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| Guide to Bordjalou Rugs |
This page is under extensive revision. I am now convinced that Bordjalu should be and can be divided by it's three historic provinces, Marneuli, Gardabani and Bolnisi. I will soon get around to revising this page. In the mean time enjoy the rugs and you can follow my new line of reasoning in The Daniels Collection Bordjalu Rugs
What is Borchali?
BRIEF HISTORY: The Sultanate of Borchali was located in the southeastern part of Georgia and in the eastern part of today's Turkey. At the beginning of the 18th century, Borchali was vassal of the Khanate of Ganja and in 1736 was ceded by Persian Emperor Nadir Shah Afshar to the Georgian Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti. Borchali was composed of today's Georgian districts of Marneuli, Gardabani and Bolnisi
There seems a clear dichotomy in the rugs attributed to the Bordjalu area. Bordjalu is a collection point in southern Georgia for the area that runs up the southern ridge of the Caucasus south of Tbilisi. This is the quintessential Type A.
Since Borchalo was divided into three provinces; Marneuli, Gardabani and Bolnisi I suggest that we can construct a probable grouping by seeking to trifurcate the group. By taking the available rugs and dividing them into groups we end up with three logical groups. The easiest one is the Karayazy or Gardabani Group since there is a firm body of rugs and pictorial evidence to give us firm anchor rugs, So now we have two groups and two regions. Type A looks very close to examples that I feel have a high probability of being Armenian. Take for example Bennett, Ian et al. Oriental Rugs Volume 1 Caucasian. plate 69. The field is related to the Type A Bordjalu. The main border however is Armenian, Compare plate 69 to plate 140 a rug attributed to Erivan. Bolnisi is the southwestern most region of the Borchallo area. It historically has had the greatest concentration of Armenians.
If we attribute the Type A Borchally rugs to
Borchalo, Borchaly, Borcialu, Borchalo, Bor`calo
Borchalo is an Azeri Turk city in the Republic of Georgia. It is now called Marneuli and was formally called Borchalo or Bor`calo until 1947. GEORGIA : urban population
Borchalo had a large Armenian population until the Armenia/Georgian war of 1918. Still has significant Armenian and Azeri population. The Bordchalu are a Hamadan area tribe. At some point there was a split and paret of the tribe ended up in the Kazak area of what is now the Republic og Georgia.
In about 1179 a young man who would grow up to be Cinggis Qahan (Ghengis Khan) was aided by the son of the Chieftain of the Arulat clan. The young man was Bo'orcu. He became one of Cinggis Qahan's Dorben Kulu'ud (Great Warriors). In the Yuan ch'ao pi-shih, quatrain 205, it is recorded that later in life Cinggis Qahan said "Let Bo'orcu govern the ten thousand of the right hand which take the Altai as pillow." In other words the Qahan gave a proto-tribal unit to a key general. I am certainly no linguist but I translate Borchalu as Bo'orcu Lu or the people of Bo'orcu. The Lu of Bo'orculu as coming from the same root as the Mongol term Ulus which means the land, animals, and people, that a that an IL or tribal group controls. These people became known as the Bo'orculu or people of Bo'orcu. Over the years Bo'orculu becomes Borchalu. So if Ford is correct and I believe he is that the Borchalu are Mongol than they must be descended from the Horde of Bo'orcu.
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