Bidjar

This colorful Bidjar runner uses a classic floral ‘mina khani’ design. The ‘mina khani’ pattern is usually characterized by large alternating floral buds interspersed with a row of smaller flanking jasmine flowers. During the nineteenth-century it became an increasingly popular design among Kurdish weavers in Northwest Persia. This runner, while faithful to the design, is remarkably innovative in its use of vivid and varied color. Instead of the typical white smaller blossoms, here the paired small flowers are rendered in a rainbow of colors from blue to yellow to red. White is still utilized, noticeably in the vine-scroll which forms rounded sections framing the large cruciform or ‘chemcheh’ blossoms of the field, but its more significant role is as the ground for two small guard-borders, highlighting and framing the field and main border.