Carpet weaving is one of the oldest and most traditional forms of art in Azerbaijan.
You'll
find two types of carpets: knotted and flat-weaved. The skills of this art have
been handed down from one generation of artisans to another for centuries, and
the motifs and the colors used form an essential part of the culture of Azerbaijan,
and seem able to speak to Azeris of every background, whether simple or sophisticated.
Weavers of earlier centuries, whose names have been forgotten,
produced magnificent carpets and textiles that are now in the collections of
the world's greatest museums: the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Victoria
and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the
Louvre in Paris, Topkapi Sarayi in Istanbul, and many others. Baku also has
a museum of textile art, located in the centre of the city. 
Early
geographers and historians have left valuabe accounts of the sophistication
of carpet weaving in Azerbaijan, and of the esteem in which Azeri carpets were
held by neighboring peoples. The famous 10th-century Arab historians al-Tabari
and al-Muqaddasi both remarked that splendid carpets were made in the Azeri
town of Barda. The folk epic Dada Gorgud, created during the 11th and 12th centuries,
gave special praise to the purple carpets of Azerbaijan, while in the 13th century,
Azeri carpets were admired by the Flemish traveller and missionary Guillaume
de Ruysbroeck as well as by the Venetian merchant and explorer Marco Polo. Two
centuries later, Azeri carpets appear in the paintings of European artists including
Hans Holbein the Younger and Hans Memling. Records of luxurious Azeri carpets
are also found in the journals of the English traveler Anthony Jenkills in the
16th century, and of the Dutch seafarer Jan Struys in the 17th century
The value of a carpet is determined by a complex mix of factors including quality, colour, age, fashion and transportation but naturally very susceptible to each moment's balance of market offer and demand.
If you want to learn more, the Carpet Museum is a good place
to start, the impressive building, still known for its original purpose as the
Lenin museum. Its collection was enriched with the carpets brought from Shusha
carpet museum, evacuated before the Armenian occupation.