Artistic finishing of fabrics is one of the remarkable types of applied arts of Uzbekistan, which has rich historical traditions. The tradition of making fabrics originated in Uzbekistansince ancient times. Pieces of silk fabric were found in North Bactria (II-III centuries BC), is proof of weaving and dyeing of fabrics many millennia ago.
Bukhara, Namangan, Margilan have always been centers of weaving. Margilan's masters continuously worked on improvement of silk fabrics, which were then delivered by merchants to various destinations in Europe and Asia. Margilan located on the caravan routes of the Great Silk Road, Margilan was an important venue for commerce and
cultural exchange.
As bright embodiments of national mentality, of Uzbek traditional culture served silk and half-silk fabrics called “abr ” (in Persian “a cloud”; they are called in such a way because their patterns resemble clouds).
In terms of production technique abr fabrics are divided into two large groups: silk fabrics, in which warp and weft are made of natural silk and the fabrics like adras, in which warp is made of natural silk and weft – of cotton threads. The thickness of the weft thread is usually wider than that of the warp, thanks to which the surface of the fabric becomes ribbed. In the past, there was a method of “abrbandi ”, which involved reservation of separate areas by means of stitching with consequent dying in accordance with the pattern and color. Such method allowed creating an interesting
effect, i.e. the pattern acquired fuzzy outlines. The color scheme of such silk fabrics ranged from two-colored to multicolored ones.

The patterns of abr fabrics can be divided into several groups. One of the most widely spread ones reproduce everyday items as well as vegetative and zoomorphic patterns. Also, diverse are patterns of geometric nature. The patterns of vegetative origin are rather limited in terms of motifs used. At the same time, motifs of zoomorphic nature are reproduced based on the principle of “a part for the whole” (parspro toto ). A multicolored pattern, which includes all colors of solar spectrum, bears the name of “tirikamon ” (rainbow), “bahor ” (spring) and “chaman ” (blooming).
In the second half of the ХIХ century weaving in Uzbekistan was the most developed type of craft. Cities of Margilan, Bukhara, Namangan, Samarkand, Shakhrisabz, Kitab, Karshi, Urgut and Khiva were famous with their fabrics. Most widely-spread types of fabric of that time were cotton (qalami, alocha, susi, chit ), half-silk (bekasab, banoras, pasma, adras, duruya, yakruya, atlas, bakhmal ) and silk (shoi, atlas, khon-atlas ) fabrics. At the time, weavers of Bukhara were notable for their skill of making half-silk fabrics like bakhmal .
During the ХIХ-ХХ centuries the striped fabrics like bekasab (the patterns of which, much like those of abr fabrics, were made with a help of colored threads) were widely spread. Especially popular were bekasab fabrics made in the city of Margilan, which were used in making dresses for rich people.
Main centers, producing Uzbek artistic fabrics, evolved in the XIX century. Along with cheap fabrics of mass consumption, which were produced under house-based conditions almost in all villages and cities, there were special weaving workshops, where beautiful and high-quality cotton, half-silk, gold-woven, silk and wool fabrics were produced.
In the second half of the XIX century factory-made cotton, silk and brocaded fabrics, which flooded in Turkestan, ousted Uzbek fabrics made of cotton from local markets. Only local silk and half-silk fabrics, ornamented with stripes and abr patterns, withstood competition.
Notably, folk masters (abrbandchi) skillfully used plant-extracted dyes until the 70s of the XIX century. Later on, however, aniline dyes began to enter textile industry. Although easy to use, these dyes, without special fixing measures, were very unstable. And in the 1920s, due to shortage of factory-made fabrics in the country, the production of handmade cotton fabrics began to increase. From the 1930s to the end of the 1980s in Tashkent, Samarkand and Margilan industrial enterprises began to operate, which resulted in diminishing of the role of home-based crafts. Consequently, production of hand-made cotton and half-silk and silk fabrics curtailed.
Until the beginning of the XX century in central districts of present-day Uzbekistan men’s strict-cut dressing-gowns were made using abradrases . Decorative adras fabrics were used in making pillows, kurpachas (bed quilts) and furniture.
Nowadays, in the museums of Uzbekistan, wonderful examples of adras fabrics, which were created by master of Margilan, are kept. They stand out with their diverse and expressive patterns, in which red-white colors prevail.

In the 1990s, thanks to revival of traditional customs and festivities, due to greater attention paid to national dresses, the demand for hand-made artistic silk fabrics increased. Within last few years in different regions of Uzbekistan, especially in the cities of the Ferghana Valley (Margilan and Kokand), the production of silk fabrics began to be revived anew.
A number of projects have been implemented in cooperation with the UNESCO Tashkent Office, the National Commission of Uzbekistan for UNESCO, the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, the Korea Design Foundation, DVV and various fashion studios.
One of such projects, two-year cooperation project on video documenting in Central Asia was initiated by ICHCAP with the aim of creating a video library of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Asian and Pacific countries was implemented by the National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO. The project was aimed on:
- Increasing visibility of ICH in Asian and Pacific regions and raising awareness with the means of the project on video documentation;
- Supporting academic research activities and valuable resources on ICH;
- Developing multimedia content for broadcasting and education.
During the project specialist made a research to Ferghana valley, by shooting films on preparation of ikat, particularly on local production of “adras” and “atlas” fabrics.
According to researches the following stages of Ikat making was recorded:
In pilla (mulberry) producing workshop i.e. mulberries are separated to the sorts and silk fibers production process starts. After mulberries separated into sorts they are put in the 40 C water. Then one fiber spins from nine mulberries and goes to devchaq . After fibers winded to this devcha q then goes to hank making loom.
Then tube winded yarn is put in to the water. After which the process of making of hanks is started. Upon hanks are ready it will be placed in the water in order to wash them.
The process of making mixture will start with taking of silk from hunk. After that we will put powder of desert plants equisetum and shoro into the kettle filled with 100 liter water in order to prepare mixture to clean glue from the silk. Silk should be boiled during one hour in 80 C in the mixture. Then this silk should be taken from the mixture and dried in the air. After this process starts next stage of silk preparation.
Dried silk will be taken to the spool and then putted to the davra (cycle). First whisk should be prepared from 200 to 400 meter. About 4000 fiber should be prepared. After this stage splitting process starts.
The process after davra (cycle) is called splitting. Here, according to chosen sample wrapping from 200 to 400 meters splitting from 1.80 to 2.20 meter will be prepared. After this pattern designing process starts.
Later on, silk will be prepared for dyeing process after selected pattern is fixed by simple threads. Then dyeing process starts with yellow color.

After silk tied to tanda, the skin of the onion placed in the bag should be boiled during 2 hours in 60 C hot water in order to get yellow color. After this bag with onion skin should be removed from kettle and then silk tanda is put to the colored water for 1 hour to dye the silk. Then the silk should be rinsed in cold water.
The parts of silk got yellow color should be tied up and dyed in red color. In order toget red color, the roots of madder are pounded. After that it is put to the kettle with water. Then, tanda is put to the kettle and keep it about 1 or 1 hour and 30 minutes in 60 C water. After this dyeing process, the silk is rinsed again. Then, processing the indigo color we prepare by turn blue, dark blue and black colors. Then silk tanda will be dried. After this we move to the “ochdi-qoshdi ” (open-add) process. During this process, we open 200 meter tanda and stretch to tana. After the stretching process, we go to gulabardor process. Then tanda should be stretched to the weaving loom appropriately according to the width. Then each 4000 fibers should be tied with rings. This ring tying process calls gulabardorlik. Next, master tie to 2, 4 or 8 treadle according which master will pass through the basis of the silk. Next starts weaving process. In this process
master takes his place and push on the pedal as well as put the thread to the weft of the shuttle and starts weaving process (if the weft and tanda of the textile is silk then we can get atlas (silk) textile, if the weft is silk and tanda is cotton thread then we get adras textile).
The main part of the recordings was organized at the of Margilan Craft Development centre (MCDC), where the traditions connected with ikat preparation have been preserved. To the recording process bearers of the art, as well as specialists, college students and pupils of orphanages were involved.
The CDC's premises located in the Sayid Akhmad Khoja madrassah of Margilan were inaugurated in 2007 with support from the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and UNESCO in order to safeguard, revive and promote the traditional atlas and adras producing methods.
The following masters represent the Margilan Crafts Development Centre: Rasuljon Mirzaakhmedov and Rakhimjon Mirzaakhmedov (both represent 9th generation of craftsmen), Alisher Akhmadaliev and Makhmudjon Tursunov (both represent 3rd generation of craftsmen), Sherzodjon Goziyev (2nd generation of craftsmen).
Rasul Mirzaahmedov (Turgunbay Mirzaakhmedov’s son) in the late 90′s started the rehabilitation of traditional unique type of fabric called “Alo-bakhmal” ceased to produce a century ago for which Mr. Mirzaakhmedov was awarded UNESCO’s “A Seal of Excellence” (2005).
It also must be mentioned that “The Margilan Crafts Development Centre: Safeguarding of Atlas and Adras Making Traditional Technology” which was submitted by Uzbekistan has been selected as a program, project or activity best reflecting the principles and objectives of the Convention during the twelfth session of the Intergovernmental Committee of UNESCO (Seoul, 4-8 December 2017).

As of today, the participating communities comprise more than 500 artisans – dyers, ikat weavers, designers. Approximately 3,000 people from artisans’ families or apprentices participate in various s tages of production, from breeding silk-worms to giving the finishing touches to the final products.