Elderly Kurdish dyer keeps 700-year-old natural dyeing tradition alive in Sanandaj

BASRA, Iraq — In a small workshop in the old quarters of Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province in western Iran, steam rises from copper vats of natural dye and the scent of mountain herbs fills the air. There, Mohammad Ali Ilanpur, an octogenarian master dyer, continues to boil white wool yarn in vats using plants sourced from the surrounding countryside. According to the Mehr news agency, the tradition of dyeing yarn with plant-based materials in Sanandaj stretches back roughly 700 years and is regarded as the defining element that gives handwoven Kurdish carpets their distinctive visual character. Ilanpur uses madder root for red shades, walnut shells and onion skins for earth tones, and a range of other plants including sorrel, mulberry, grape, pomegranate and chamomile. The process, he said, requires careful temperature control along with repeated boiling, fixing and drying stages. He noted that natural dyes gain brightness over time and are more durable than synthetic alternatives. Iranian cultural observers have warned that the closure of the workshop would mean not only the end of a craft, but the loss of a defining element of traditional carpet-weaving culture in Iranian Kurdistan. No successor has yet been identified to continue the practice.