Konya 18th carpet with Memling gul design

A ''gul'' (also written ''gol'', ''göl'' and ''gül'') is a medallion-like design element typical of traditional hand-

woven Woven fabric is any textile formed by weaving. Woven fabrics, often created on a loom, are made of many threads woven in a warp and weft. Technically, a woven fabric is any fabric made by interlacing two or more threads at right angles to one anot ...

carpets from Central and

West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

. In Turkmen weavings they are often repeated to form the pattern in the main field.

Shape

''Gul'' are medallions, often

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

al, and often somewhat angular on a generally octagonal plan, though they can be somewhat rounded within the constraints of carpet-weaving, and some are lozenge-shaped (

rhombus In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (: rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The rhom ...

es). They usually have either twofold rotational symmetry or mirror

reflection symmetry In mathematics, reflection symmetry, line symmetry, mirror symmetry, or mirror-image symmetry is symmetry with respect to a Reflection (mathematics), reflection. That is, a figure which does not change upon undergoing a reflection has reflecti ...

(often both left/right and up/down). ''Gul'' were historically described in the West as being elephant's foot motifs. Other Western guesses held that the ''gul'' was a drawing of a round Turkmen tent, with lines between tents representing irrigation canals; or that the emblem was a

totem A totem (from or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage (anthropology), lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While the word ...

ic bird. None of these descriptions have any basis in weaving tradition or culture.

Etymology

The term ''gul'', ''gol'', ''göl'' or ''gül'' is used widely across Central and West Asia, and among carpet specialists in the West. It is derived from the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

word gol (گل) which means flower or rose.

Usage

In Turkmen weavings, such as bags and rugs, guls are often repeated to form the basic pattern in the main field (excluding the border). The different Turkmen tribes such as Tekke,

Salor Salor is a state constituency in Kelantan, Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States ...

Ersari Ersari (, where ''Er'' - brave man, master; ''sari'' - light, bright, yellow) are one of the major tribes of the Turkmen people of Central Asia and one of the five major tribes of the country of Turkmenistan. They live mainly in Turkmenistan, ...

and

Yomut The Yomut, also spelled Yomud or Iomud, are a Turkmen tribe who reside in Turkmenistan and Iran. There is a common belief about the origin of the name Yomut. It is said that a long time ago, Indigenous people settled by the Caspian Sea and we ...

traditionally wove a variety of guls, some of ancient design, but gul designs were often used by more than one tribe, and by non-Turkmens. Western authors have used comparison of the "design vocabulary" of tribal guls, reproduced on traditional rugs, in studying the

ethnogenesis Ethnogenesis (; ) is the formation and development of an ethnic group. This can originate by group self-identification or by outside identification. The term ''ethnogenesis'' was originally a mid-19th-century neologism that was later introduce ...

of Asian peoples.

In Western culture

Western artists including

Hans Memling Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; – 11 August 1494) was a German-Flemish people, Flemish painter who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. Born in the Middle Rhine region, he probably spent his childhood in Mainz. During ...

depicted oriental carpets from Turkish Anatolia with guls in several of his paintings, to the extent that these are known as

Memling carpet Oriental carpet, Carpets of Middle-Eastern origin, either from Turkish carpet, Anatolia, Persian carpet, Persia, Armenian carpet, Armenia, Levant, the Mamluk state of Egypt or Northern Africa, were used as decorative features in Western European ...

s. These guls often contain star or (hooked) dragon motifs as found on 15th century

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

carpets. The presence of the hooked motif defines a "Memling carpet". The artists

Lorenzo Lotto Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480 – 1556/57) was an Italian Renaissance painter, draughtsman, and illustrator, traditionally placed in the Venetian school, though much of his career was spent in other north Italian cities. He painted mainly altarpie ...

and Hans Holbein who similarly depicted Anatolian carpets also have the varieties they painted named after them.

Shape

Etymology

Usage

In Western culture

See also

References

Further reading