The exhibition A Thousand Patterns of the Chul presents 25 beautiful and richly patterned chul samples from the museum’s collection, woven in various regions of Azerbaijan – Baku, Shirvan, Gazakh and Karabakh.

Chul is a decorative cloth that covered and decorated the backs of different beasts of burden (horses, camels, donkeys and oxen). In Azerbaijan, it was mainly made with pile- and flat-weaving techniques and sometimes with embroidery techniques, such as gulabatin (gold embroidery), takalduz (chain stitch embroidery), julma (bird’s eye) and patchwork. In order to beautify camels and horses for ceremonies and folk festivals, they were covered with chul. In winter, chul was used to protect animals against cold.