While their bags are well known there is not that much information on the Jaf Kurd tribe and their weavings to be found in the Carpet literature. Bill Eagleton, in his book An Introduction to Kurdish Rugs, tells us that the Jaf are one of the Kurdish tribes of Iraq, although there are also Jaf Kurds to be found in Iran, that in the early years of the 20th century they numbered over 10,000 families, mostly occupied in agriculture but with some remnants still practicing trans-humant nomadism, that is, moving from winter to summer pastures.

Eagleton estimated that by the second half of the 20th century the Iraqi Jaf Kurds numbered several hundred thousand. Their main market town on the Iraqi side is Halabja, due east of Sannandaj (Senneh ), the famous center of Kurdish weaving of Iran. Sections of the tribe are further south and are sometimes referred to as the Kifri Jaf after the main town of that area. The ruling family of the Jaf Kurds is called the Begzadeh, who are believed to have entered the area in the mid 18th century with the nomadic Muradi section of the Persian Jaf tribe. Within a few years through conquest and land grants the Begzadeh Jaf took over a large area that had been inhabited by mostly non-tribal Kurds.

In the late 18th and 19th century they played an important political role under the Ottomans who ruled Iraq but also kept up their familial contacts with the Jaf Kurds of Persian Kurdistan. Like so many other Kurdish groups their divided loyalty has often been a source of conflict with the central government in Baghdad. Eagleton goes on to say in his chapter "The Weavings of Iraqi Kurdistan" in the catalogue Discoveries from Kurdish Looms, that "the dealers of Baghdad usually assign Kurdish weavings to one of four categories: the Jaf, the Herki (from the Hakkari regions just south of Turkey), the Dizai, and the Jazira or Mosul weavings (also called Cizre, using the Turkish spelling). C. J. Edmonds in his 1957 book on the Kurds called the Jaf "the Kurds par exellence, the most important tribe of southern Kurdistan.”

Eagleton reported that the wealth of the Jaf tribe was based on the agricultural products of the well-watered Sharizur valley. No doubt it was also advantageous for them to be straddling the important borderlands between the Ottoman and Persian empires for both smuggling and legitmate commercial benefits. The famous British officer (and spy) Mark Sykes reported in 1908 that the Jaf were prolific weavers of pile rugs, and especially of their famous pile bags as well as kilims. However, by the second half of the 20th century most of their weaving abiliy had disappeared along with their semi-nomadic lifestyle. One tragic postnote on the Jaf Kurds: You may recall that Halabja and its Kurdish population was the focus of Saddam Hussein's ethnic cleansing campaign and the horrific poison gas attacks of the late 1980's.

The Weavings: The most important and recognizable product of the Jaf Kurds is their pile storage and saddle bags. Eagleton says they were exported from Baghdad and Iran in the thousands to Europe and the USA in the first half of the 20th century. The older bags have clear vegetal dyed colors of red, green, several version of blue, subtle purples and brown. The newer ones have fewer colors and are darker with less use of white. A characteristic of these bags is the formation of the elongated diamond guls by slanting the knots one warp at a time rather than the normal two. Another sign of Jaf weaving is the twining and weft float brocade at the edges of the pile. Some of the bags are extraordinarily thick with a luxurious pile that is almost angora goat wool in quality, but in general all Jaff products use soft fine and lustrous wool. The Jaf always use symmetric knotting in the pile. While there are a few examples of main carpets using the hooked diamond gul the bag faces are the most typical.

On first inspection it would seem there is very little variation or originality in the design of the Jaf bags, uncharacteristic for Kurdish weaving, which are famous for their lack of regularity. However, in the presentation and our Show and Tell we will learn to differentiate among different types and groups of these magnificent weavings.

Peter Poullada