Aziz Idris's carpet empire
Aziz Idris's French Concession store is an explosion of carpet.
Carpets hang from the walls, sit rolled up in the corners and are piled so high that they overwhelm a couch that Idris has put in the back.
The shop has carpets from Iran, carpets from Kashmir, carpets of silk or wool or camel hair. Carpets soft enough to sleep on, carpets that feel as rough as burlap.
For Idris, an ambitious transplant from the western Chinese city of Kashgar, the three-year-old store sells more than just carpets. It’s a piece of family history, a slice of geopolitics and a reflection of the unique position an ethnic Uighur businessman occupies in a city like Shanghai.
All in the family
Carpet is an Idris family legacy.
While Idris never got to meet his grandfather, stories of the business-savvy caravan-runner were staples of his childhood.
Traders would set off from Kashgar loaded down with Xinjiang’s famous fruits and nuts -- “My grandfather’s business was walnuts,” Idris says -- and make the trip to Kashmir, where they would trade for the region's textiles and carpets.
Carpet is tribal, communal, it’s like a collective memory— Aziz Idris
“Carpets are important to us,” Idris says. “If someone dies, the carpets are passed on. As babies we always have our butts on the floor.”
More important than textiles, Idris believes he inherited a curiosity about the country and world outside of Kashgar.
As a student, his test scores were good enough to get him to school in Xi’an, where he studied education management and journalism. He studied Russian, picked up some English and improved his Mandarin.
Placed in a job teaching Chinese to Uighur students back in Xinjiang, Idris lasted a few months before he got restless.
He eventually made it to Shanghai, where he started selling carpets, first as a side business, eventually full time.
Respect the carpet
The carpet trade turned out to be a perfect fit for a young entrepreneur with a sensitivity to history.
“Carpet is tribal, communal,” he says. “It’s like a collective memory.”
Different motifs belong to individual tribes or regions. Looking at how the designs overlap and branch off, you can read centuries of cultural exchange and conflict.
Idris’s carpets come from Kashmir, Southern Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
"Uighurs have long-established trading relationships with these countries," he points out.
Although Idris hasn’t had the chance to travel to most of the places his carpets come from, the Uighur language’s Turk-ick roots makes communication easier.
“It’s my library, carpets,” he says. “You can learn about all these countries and different places.”
Idris is doing his best to keep carpets in his family. With the opening of a new store on Yongjia Lu (570 Yongjia Lu, near Yueyang Lu), two of his three brothers will be taking over much of the day to day operations at the original location.
In the future, he says, he hopes to build on his success in the carpet business and open a design school in Xinjiang.
“I get bored without challenges,” he says. “I always have the urge to expand.”
