Whatever you name it; weather they be carpets, rugs, kilims or sumaks, any material placed on the floors are named as yayg› in Turkish meaning spread in English. In the Western world, all types of hand woven spreads or yayg› are called Oriental carpets. When trying to explain what a carpet or a rug is, such generalisations usually cause confusion. I would like to make a general classification in this article to avoid such confusion in my future articles: From now on, whenever I mention hand woven carpets in my articles, I will be talking of hand woven carpets in the Balkans, Anatolia, Caucasia, Central Asia, Pakistan, India, Tibet, Afghanistan and China.
From 16th Century, till the beginning of 20th Century hand made carpets were produced in Europe and the USA, but in this article I will not mention them to avoid further confusion. In this article I will be drawing your attention only to the rugs of above mentioned countries.
At this point I have to make another definition. If we need to make a general classification on yayg›s or spreads, we may divide them into to categories: Those woven for commercial purposes and those woven to be used at the weaver's home.
Spreads woven for commercial purposes are not as interesting as the others. We can say that their artistic values are less than the other category. But this doesn't mean that commercial carpets require less labour or that they are less valuable. The main difference is that they are woven to be sold.
Weather they be woven by a Turkish or an Armenian or a Chinese, every one of these carpets bear the meticulous and painstaking work of sensitive women. Let's not forget that eventhough they were produced for commercial purposes, they were still made of hig hest quality material. Besides; Turkish Sivas, U?ak, Ladik, Milas carpets; Iranian Tebriz, Sultanabat, Bidjar; Armenian Goli-farangoli; Indian Agra; Chinese dynasty; and Egyptian Mamaluk carpets were coloured with most sophisticated dyes of their days and some were designed by European designers such as Australian Ziegler in the second half of the 19th Century.

Since some spreads were produced to be sold in their own country, their designs were made by local artists to suit the tastes of the local aristocracy and were produced at the areas where labour was considerably cheap. Old or new, these are what we call commercially produced carpets. 'Honest' samples of these carpets are exceptionally beautiful and almost all of them have been produced in multiples. Although favored carpets are produced in numbers -weather they be old or new- they still remain a precious household item. But they lack creativity in design..
Those carpets woven to be used at the home of the weaver, are usually made from the best materials available. The weaver is completely free in setting the proportions of the designs, choice and balance of the colours and overall composition. She, in this case is weaving solely for her self and will show off to her family, relatives and neighbours. While she weves, she reveals all her accumulated feelings.During the early years of my profession, when I met noncommercial weavers, the most striking thing for me was the importance they attached to the I factor. "I made this carpet" they would say; or "My daughter made this one"; or, "I wove three parts of this carpet"; or "another part was woven by my mother in law. This approch reflects a real artistic jelaousy. I

is no different to an artist's signature on his painting. In some instances, the weaver wouldn't hesitate to destroye a beautiful designs by writing her name at the middle of the carpet with large letters. This is a concrete examples of jelaous possession one's own art.
Commercial or not, the most important thing is that they be appreciated by others. However In commercial carpets however, appreciation is shared between firstly by the producer (since this is a commercial business, and profit is the ultimate motive), and then by the designer, the dyer and by the weaver. Whereas in the non-commercial carpets, everything is decided and done by a single woman and only one ego needs satisfaction.
However it is not possible to classify non-commercial carpets in itsself. For instance, , the nomads (Yörük) of Turkomen origin have for centuries woven carpets whereever they have gone -except the Black Sea region.
During the 17th and 18th Centuries, the Southern Marmara and Central Aegean regions produced real masterpieces. Konya in Central Anatolia is one of the most important carpet centres. Till the beginning of last century, Ürgüp region produced magnificent pieces. Till the 1930's and 40's it's known that at Malatya, Antep, Ka€›zman, Elaz›€, extremely valuable carpets were woven.
As I already mentioned, weather they be commercial or non-commercial, all carpets are real works of art. In this article I made a very broad classification. In my forthcoming articles the frame will get narrower.