The tents of Turcomans in Azerbaijan (James Morier, [1815-1816] 1837)

The tents of Turcomans in Azerbaijan

The value of an I’liyat¹ tent is about six to seven tumans. It is made of goats’ hair, consisting of cloths about a foot and a quarter in width, wove by the women. All the members of a family, men, women, and children, are usually employed spinning goats’ hair, which is either in actual use in the loom, or laid by for sale. They weave the cloth in a portable loom, which they fix in the rudest manner possible, but which answers all the purposes for which it is intended. This cloth is of strong texture, impervious to rain, and will last twenty years. The covering of one of the tents is generally about forty feet in length, and twenty in breadth, and is erected upon a range of poles, the back and sides being fitted up with reeds made into walls, and is fastened to the ground with pegs. The tents are extremely rude, and do not show any appearance of attention to comfort. In Azerbaijan and the more northern, and consequently rainy countries, they have another sort of tent, which has been borrowed from the Turkomans. This consists of ribs united, and, when pen, is like a cage, on which thick felts are thrown, and it is entered by a narrow door. It is called alajeh²; the goats’ hair tents are called ḳarah chader, or black tent.

¹I’liyat and I’lat (Memoirs of Abu-l Kerim, by Gladwin, p. 29) are the Arabic plurals of I’liyah or I’lah, singulars formed from the Turkish word I’l, or its derivative I’li. I’l, and consequently I’lah, signifies a family or tribe, and is synonymous with the Arabic word ‘ashirah, used for “tribe” by the Kurds. Hence, it may be remarked, the names of several Turkish provinces, I’ch-il, Hamid-ili, Khojah-ili, Rum-ili, &c., mean the country inhabited by “the Interior Family,” or tribe of Hamid, Khojah, the Romans, &c. The first writer who speaks of the I’liyat, under the name of Elli, is the learned Jesuit, Villotte (Voyages d’un Missionaire, Paris, 1730, p. 112). Accounts of them are also given by M. Rousseau (Notice Historique de la Perse), Sir J. Malcolm (History of Persia, vol. i p. 502), Sir W. Ouseley (Travels, vol. i. p. 307), M. Jaubert (Voyages, 240, 241, 250-256), Malte-Brun (Precis de la Géographie, vol. iii. P. 280), and M. Dupré (Voyage en Perse, Paris, 1819, vol. ii. p. 452).

²Or alajak, «a portable hut,» ― a Chghatai term.

James Morier — Some Account of the I'liyats, or Wandering Tribes of Persia, obtained in the Years 1814 and 1815 (1837)