of Altai on an upcoming book on...

During Milan Design Week, Altai Gallery held a spectacular exhibition of its collection of Zakatala rugs. We celebrate the event with an adapted extract from a recent article in HALI magazine by Cosima Stewart, who has been working with Elisa and Raffaele Carrieri of Altai on an upcoming book on the weavings.

Anyone who has spent a night in the mountains without a tent will understand why Zakatala rugs are the way they are. Soft hanks of unspun sheep’s wool afford maximum comfort and warmth. Fleecy tufts, knotted at intervals on a flatweave foundation, transform the surface of the rug into a dimensional field. Usually described as Kurdish rugs, they are long overdue a closer assessment—of their unusual structure and the light they shed on eastern Anatolian weaving culture.

Zakatala (Zaqatala) is a town in northern Azerbaijan, and while these rugs are mainly woven in southeast Anatolia, it is likely they are part of a wider weaving culture that extended far to the north.

Despite the relative coarseness of the wool fibres, Zakatala tend to have a surprisingly supple, blanket-like handle, striking a balance between softness and durability. The pile length is dictated by the length of the fleece, shorn from long-haired mountain sheep breeds and knotted symmetrically, untrimmed, directly onto the foundation. These are so thick that, if fullpiled, the tufts extend in all directions, outwards and upwards ‘against the pile’. This distinctive, explosive effect complements the typical design, a series of concentric squares, blurred by overlapping tongues of colour.

These are double-sided rugs, their reverse often decorated with scattered weft-float brocade motifs. This was the curatorial concept behind the Altai exhibition for Milan Design Week 2025. A selection of Zakatala were hung from the ceiling and attached to tiny motors, allowing them to rotate gracefully and display both their shaggy pile and embellished reverse sides. Weavings used by nomads had to be packed and unpacked, rolled up during the day, or draped across a screen within the tent, and in this context their double-sided beauty makes sense. The installation proved to be a playful, impressive way to show the extraordinary dimensionality and presence of these weavings.

In order to meet those who made and lived with these rugs, Altai Gallery prepared a small team and, with oriental carpet specialist and tour guide Deniz Coşkun, organised a research trip in July 2024. In villages between Adıyaman and Sivas, more than twenty-five interviews were recorded. Some moments from these encounters were produced as a short film for the exhibition, shown in a gallery space darkened by goathair panels. Insights from this fieldwork will be included in a forthcoming book publishing the Altai Collection and offering a new perspective on weavings from Anatolia, Central Asia and western Africa.

Karaca Dağ was among the places visited, historically the summer quarters of certain Kurdish tribes migrating between northern Syria and eastern Anatolia. There, we spoke with an extended family of Sunni Kurds who lived in a breezeblock house organised like a tent with male and female quarters, and no furniture, just rugs and cushions.

The older women told us that they did not weave Zakatala, but their mothers were the last generation to do so. When honoured guests came, the rugs would be propped up, showing only the pile side. When asked why the reverse was decorated, they said that the workmanship increased the value of the piece—even if the embellishments remained unseen. The rugs were the primary part of a dowry. The women described working at night by the light of oil lamps placed on either side of the ground loom, chanting as they worked.

High altitudes, sleeping in tents and harsh winters require warm rugs, provided by sheep with relatively long, coarse fleece. The structural characteristics that Zakatala share with Fars gabbeh in Iran point to a conclusion they are effectively eastern Anatolia’s response to the same need: maximum durability and warmth.

Cosima Stewart