Suzani
Suzanis are charming, yet boldly graphic. Both earthy and sophisticated.
Whether folded primarily at the end of a bed or boldly upholstered on a chair.
The Suzani adds just the right amount of punch to any room.
If you want my dear reader to know what is the meaning of Suzani and its birth, continue reading the forward text.
Suzani comes from the Persian word for needle and the word refers to embroidered hangings or fabric coverings.
Generally a meter and a half wide but sometimes much more.
The birthplace of suzanis is in what is now Uzbekistan.
The area along the Silk Roads that interconnected the cultures of Europe,Turkey and China with the Muslim world.
Less is known about suzanis than about other textiles. Except at a few museums, suzanis have been little studied because, traditionally they were made in the home for personal use and thus rarely appeared in the written records of merchants or travellers. The oldest surviving suzanis are from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but it seems likely that they were in use long before that. It is interesting that in the 1780's, the time of the first surviving suzanis, Haji Murad,
The emir (prince) of Bukhara. The stitches used for suzanis are simple.
There are two kinds of couching, basma and the slanting kanda khayol for filling and a chain stitch (tambur) and a kind of double buttonhole stitch (ilmok) to work the outlines.
The thread is normally silk or sometimes cotton and very rarely wool. In older pieces, of course, natural dyes were used, indigo from India for blue, cochineal and madder for red, saffron from the wild crocus for yellow, pomegranate skins or pistachio with iron for black. Suzani hold a very special place in traditional Central Asian culture and in Syria now is very common. Such kind of embroideries along with carpets decorate the living rooms of Syrian velvet community.
