A handmade carpet is one of the most well-known handcrafts around the world. Iranian handmade carpets are known as luxury products in domestic and international markets due to their strength and product value. The main objective of this research is to apply a geographical information system (GIS)-based, spatially-explicit approach to assess the sustainability of handmade carpet production in the East Azerbaijan Province of Iran, which is internationally famous for the diversity and quality of its handmade carpets. To achieve this goal, we employed 23 criteria in four main clusters: population characteristics, education status, employment status, and business activities related to the carpet industry. In order to determine the significance of each criterion, an integrated approach of fuzzy and network analysis processes was applied. Accordingly, the GIS aggregation function was employed to map and identify the areas that are suitable and of high potential for handmade carpet production. The results indicate that there is a very high potential for handmade carpet production in some areas of Tabriz, Osku, Marageh, Heris, and Meyaneh counties. However, high sustainability also extends to some areas in Marand, Bonab, and Kalaybar counties. The obtained maps present the potential of each city and village for handmade carpet production. The research also aims to evaluate and suggest relevant policies and practices to overcome the identified challenges in order to promote, develop, and preserve the handmade carpet sector. The results of this research are of great importance for different stakeholders in the handmade production and for decision makers and authorities in the East Azerbaijan Province. The results can be used to determine the potential of each area for handmade carpet production and to highlight potential challenges. This research also presents a new approach for sustainability assessments in studies on handcrafts and, in particular, carpets.
As one of Iranian cultural industries, carpet owns an ancient background and archaism.Primarily, it has been created due to the needs. Iranian hand-made carpet, as a symbol of Iranian art, which is culturally and nationally so important, through the years it has been a suitable bed for emanation of beliefs and credence of local artists, which its figures are projecting it. Carpets are full-view mirrors of Iranian artist's enthusiasm, emotions, and worldview. Along with other phenomenon of the time, pictorial carpets emerged and formed in the late 18P th P century, following evolutions in various art fields in Iran and while enlisting new possibilities, like printing pictures and images, gained a new expression in Iranian carpet weaving. Pictorial carpets were a major group of Iranian carpets in Qajar era. Therefore, studying and analyzing this group of newly emerged carpets will explain different aspects regarding the history of carpet weaving, especially about design and figure of carpets. Illustrations in carpet weaving could be related to various cultural, social, political, and artistry issues of the era. Here, while introducing effective factors in emergence of these types of carpets, we classify the pictorial carpets based on applied themes and topics. This article introduces the underlying causes in emergence of pictorial carpets, like influencing from western culture and art, attitudes toward realism, human oriented thoughts and emergence of photography and printing and their corresponding effect.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.