Zamira Komilova

The Beauty of Bukhara’s Carpets 

Located in the Nugai caravansary in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, Zamira Komilova is creating stunning traditional Bukhara, soumak, and pile carpets from silk, wool, and cotton. Dyed with indigo, cochineal, walnut husk, madder root, and various tree and herb dyes, Komilova’s carpets are every bit as eye-catching as they are luxuriously soft. 

Central Asia is known for its incredible carpet weaving history. Records detail the ways in which many nomadic tribes were producing incredible carpets used as floor coverings in their tents and houses, nobility adorned their palaces with them as decor. Bukhara carpets are recognizable by their brilliant coloring and geometric patterns. Traditionally dyed with pomegranate skin, walnut husk, and madder, Bukhara carpets often come in a reddish-brown palette. To see a carpet adorned with images of the sun, amulets, and horns is said to protect the owner from misfortune and bring good luck and prosperity. Komilova and her workshop also make soumak rugs, which features a tapestry weaving technique of wrapping wefts over a certain number of warps, before drawing them under the last two warps. Komilova’s weavers pride themselves on their density of knots, which is about 600-1000 knots per square inch; this number of knots yields a higher quality carpet. 

Zamira Komilova began weaving professionally in the 1990s, however her grandmother initiated a love for Bukhara carpets at an early age, teaching Zamira how to make knots on the loom as a young girl. Today, Zamira owns her own workshop and employs over 20 women, each day their children come and visit them and are able to see with their own eyes how their mothers work and the beauty of the Bukhara craft, “They always want to touch the craft and try tying knots themselves. We are happy to let them and show them how to do it. We hope that for many of them, it may become a lifelong profession.”