How to buy Jajim

Definition

Jajim is a lightweight warp-faced flatweave, distinguished from kilim by its typically narrower loom width and the resulting practice of weaving in strips that are later joined edge to edge to make a full-sized cover. The narrow-loom method suited weavers who moved seasonally and could not maintain a wide fixed loom.

The finished cloth is thinner and more supple than a kilim, and its structure — bands of colour running the length of the warp, often patterned with small supplementary-weft figures — gives jajim a characteristically striped appearance even where additional motifs are worked in.

History

Jajim weaving is documented among village and pastoral communities in northwestern and central Iran, particularly associated with Azerbaijani-speaking weaving groups, though the craft has historically been practised more widely under regional names. Its household function — bedding, storage wraps, and covers — meant it was rarely made for outside trade until relatively recently.

As synthetic blankets and manufactured textiles became widely available through the twentieth century, everyday demand for handwoven jajim declined sharply in many villages, and the skill is now reported by craft researchers and heritage bodies to survive mainly among older weavers in a smaller number of communities.

Materials

Wool is the traditional fibre, sometimes combined with cotton for lighter or more affordable pieces. Because the warp carries most of the visual weight in jajim's warp-faced structure, warp yarns are spun and set with particular care for evenness of colour and tension.

• Handspun or commercially spun wool for warp bands
• Cotton sometimes used for warp or as a supplementary weft
• Vegetable and, later, synthetic dyes depending on period