The ancient city of Yazd is renowned throughout Persian for the industry of its inhabitants and for the integrity and acumen of its traders, industrialists and bankers.
The Yazd are busy people and traditionally they are weavers of textiles. In the 1940s Almost every house has its handloom where some kind of cotton or silk fabric is woven. In that time a number of textile mills had been erected and their products enjoyed a high reputation in the bazaars of Persian.
Until 1920s Yazd was not a carpet-weaving centre of any importance. There were 20 or 30 looms in the town, but no more. Most of the carpets woven were in one of the two designs, Herati and the medallion with clear field with a band going round in front of the border design.
In the early 1940s the State set up a number of looms in Yazd, and a few independent merchants did the same. By the 1950s the town itself and in a few of the neighbouring villages, there were about 200 looms in all.
The rapid expansion of the industry had the unfortunate effect of destroying the distinctive character of the Yazd carpet, which was an interesting fabric and worth preserving. But the demand for Kerman carpets for the Tehran market was such that local merchants imported designers and technicians from Kerman to weave them. Before long, the distinctive Yazd fabric had disappeared, and in the 1950s Yazd was producing 200-300 carpets a year, which were hardly distinguishable from the Kerman product. In the 1970s with the high demand for the typical red Kashan design the industrious Yazdis started doing copies of these as well.
Having said that, there were a number of distinguished producers like Binesh who carried on producing the wonderful Yazd fabric in the traditional way with interesting designs and high quality materials.
