Salor Rug

Salor rug, floor covering handmade by the Salor Turkmen of Turkmenistan. Most consistent in design are the main carpets, with a quartered gul (motif) showing a small animal figure in the inner part of each quadrant. The faces of storage bags are more varied, with several types of guls, most of which are shared by the Tekke and Saryk tribes, to whom the Salor seem most closely related. Salor ensis have been identified, and the tribe has produced a group of unusually long pieces in torba (storage-bag) form that seem to be intended as decorative trappings. Patches of pink silk are found in some examples, which also show structural differences setting them apart from other Turkmen rugs.

Turkmen tradition maintains that the Salor are an ancient tribe of high status, although their fortunes have been in decline for the last century and a half.