Gul (design)

A gul (also written gol, göl and gül) is a medallion-like design element typical of traditional hand-woven carpets from Central and West Asia.

[3][4] In Turkmen weavings, such as bags and rugs, guls are often repeated to form the basic pattern in the main field (excluding the border).

[4][5] Western authors have used comparison of the "design vocabulary" of tribal guls, reproduced on traditional rugs, in studying the ethnogenesis of Asian peoples.

These guls often contain star or (hooked) dragon motifs as found on 15th century Konya carpets.

[8] The artists Lorenzo Lotto and Hans Holbein who similarly depicted Anatolian carpets also have the varieties they painted named after them.