MİLAS RUGS

Milas is a county of the province of Muğla in the Aegean Region. According to relevant resources, prayer rugs were woven in Muğla in the 16th Century. Carpet weaving started to develop after the 17th Century and continued in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Then, the tradition has survived to our modern day.

Today, rugs from the 18th and 19th Century are more visible (1) and these are mostly woollen prayer rugs coloured with madders and natural dyes. Characteristic colours are peach red, honey yellow and white with rare uses of blue and green. Most examples have 1500-2500 knots per dm² and 152000 knots per m² (2).

Modern Milas rugs are generally woven in wool. The wool is obtained from household sheep bred by each family.

In recent years, 26 colours have been used in rugs. Among the public, the dominant colours are peach or strawberry red, black, purple, brown, yellow and white. Warp yarns are mostly in red and dark red. 

The weaving is performed in the Turkish knot technique. Milas rugs are dominated by 30x35, 26x33 and 32x39 qualities per 10x10 cm. Among the public, the quality is measured according to the number of warps stretched on the rug and the size varies on the basis of the number of warps. Pile height is in the range of 0.5 and 1 cm.

A Milas rug has different sections known colloquially as çentik, doğru, küçüksu, büyüksu, mihrap, göbek and eğme.

The patterns are created either by heart or by imitating formerly woven rugs.

Multiple patterns are included in a single rug and rugs vary according to their patterns and places of weaving. The most famous rugs are Karaova type island Milas, island Milas piçi, Bozanan type Milas, Karacahisar type (3), gemici suyu, eli koynunda, tarakli, kabuksuz, çingilli cafer, sandikli, island kizi (island girl) , snake Milas (4), kösele, çentik, paracik, inceboncuk, köpekizi, Ladik Milas and yörük Milas. In general, prayer rugs are dominant.

Rugs referred to as ‘yoruk Milas’, ‘tahtaci (wooden) Milas’ and ‘star yoruk’ are quite common in the mountain villages of Mazi, Pinarbele and Karaova.

These areas were the first settlements of Turkmens that arrived at the Taurus Mountains in the early 19th Century. Since the population was involved in wood works, these rugs woven by Turkmens and woven in other mountainous areas were accordingly denominated and are still known today with these names.

With black warps, these rugs are ornamented more with geometric designs when compared to other Milas rugs. Examples especially ornamented with star patterns and thus known as ‘star yoruk’ are quite famous.    

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