Rugs from the city of Hamadan in western Iran, a long-established weaving region, and from the more than 1,500 villages around it, which together produce thousands of designs. Village pieces, often woven by families at home in winter, are usually smaller rugs or runners (some longer than 20 ft, about 6 m) in geometric, hexagonal- or diamond-medallion, or Herati designs in red, deep blue, and cream, tied with the symmetrical Turkish knot at a density that is usually low to medium. City workshop pieces are more floral and more finely knotted. The pile is wool on a cotton foundation (wool in some older rugs), and the single-weft construction standard around Hamadan tends to give a soft pile thinner than in double-wefted rugs.
Tribal rugs woven by nomadic weavers in the Zanjan region in the west of Iran, near the Bijar and Hamadan weaving areas. Compact, portable looms, set up on the winter plains, keep most pieces to about 4 x 6 ft (1.2 x 1.8 m) or smaller. The foundation is usually cotton and the pile is wool from the weavers' own sheep, in geometric or Herati designs with beige, deep red and blue as main colors; older pieces often show a central medallion framed by a hexagonal one. Bijar-influenced pieces have a heavy-duty pile almost as thick as a true Bijar's, which is why they serve as a Bijar alternative; Hamadan-influenced pieces follow Hamadan designs and colors with a slightly thinner pile than Hamadan rugs.