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| Guide To Dragon Rugs |
Of all the carpets of the Caucasus the Dragon Carpets are perhaps the most magnificence. Dating from the 17th century to the early 19th century there exact origin is a subject of some dispute. Gennerally attributed to Karabagh or Shirvan they were at one point attributed to Kuba.
The Kuba attribution is muddied a bit. In Early Caucasian Rugs Charles Grant Ellis quotes the Encyclopedia of Islam that Kuba "did not exist until C, 1750. Early Caucasian Rugs page 10. I have heard the same from John Wertime discounting Kuba because it was not established until the mid 18th century. (Conversation at Hajji Baba meeting at Wedell Swan's house with Wertime) The problem with this is that the United States Embassy confirmes the existance of a 16th-century fortress that dominates the city of Kuba. US Embassy Baku Call me suspicious but I have to suspect that the city is at least as old as the fortress in the city. So while I am not sugesting a Kuba provenance I am not ruleing it out either.
The leading theory today is the Shusha hypothesis. Shusha the leading city of Karabagh and I think terming it the Karabagh hypothesis makes it more plausabile. in the mid 16th century Shah Tahmasp began to use the Armenians of the Caucasus (still part of Safavid Persia) as royal merchants.
The Czarist Russians began to solidify their hold as early as 1805 - 1820 but they did not truly control the region for many years. With the capture of the great rebel religious leader Shamyl in 1859 and the end of the rebellion in 1864 did Czarist control truly solidify regional control. In 1865 to eliminate risk of future rebellion the Russians forced 1,2 million Caucasians to move to Turkey. http://www.mediaport.org/~caucasus/history/ I strongly suspect that areas such as Ngorno-Karabahk which were historically Moslem were depopulated and then repopulated with Armenians. As Christians the Armenians had an easier time with the Christian Russians.
The historical capitol Shusha was an ancient village in Karabakh that gained in importance when Panah Ali-khan Javanshir built a nearby fortress. From there he established himself as a Khan of an independent Khanate. Shusha was able to beat back the Persians in 1795 (VAR: SHUSHA -- City of Shusha, Karabakh region of Azerbaijan) but not many years later (1805) the Khanate fell to the Czarist Russians. http://scf.usc.edu/~baguirov/azeri.htm
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