AStudyoftheCentralToranjDesigninBabaHeydar’sCarpets

Carpet weaving is an industrial art that initially emerged because of man’s material need for a floor covering and later reached its peak of beauty through mixing with a sense of aestheticism. Iran has always acted as a pioneer in this process of attaining perfection. The characteristics of Iranian carpets have made these hand-woven products known to the world as the symbol of the supreme artistic legacy of Iran. The variety of the designs of Iranian carpets are as vast as the area of this art-loving and art-nurturing country. Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province is not an exception in this regard and, because of its particular geographical features, it enjoys desirable conditions for carpet production. The carpets of this province enjoy great variety in terms of design, and some of them contain geometrical patterns. A group of carpets with geometrical patterns are woven in Baba Heydar region. Despite the great variety in the designs of these carpets, few if any study has been conducted in order to introduce and explore their features. Accordingly, the authors of this paper decided to locate some of the existing samples, photograph them, and provide the necessary explanations regarding their designs in order to record the most prominent designs and patterns of the carpets woven in this region. The main purpose of choosing this topic was to identify and examine the design of geometrical carpets with the toranj )medallion( pattern, which are not much woven in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province anymore. In this way, they hope to be able to prevent the gradual forgetting of this style and pave the way for developing a pictorial treasure of the carpets of the regions which do not normally receive much attention. As a result, we will be able to protect micro-cultures and, following them, our national culture more than ever before.