Enjilas Rugs
Antique Enjilas Rugs and Carpets
Enjilas is a village just south of Hamadan and west of Gombad. It is too small to show up on most maps. The village is noted for the best quality of Hamadan Rug.
Enjelas Rugs are commonly seen as a sub group of Hamadan Rugs. It is common to lump these rugs from Hamadan province and a number of surrounding provinces which use a single weft structure as Hamadan Rugs. As I go along I am sorting out the various groups as best I can. The one common tread besides the wefts is that most of these groups are woven by the descendents of Shia refugees who moved south when the Czarist Russians occupied the Persian Caucasus.
The Enjelas, Enjilas, or Ingilois are descended from the Ingilois of the Sultanate of Ilisu in Chartalah (Chechnya). In March of 1830 the Russian Army seized Chartalah which started a protracted war with Sultan Daniyal leading his men in a series of battles against the Rus. The Ingilois were Georgian Moslems who were held as surf to the Sultan. At this point they were able to move south into Persia.
Just to the north of Enjilas is Everu. Everu rugs are close in quality to Enjilas rugs but they are coarser and not quite as pretty. Nontheless they are often sold as Enjilas since Enjilas rugs bring a little more money. Enjilas rugs are about the finest of the hamadan rugs at 105 – 130 kpsi. 130 kpsi is equal to 30 Raj as the Iranians count it and is low for a city rug but Hamadan Rugs are village rugs and that is very respetable. Everu rugs for example genneraly come in at about 90 kpsi
Enjilas Rugs use the Hamadan Rug Weave
Single weft is called “Sennah Baft” or Hamadan weave. Here the wefts are rigid and the warps are sinuous. As you can see in the sketch the wefts are heavier than the warps. It is woven with symmetrical knots. Since there is only one shot of weft between each row of knots this shows every other warp which makes these rugs easy to spot.
