There are still many people who think that the true gabbehs are those in natural, undyed shades of wool. In their view, gabbehs with cheerful, bright, dyed colors are meaningless and trivial weaves. These people believe that the gabbeh is the floor covering for tribal people with Sufilike lifestyles who live poor and modest lives, and thus seek purity in colorless or earth-color weaves and avoid dyed colors in their gabbehs. In their floor coverings and gabbehs they prefer to use the wool as it comes from the sheep, without any alteration or modification. This view is still common among many tribal people and villagers of Fars, who do not use any dyed colors in their gabbehs but only those nature provides in their sheep wool (see Pls. 29 and 41). In spite of their good quality in terms of both material and weave, such gabbehs reflecting Sufilike beliefs have never enjoyed popularity in the carpet market and have always been considered among the cheapest rugs. Only the tribal people and villagers or the poor have continued to use them.

      Unlike the plain gabbehs with natural wool shades, gabbehs with dyed colors were popular from the start. Though they represented no philosophy or special viewpoint, their closeness to Western taste and modern art quickly won them a place in the world market. The women who used such innovative coloring in their gabbehs had no knowledge of color combinations in the Western sense and could not explain their choices. The weaver's feelings were the only criterion and color was an instrument for expressing her inner self. As if speaking for these women and their state of being, Suhrawardi gives the best explanation in saying that, "there are objects in the external world that can only be perceived but not defined, such as color." Suhrawardi's words are akin to Kandinsky's view that color is like music and to the Dutch painter Theo van Doesburg's conception that color is as real as line and surface.

      In spite of the above interpretations, it should not be thought that tribal women's use of color in their gabbehs is the same as modern artists' use of color in their paintings. The former use color in the limited framework of a woven rug, while the latter are free from any framework. Yet they both succeed in expressing their emotions. The world in which a tribal woman chooses her colors is small and her patterns are limited and modest and do not exceed a dozen compositions: checkered, three lozenges, concentric houses, and so forth. Her colors are also limited. She uses them so tastefully and artistically in the spaces she has, however, that the end result is always different and never the same as that of her neighbor. Thus in hundreds of checkered gabbehs the coloring is never the same and each is a unique piece.

      The meaning and interpretation of color is also limited and modest among the women who weave gabbehs and they do not venture beyond everyday expressions or cultural maxims. They consider white as "the beginning" or a new start and try to dress their daughters in white for their weddings, as they start new lives. They consider black as "the end" and wear black when they lose their loved ones or during mourning ceremonies, which represent an ending. At times these women also hear Sufi sayings regarding color and ponder them. According to such sayings, "white is the integration of all colors, pure and unstained. In its unmanifested state it is the color of Pure Light before individualization, before the One became the many. Light, symbolically viewed as white, descends from the sun and symbolizes Unity."* "Black is a bright light in a dark day,' as only through this luminous black can one find the hidden aspects of the Divine. ... Black ... is the cloak of the Ka'bah, the mystery of Being, the light of Majesty, and the color of the Divine.

      Though black and white are opposites, they are complementary, like day and night, and one is meaningless without the other. The color of earth (tan) is placed between two poles of black and white and symbolizes the earth and the universe of humankind.

     The four basic colors red, green, yellow, and blue establish the relationship of humans with nature. Red develops an association with fire, exhibiting the paired natural qualities of heat and dryness. It expresses the vital spirit - active, expansive, and insoluble. Cyclically, it represents morning, spring, and childhood." The complement of red is green, which exhibits the opposite qualities of coldness and humidity. Green characterizes the superior soul, and passive, contractive, and soluble qualities. Cyclically, it represents evening, fall, and maturity. Yellow is the air, hot, drought, and the living spirit, and is associated with adolescent years. Blue represents night, sky, and water. Balance and equilibrium in nature are achieved through the harmony of these four colors.

       Of course such mystical interpretations are not to be expected from a tribal or village woman. It should not be forgotten, however, that these women are rooted in a rich culture, and in the course of hundreds of years they have inherited mystical treasures as part of their oral tradition.