One of Anatolia’s forgotten treasures: Ladik Carpets

Mustafa Karadoğan, one of the former carpet masters, who is a carpet trader in Konya, is trying to keep the name of the carpet alive by preserving the last examples of the hand-woven Ladik carpet, which is one of the important handicrafts of Anatolia and is about to disappear.

Standing out with its visuality and quality, the Ladik carpet was woven with its unique colors and motifs, using woolen threads, on weaving looms in the neighborhood until 10 years ago. Ladik carpet, which consists of 200 thousand knots, each square meter of which is thrown one by one, ranks second in Turkey after Hereke carpet in terms of quality.

Ladik carpet, which is among the important cultural values of Anatolia and whose history dates back to the 17th century, fell off the looms in time because it could not be sold due to the widespread use of industrial production and the high cost of handwork.

61-year-old carpet master Mustafa Karadoğan, who has the last remaining examples of Ladik carpets, said that he is trying to keep the name Ladik carpet alive by preserving the carpets he owns. 

Karadoğan said that “in the past, buyers in Istanbul and Ankara wanted a one-year-old carpet to come off the loom, but no one asks for hand-woven carpets anymore. I have been continuing this handwoven carpet business for 40 years, Ladik carpet was a very valuable and precious carpet, but today it is not as valuable as a machine carpet. I have all the materials, threads, wools, looms and models. These have all become scrap. Sümerbank was a ready market for us. Sümerbank had many sales points in Turkey and abroad. Sümerbank was closed, our productions also ended gradually.”