Mid-Amu Darya/Ersari/Beshir and why we know nothing!
Interestingly, when I posted this Beshir rug from my post below on Turkotek, I was sent by one of the moderators to an incredibly confusing discussion about what constitutes Ersari and Beshir rugs. The answer, as I understand it, is that we have no idea. The Beshir, for example, may not be a tribe at all. As a result, one contributor to the discussion even suggests that Beshir rugs should merely be called OMAD (Other Middle Amu Darya) rugs. Alas, we return to my post earlier about the confusion of Central Asian rugs and the mystery of all those rugs which "experts" put into the Middle Amu Daya category. As one deconstructs these issues further, we find that perhaps Central Asian rugs plainly defy categorization.... At the same time, however, it is the desire to categorize them that makes them so interesting.