commercial
purposes. A student of rugs can readily understand that throughout the
vast territory which concentrates its commerce in Smyrna there are a
score or more of valuable manufactures which could never be known under
one descriptive name.

_Sparta_ rugs are made in a village bearing that name situated in the
interior not far from Smyrna. They are very heavy, firm, and in
different colors. Some of those recently made are especially fine.
Attention is being paid to harmonious coloring as well as to quality and
texture. A splendid specimen is in the home of the leading merchant of
Smyrna. It is in the softest shades of rose and blue, with a lustrous
sheen. The texture is as fine as velvet, and the medallion in the centre
is most gracefully designed. Many rugs are sold under the name of
_Cassaba_, which are really woven at Sparta.

_Yaprak_ (see Ouchak) rugs.

_Yuruk_ rugs are so called from a band of nomads who dwell among the
mountains of Anatolia. They have large flocks of sheep, and weave rugs
of strong, hardy texture. The colors are very good, the field often of
brown, ornamented with large, bold designs.

III

RUG-WEAVING IN INDIA, AFGHANISTAN, BELUCHISTAN, CENTRAL ASIA, AND THE
CAUSCASUS REGION

INDIAN RUGS

The manufacture of rugs was introduced into India by the Mohammedans at
their first invasion in the beginning of the eleventh century. Persian
rugs, however, were always preferred to those made in India, and princes
and nobles of the Delhi Court, when it was in its greatest splendor,
sought the fabrics woven in Herat, or by the Sharrokhs on the Attrek, or
the nomad tribes of Western Kurdistan. These were purchased only by the
princes and their wealthy followers. A few specimens of these rugs still
remain in India, and are now and then reproduced with more or less
accuracy.

In the sixteenth century, however, the Emperor Akbar, or more properly
Jalal-ud-Din Mahomed, sent for Persian weavers to make the exquisite
fabrics for which Persia was then so famous. At first these weavers
continued to weave according to the designs employed in their own land;
but it is not surprising that as time went on, and the natives of India
learned the art of weaving from the Persians, Hindoo ideas should have
found expression, in Southern India especially. Thus geometrical designs
were substituted for floral, although even now the designs of some
Indian rugs revive memories of Persian teachers in the careful