Siirt woven felt Battaniye
Robert Cobcroft
Imitation animal hair blankets woven today by Kurdish men in the south eastern Turkish town of Siirt in Siirt province were probably produced in surrounding regions encompassing northern Iraq and western Iran as far south as Kuzestan for more than two thousand years. In the last few decades Turkish marketers sold these siirt battaniyesi into markets in Europe and the United States, indelibly linking the town of Siirt with the faux-fur blanket itself. Siirt has become the most recent place of production, by way of association these minimalist fur-like flat weaves with origins in antiquity have recently become known as siirt.
Read More