Wool from the Karakul sheep, the breed of the region where the Turkoman (Turkmen) nomads live. The fleece has two layers, a thicker, coarser outer coat and a softer, finer inner coat, and Turkoman rugs are made from the softer inner layer.
The name of a weaver or workshop woven into a rug, either in a small framed box (a cartouche) or directly into the border stripes. It works as a maker's mark that ties the rug to that workshop's standards; signed pieces from famous workshops sell for more and are sought by collectors, and a rug sold under a workshop's signature must truly come from that workshop. Not every workshop rug is signed, and a workshop can stop using its signature. Isfahan rugs and newer Qum rugs usually carry one, while most Nain rugs, silk-foundation Yomut Turkoman rugs and many older Qum rugs do not.
A rug base in which the warp and weft threads are silk rather than the usual cotton or wool. Silk is finer and thinner, so many more knots fit into each square inch; silk-based rugs typically run about 500 to 1,000 knots per square inch (roughly 78 to 155 per square centimeter). It is found mainly in fine traditional city rugs, most commonly Qum and Isfahan, and also in select Tabriz workshops and a special group of Yomut Turkoman rugs. The pile above may be wool, silk and wool, or pure silk.
Rugs woven by mostly nomadic tribes, chiefly in Iran but also across the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa; a few names, such as Bakhtiari and Gabbeh, span tribal and village weaving. The tribes move with their flocks from spring to fall and typically settle in winter to weave on compact, portable looms, so rugs are small, often 4 x 6 ft (1.2 x 1.8 m) or 5 x 7 ft (1.5 x 2.1 m), or runners, and oversized pieces are rarely found. Wool from the tribe's own flocks often serves for both foundation and pile (goat hair is also used), dyed with local plants. Designs, mostly geometric, are passed down and woven from memory rather than from a drawing, so unlike city rugs the pattern often fails to resolve neatly at the corners. Qashqai, Baluchi, and Turkoman rugs are named after their tribes.
Tribal rugs woven by Turkoman (Turkmen) nomads, whose forebears came from the Afghan and Uzbek region and who later settled in the Turkmen region of Iran. Rows of octagonal guls (“flowers”) cover a deep red, reddish-brown or occasionally cream field, accented in black, blue, green or beige; prayer designs also occur. Foundation and pile are usually wool, said to come from the soft undercoat of Karakul sheep, though a cotton foundation is occasionally used. In older pieces each tribe kept its own gul design, whereas newer rugs freely mix them. Turkoman designs inspired Bokhara and Khal Mohammadi rugs and are the Persian design closest to Baluchi work, which they predate; the low-to-medium pile suits places where doors swing over the rug.