Qalischuyan (Carpet Washing) Rituals In Mashhad Ardehal, Kashan
According to legend, he was martyred, and his body found and carried in a carpet to a stream, where it was washed and buried by the people of Fin and Xāve. Today, Soltān Ali mausoleum is the site of a ritual where a carpet is washed in the holy stream by a huge gathering.
It takes place on the nearest Friday to the seventeenth day of the month of Mehr, according to the solar-agricultural calendar. In the morning, people of Xāve gather at the mausoleum to sprinkle rosewater on the carpet.
Having completed the wrapping rituals, they deliver it to the people of Fin outside, who rinse the carpet in running water, and sprinkle rosewater drops with neatly cut and beautifully decorated wooden sticks.
The carpet is then returned to the mausoleum. People of Kashan contribute a prayer-carpet and the people of Našalg celebrate their ritual the following Friday. These communities maintain oral transmission of the procedures, but also recreate the tradition by adding new and festive elements.
Unlike the majority of Iranian rituals that follow a rotating lunar calendar, Qālišuyān is attended according to a fixed solar-agricultural calendar, requiring it around the nearest Friday to the 17th day of the month of Mehr (October 8th), called Jom’e-ye Qāli (“carpet Friday”). Thousands of people of Fin and Xāve constitute the practitioners; a greater crowd attends as witnesses.
Read More: Iranian Carpet: Crafting Beauty in Every Knot
Jom’e-ye Qāli Morning
On Jom’e-ye Qāli morning, the people of Xāve gather at Soltān Ali to sprinkle rose-flower on a donated carpet they select. Having done the wrapping rituals, they, then, deliver it to the people of Fin outside.
Holding neatly cut and beautifully decorated wooden sticks, the people of Fin run to take the lead in getting a grasp of the carpet, and carrying it to the running water, cleaned of pollutions and mixed with rose-water.
A corner of the carpet is rinsed; the rest is covered with drops sprinkled with the sticks. The carpet is, then, returned to the mausoleum and delivered to the servants inside.
The rituals are to express love and loyalty toward Soltān Ali, who is claimed to have been martyred in the same place and carried to his resting place on a carpet, instead of a shroud.
The rituals have been on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO) since 2012.
