Village rugs from the small town of Abadeh, which sits between Shiraz and Isfahan in Iran, recognized by hexagon shapes in the medallion, corners and field, usually with a small rosette at the center of the medallion, and by animal and plant motifs. The wool pile is typically on a cotton foundation and stands fairly high. At about 225 knots per square inch (roughly 350,000 per m²) the knot count is high for a village rug, which the detailed motifs require. Fields are usually dark navy or deep red with cream, yellow, orange, blue and green accents. The town is too small to have its own rug market, so the finished rugs are sold in the Shiraz bazaar.
An all-over floral composition in which sprays of flowers, rosettes and leafy branches, often arranged in symmetrical pairs, are spread across the field, typically without a central medallion to hold the eye. The Persian word afshan means “scattered” or “sprinkled”. The open, airy layout can be seen, for example, on the pale ivory ground of some Sarouk rugs.
A layout in which a motif or pattern is spread across the whole field instead of being organized around a central medallion. The motif can be flowers joined by vines, leaves and blossoms (sometimes with birds and animals), angular geometric shapes, or repeating units such as boteh, gul and herati; a barely noticeable center may remain. A geometric allover either repeats one shape or runs as a continuous pattern whose shapes vary, often with a different ground color inside each. With no strong midpoint, an allover rug sits comfortably anywhere in a room, including odd-shaped ones; in floral versions the flowers are drawn larger, on thicker branches, than in a floral medallion rug.
Flowing ornament of interlaced, scrolling vines, tendrils and leaves that curl in rhythmic spirals, often drawn in mirrored symmetry. In rugs it appears in the fields and borders of city pieces such as Kashan and Tabriz, alongside floral sprays, palmettes and vases, and in Shah Abbasi designs it swirls with vines around the central medallion.
Famous Persian carpets originally from the Ardabil region in northwestern Iran. The most renowned example is displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, dating from the 16th century. Known for their exceptional craftsmanship, medallion design, and historical significance in Islamic art.
A flat-woven decorative carpet originally produced in France, characterized by floral designs, medallions, and architectural elements in pastel colors. Traditional Aubussons were handwoven tapestries used by French nobility.
Colorful rugs of the Bakhtiari, a Zagros Mountains tribe that was nomadic until much of it settled southwest of Isfahan in the 19th century and whose weaving now spreads across more than 200 villages; smaller pieces tend to be tribal work and larger ones come from the region's villages. The foundation is usually cotton under a wool pile from the tribe's own sheep, though some small tribal pieces are wool throughout, and every row is beaten down so hard that the pile ends up dense and long-lasting. The signature layouts are the garden panel design (Khesti, also spelled Kheshti), a grid of framed squares that each show a garden scene meant as a view of paradise, and the medallion-and-corner design with a semi-geometric center medallion. Deep red and dark navy are the usual field colors.
Rugs from the city of Bijar in Kurdistan province, northwestern Iran, and the villages around it; the name covers both fine and coarse double-wefted pieces, woven by Kurdish tribes and, in workshops, Afshar weavers. Nicknamed the “iron rugs” of Iran, they are among the heaviest rugs for their size: double wefts, symmetrical (Turkish) knots, and rows beaten down hard, often while the wool is kept wet, give a thick, dense pile. Designs run from floral, Herati, and medallion to geometric, drawing on Isfahan and Kashan as well as Russian, Caucasian, and European sources (a French-style rose bouquet among them), in jewel tones of rust, red, beige, and navy. Bijars are often small rugs or runners, large sizes are rare, and the flat-woven ends and fringes are typically braided.
Rugs woven in the Caucasus, the mountain region between the Black and Caspian seas, whose southern part lies in modern Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan; Kazak rugs were first made there in the 1800s. The label is used for the region's geometric, tribal-looking weaving, best known from Kazak rugs with large medallions, rosettes and tribal symbols, and it often describes designs that weavers elsewhere echo, as in some Quchan, Mehraban and Bijar rugs. Today's Kazak rugs from Pakistan revive this tradition.
A quality check on how evenly a rug's design mirrors itself, relevant to the many Persian and Oriental designs meant to be symmetrical: the medallion should sit at the true center, and corner pieces and other motifs should match each other and be spaced correctly. Handwork is never perfectly symmetrical, and exact repetition points to machine making; tribal and village weavers working from memory vary most, while workshop weavers following a drawn plan come closest to exactness. Noticeable lopsidedness lowers a rug's harmony and is one of the variables that affect its price.
Traditional carpets woven by the Esari tribe of Turkmenistan, characterized by their distinctive deep red background and geometric gul (medallion) patterns. These rugs typically feature a primary elephant foot gul design with secondary motifs arranged in orderly rows, and are known for their fine weave and rich cultural symbolism.
The central area of a rug inside its borders, where the medallion, allover pattern, garden panels or other main design are set. Rug descriptions commonly name the field color, meaning the background shade of that area (for example dark red, dark blue, cream or camel), as distinct from the highlight colors used for motifs and accents. In an open-field design most of the field is left as one background color, with widely spaced motifs and a large share of empty space.
One of the three principal design families of Persian rugs, alongside geometric and Herati: patterns of flowers, leaves and vines drawn in flowing curves. It dominates city and workshop rugs such as Tabriz, Kashan, Kerman, Sarouk, Nain and Isfahan, where high knot density allows fine detail, and it typically draws on forms such as the Shah Abbasi design and rosettes. Floral motifs, though known to weavers earlier, are said to have become common in Persian rugs from the 16th century. Floral rugs come in two layouts: with a central medallion, where flowers and branches are smaller, or allover, with larger flowers.
A floral rug built around one central medallion, either a single large flower or a cluster of small blooms joined into one shape, often echoed by smaller medallions above, below and beside it. The medallion is traditionally said to stand for the sacred lotus. Because it takes up field space, the flowers and branches are smaller and thinner than in allover floral rugs. The design is typical of Tabriz, Kerman, Sarouk and Kashan, and its strong center makes it a natural focal point of a room.
A style of rug drawing built from angular shapes such as hexagons, diamonds and squares, outlined by straight lines, in contrast to the flowing curves of floral designs. It goes back to some of the oldest Persian rugs, before floral designs, and is typical of village and tribal rugs (Heriz, Hamadan, Zanjan, Abadeh, Karaja, Qashqai, Kazak, Turkmen), though city workshops such as Tabriz also weave it. Many shapes carry symbolic meaning. It comes as an allover pattern, a single central medallion or repeating medallions, and geometric rugs are known for strong borders. Because the shapes need little fine detail, a low-to-medium knot density is enough, as in Heriz and Karaja rugs, and Heriz is still known for durability.
A layout in which one large angular medallion stands at the center of the field, with separate corner designs and a much lighter pattern over the remaining ground, so the medallion is the clear focal point. Smaller geometric medallions often sit above and below the main one. It is typical of village and tribal rugs such as Heriz, Abadeh, Zanjan, Karaja and Qashqai, and is the angular counterpart of the floral center medallion.
A type of Persian carpet from the Heriz district in northwestern Iran, specifically from the village of Gorevan. These rugs feature bold, geometric patterns with large central medallions and corner pieces in rich reds, blues, and ivory. Compared to standard Heriz rugs, Gorevans typically have a coarser weave, more angular designs, and a distinctive rustic character that makes them popular for traditional and transitional interiors.
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.
A classic Persian design built on a diamond repeated across the field, with a small flower or leaves inside each diamond and curved leaves at its sides; the leaves are read as stylized fish, said to circle a lotus. The name comes from Herat, the city in Afghanistan where the design is said to originate; it is also called the fish design, and Mahi means “fish” in Persian. It is one of the three main design families, woven as an allover pattern or around a central medallion with diamonds inside and outside it, and it sometimes appears as a thin border. It is common in Tabriz, Sarouk, Mashhad, Moud, Bijar, Hamadan, Abadeh, Zanjan, Kerman and Kashan rugs.
Bold village rugs from the Heriz area of northwestern Iran, near Tabriz, and the best-known of all Persian village rugs. A coarse, tough wool pile on a cotton foundation, usually double-wefted for extra thickness, and a low-to-medium knot density (commonly quoted at about 120 to 170 KPSI, roughly 1,900 to 2,600 per 10 by 10 cm) make them very durable; the wool's strength is traditionally credited to copper-bearing mountain water. The classic design is a large angular medallion with four corner pieces, sometimes an allover layout, in a rust red traditionally credited to copper minerals in the local river, with dark navy and cream. Bakshaish and Serapi, the latter now over a century old, are their older forms.
A geometric drawing built around six-sided shapes, best known as the hallmark of Abadeh rugs, where a large hexagon spreads over the field, often with smaller ones toward a central rosette medallion. Abadeh weavers developed it to make their rugs stand out from other rugs of the region. Hexagonal or diamond-shaped medallions are also typical of Hamadan and Malayer rugs, and older Zanjan rugs set a hexagonal medallion around the center medallion as a frame.
A medallion whose outline is lined with hook-shaped projections sticking out from its edges, regarded as a distinctive feature of Karaja rugs. The bold geometric medallions of a Karaja, which alternate down a runner or repeat in columns over a wider rug, usually carry these hooks, and many small geometric shapes fill the ground around them.
Persian city rugs from Isfahan in central Iran, among the most finely knotted anywhere: usually 500-700 KPSI (roughly 7,750-10,850 knots per 10 x 10 cm), second only to Qum. Most are woven in fine kork wool from young sheep; some have a silk-and-wool pile on a silk or cotton foundation, and a few are reportedly pure silk. Designs draw on nature and the city's architecture, from medallion-and-corner and floral allover layouts to hunting scenes, trees of life, prayer niches and pictorial gardens, usually in soft pastels with indigo and bright red on an ivory ground. Most pieces are signed, and large sizes are scarce and costly.
The spiraling, leafy vine scroll also called the arabesque, which links the main elements of a rug’s field or border. In Nain weaving the name is also given to a less common design in which several star-shaped medallions are scattered across the field like a constellation.
Village rugs from a group of villages in the Azerbaijan region of Iran, at the western edge of the Heriz weaving area and named for the village of Karaja at their center. Wool pile on a cotton foundation (very old pieces may have a wool one), Turkish knot and single weft, so the pile is thinner and softer than the usually double-wefted Heriz, and knot density is low to medium. Two bold geometric medallions with hook-like edges typically alternate down a runner, often on a different ground color with each repeat, and on wide rugs the repeated medallions read as a geometric allover, in orange-reds, blues, creams and browns. Their soft, thin pile and great lengths, some over 20 feet (6 m), make them popular as hallway and stair runners.
Fine Persian carpets from the city of Kashan in central Iran, a weaving center since the 17th-century Safavid era, when the rulers holidayed there and furnished their villas with local rugs. The pile is typically all wool, often imported Manchester wool, of medium height on a cotton foundation; silk-and-wool pieces are mostly older. Designs are formal and vary little: a central medallion, a medallion with matching corner pieces or allover florals, plus a rare design called Darbari, reportedly with little or no border. Rugs of about 5 by 7 feet (1.5 by 2.1 m) and smaller show more variety, such as tree of life, vase and bird patterns. Classic colors are deep red, navy and cream; yellow or green fields are rare, and newer rugs are softer pastels.
Rugs from Kashmar, a city in northeastern Iran near Mashhad, whose weavers bring finished pieces to the Mashhad market. Less famous than Tabriz, Mashhad or Kashan, they are often undervalued relative to their quality: good wool, often high knot density and vegetable dyes at a modest price. The colors are soft earth tones: brownish cream, light and dark blue, orange, brown and a distinctive pink. Typical designs are a medallion with corner pieces and border, sometimes with vases in place of flowers, and garden designs in panels that each show a scene, such as a lake with trees, a tree of life or deer in a forest. The pile is thin to medium. Not to be confused with Kashmir.
Bold geometric rugs originally woven by Armenian weavers in the southern Caucasus in the 1800s, in what is now Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, with large-scale patterns, tribal motifs and many medallions. Today they come mainly from workshops in Pakistan, where Afghan weavers have recreated the designs since the 1980s and 1990s in hand-spun Ghazni wool and vegetable dyes, in softer modern colors such as beige, teal, indigo, and rust red, often with a red field against a cream medallion and border; India also makes Kazak-style rugs. The low-to-medium pile is cut short and stone-washed for an antique look. Grades are commercial (lowest knot density), Super (finest knotting, silky wool), and Kazak Azari (Heriz-inspired designs, thicker pile, best wool, highest price); examples measure about 121 KPSI (roughly 1,900 knots per 10 x 10 cm) to 169 KPSI (roughly 2,600).
A stylized blossom motif regarded in Persian rug tradition as a sacred flower and linked with long life. The central medallion of a floral-medallion rug is read as a lotus, drawn either as one large flower or as several small ones. The lotus is also a main feature of the Shah Abbasi design, and in the Herati design the fish-like leaves are said to circle a lotus. Lotus blossoms are among the motifs credited to the Mongol period, when designs from Chinese art entered Persian rugs.
Village rugs from the town of Malayer and neighboring villages between Arak and Hamadan, usually dated to about the 19th century and woven on an old trade route that brought in outside designs. A cotton foundation, wool pile and symmetrical Turkish knot give a finer weave than most village rugs, with the pile clipped fairly low to show detail. Diamond or hexagonal medallions, small white dots in the border ringing the medallion and a rope-like loop effect in the rug's own border are typical marks. The south-eastern, Sarouk-like style is double-wefted and thicker, with floral medallions or Tree of Life designs; the north-western, Hamadan-like style is single-wefted, geometric and lighter in color. Small rugs and runners predominate, mostly on navy, deep red or cream grounds.
Persian city rugs from Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city, in the north-east, where weaving began in the late Middle Ages. They are known for high knot density (typically above 250 KPSI, roughly 39 per cm², and exceptionally near 1,000, about 155 per cm², on a silk foundation) and intricate flower designs in medallion, medallion-and-corner or allover layouts, in wine-red or burgundy, deep blue, green and cream. The pile is wool on a cotton foundation and higher than in most city rugs; a silk foundation is rare, and newer silk-and-wool pieces add silk to the pile. Rugs of the closed Saber workshop are now collectible, while Astan Quds Razavi remains a well-known name.
A large motif at the center of a rug's field, around which the rest of the design is organized; the large central medallion is said to have been introduced in the Safavid era (16th-17th centuries). Floral medallions, typical of city rugs such as Tabriz, Kashan and Sarouk, are often read as a lotus blossom, and the motif has also been read as mirroring the interior dome of a mosque; geometric ones, often hexagonal or diamond-shaped, mark village and tribal rugs such as Heriz and Zanjan. A medallion may stand alone, come with four corner pieces, be flanked by smaller medallions above and below, or repeat down a runner. Rugs with no central motif are called allover. In a well-made rug the medallion sits at the center and the corners mirror one another, as closely as handwork allows.
A layout built around one large central medallion with a matching motif set into each of the four corners of the field. Kashan rugs typically use it, with the corner pieces usually in the same color as the medallion, and it also appears in Hamadan, Bakhtiari, Kashmar, Heriz and Tabriz rugs. Village and tribal examples tend to be geometric, while Bakhtiari medallions are often semi-geometric, ringed by geometric motifs and filled with florals.
Village rugs from the Mehraban district, a cluster of villages in the north of the Hamadan region beside Kurdish Iran, so Kurdish styles appear. They are single-wefted rugs on cotton, knotted with the symmetrical (Turkish) knot, with a medium pile of fine, soft, lustrous, oily wool, on dark blue, dark red, cream, camel-hair or peach fields. Older pieces are geometric, with repeating medallions and bird or animal motifs, largely made for the weavers' own use; newer ones follow American Sarouk florals. The district is known for runners, typically 2.5 to 3 ft (76-91 cm) wide and 6 to 20 ft (1.8-6.1 m) long. It is not the Meraban of East Azerbaijan, which weaves Heriz-style rugs.
A Kashan workshop tied to the master weaver Hadji Mollah Mohammad Hassan Mohtasham, whose late 19th-century rugs are credited with reviving classical Kashan weaving. Its rugs are noted for refined, densely worked drawing in the Kashan manner, with floral and herbal sprays, palmettes and arabesques, including the medallion-and-corner layout on an ivory or red ground. The name is attached to rugs from the late 1800s into the first half of the 20th century and is regarded as a mark of top quality in Kashan rugs.
Fine Persian rugs from the city of Nain, near Isfahan in central Iran, where rug weaving began only in the 20th century on Isfahan's model and the Habibian workshop made the name known worldwide. The wool pile, often with silk highlights, is knotted on a cotton foundation at roughly 200 to 700 knots per square inch or more (about 31 to 108 per cm²). Density is graded by la (“layer”): the lower the number, the finer the rug, from about 650 KPSI at 4 la to 400-500 at 6 la and 200-300 at 9 la. Designs are curvilinear florals in medallion, allover or Shah Abbasi layouts, mostly on a cream or ivory ground with blue, beige and gray. Most Nain rugs are unsigned, though the Habibian signature is a well-known exception, and large sizes are scarce and costly.
A layout in which most of the field is left open, usually one plain ground color with only a few flowers in curving lines and sometimes a medallion. It comes in three forms: a single central medallion, two or more repeating medallions, or an allover scatter of motifs with generous space between them. The composition is said to echo the cover of a Quran and is found mainly in city-style Persian rugs such as Tabriz, Kashan, Sarouk, Hamadan, and Kerman, and also in Bijar rugs. With so little pattern to hide behind, inconsistencies in the wool or dyeing show plainly.
A rug in the classic style of Ushak (Uşak), a Turkish weaving city with a long tradition of classical designs. Rugs sold under the name today are commonly hand-knotted in Pakistan, in workshops set up in the 1970s, in the trade account, by owners who left Iran after an embargo. They reproduce Turkish and old Persian patterns, mostly soft floral all-over or medallion layouts with little geometric drawing, in wool from Ghazni and New Zealand on a cotton foundation. Vegetable dyes, an antique wash, several shades of one color and a short, low pile give a muted, aged look, while designers choose palettes that follow color trends. Depending on design and knot density, the same family is also sold as Peshawar, Chobi, Ziegler or Ferahan.
An exceptionally large carpet woven for a grand formal room, in special sizes beyond the standard ranges, roughly from 12 x 18 ft (3.7 x 5.5 m) upward. Such sizes are often made to order, and workshops with access to very large looms and ample resources, as in Sarouk weaving, can produce them. A 13 x 20 ft (4.0 x 6.1 m) Kashan with a medallion-and-corner layout is an example of the scale. Dealers set the threshold differently, so the figure is approximate.
Hand-knotted rugs from Pakistan, made in the city of Peshawar in the north of the country and also called Chobi. They copy old Persian and Turkish designs, mostly floral all-over or repeating patterns (medallions are rare, because all-over layouts suit more rooms), using hand-spun wool and vegetable dyes. The rugs are woven in darker tones, then stone-washed and left in strong sunlight, and the pile is cut short so the pattern shows, which gives a new rug an antique finish. Colors are soft and subdued, often beige-based, with deliberate light-and-dark variation that imitates aged rugs; the rugs feel thin yet wear well. The same look is also sold as Oushak, Ziegler or Ferahan.
Tribal rugs woven by the Qashqai, a nomadic tribe of southwestern Iran that unites Turkic, Arab, Kurdish and Lur groups and has lived in the region since at least the 16th century. Designs come from memory rather than written plans, pairing geometric and medallion layouts, occasionally in a simpler, sparsely detailed form, with animals, plants and household objects, in jewel-tone reds, saffron gold and indigo, often on deep red or dark navy grounds. The thick, hard-weaving wool of the tribe's own flocks is durable yet soft, forming a medium-height, dense pile on a cotton or wool foundation that suits busy areas; compact looms keep sizes small, typically 4 x 6 ft (1.2 x 1.8 m) or 5 x 7 ft (1.5 x 2.1 m) plus runners.
Tribal rugs woven by Kurdish weavers around Quchan, north of Mashhad in northeastern Iran, a border region where the Safavid rulers settled Kurdish tribes to help guard the frontier. A wool or goat-hair foundation carries a wool pile at about 120 knots per square inch (roughly 186,000 per square meter), high for tribal work. Geometric medallion or all-over designs in strong red, blue or ivory fields resemble Caucasian rugs and, above all, Anatolian ones, since the weavers' ancestors came from Anatolia. Compact looms keep sizes small to medium, seldom wider than 6 ft (1.8 m) or longer than 13 ft (4 m).
Persian rugs from the city of Qum (Qom), a comparatively young weaving center whose rugs are known for the highest knot density of any Persian type. About nine in ten are pure silk on a silk foundation, at roughly 600 to 1,000 knots per square inch (KPSI; about 93 to 155 per cm²); the rest, with kork wool or silk-and-wool piles, run about 300 to 700 KPSI (about 47 to 108 per cm²). Designs are floral medallions, hunting scenes and pictorials, mostly in soft pastel, ivory, gold and green tones (a pistachio-green field is prized) on light or dark grounds. Newer rugs usually carry a workshop signature, older ones often do not. The local water is said to soften and brighten silk, so silk rugs from across Iran are sent there for washing.
A layout in which two or more medallions run down the field in place of a single central medallion, which suits long runners where one medallion would look lost. The medallion outline usually stays the same while its inner pattern and ground color change from one medallion to the next. Karaja runners alternate two distinct medallions, and on wider Karaja rugs the columns of medallions read like a geometric allover pattern. The design is typical of geometric rugs such as Karaja, Heriz, Abadeh, Quchan, Shiraz, and older Mehraban, and it also appears in floral open-field rugs.
A round, flower-like ornament in which petals radiate evenly from a center, like a blossom seen from above. From about the 16th century, as floral design entered Persian rugs, weavers began placing a rosette at the center of the field, which produced the central medallion of floral city rugs, as in the circular rosette medallion with scrolling lines on a round Shah Abbasi Tabriz. On Abadeh rugs a small rosette worked in navy, red or cream marks the center of the medallion, one way to tell the type apart. Rosettes also repeat along borders, as in Tabriz and Bakhtiari rugs, and among the vines and palmettes of Sultanabad rugs.
A long, narrow rug for hallways, entryways, staircases and kitchens, or placed in twos and threes beside a bed. Standard runners are about 2 to 3 ft (60-90 cm) wide and wider ones 3 to 4 ft (90-120 cm), with lengths from about 6 ft (1.8 m) to around 40 ft (12 m); Hamadan and Karaja are known for the longest. Heriz, Azerbaijan and Hamadan runners typically come wide, while wide Tabriz, Sarouk and Karaja runners are mostly older pieces. In a hallway, leave about 12-18 inches (30-45 cm) of floor at each end. Because a single medallion looks lost on so long a field, geometric village runners often repeat a medallion, varying its inner pattern or color between repeats; Karaja alternates two distinct medallions.
The Persian ruling house that reigned from 1501, beginning with Shah Ismail, into the 1730s, whose court patronage of painting, calligraphy and weaving made this the golden age of Persian rugs. Many museum and top-auction masterpieces come from the era, with Tabriz, Herat, Kashan and Kerman the largest centers. As patterns grew more complex, designers, often miniature painters, became separate from the weavers who worked from their drawings; the large central medallion, curvilinear and geometric layouts and richer flowers and vines became hallmarks, and patterns were standardized for export to Asian and European markets. The Afghan invasion of Isfahan in 1722 interrupted weaving in the main manufacturing centers for several years, though tribes and villages carried on.
Popular, durable Persian city rugs from Sarouk, a town in central Iran about 50 km (31 miles) north of Arak, prominent from the 19th century and exported to Europe and America. A cotton foundation carries a medium-to-thick wool pile, at times with silk highlights, usually tied with the Persian knot (some older pieces use the Turkish knot) at medium-to-high density of up to about 320 knots per square inch (roughly 50 per cm²). Floral, medallion and allover designs, with some Herati, boteh and pictorial patterns, appear on beige, ivory, cream, navy or red fields, the red leaning toward orange or rust, usually with a thin secondary border. American Sarouks, woven mainly in the 1920s and 1930s, adapted designs and colors to U.S. taste, and many were re-dyed to a preferred rose red.
The Isfahan workshop founded in 1940 by Haj Agha Reza Seirafian, a banker who had long traded and produced carpets, and carried on by his family through several generations. It is widely regarded as the best-known name in fine Isfahan rugs, which are densely knotted in fine wool, sometimes with silk, in floral and medallion designs. As in other elite city workshops, the master's name is woven into a border or a small cartouche, which ties the rug to the workshop's strict standards and makes signed pieces sought after by collectors.
Finely woven small-to-medium rugs and runners from the Kurdish weaving villages around Senneh (modern Sanandaj) in western Iran, known for meticulous, thin, tight single-weft construction on a cotton foundation with a wool pile. Designs are mostly geometric medallions and allover patterns, with boteh and Herati also woven, in dark red, navy, and brown, sometimes beige, with yellow, red, light green, orange, and white accents. The city gives its name to the “Senneh knot”, another name for the asymmetrical Persian knot, yet its weavers actually use the symmetrical Turkish knot.
A classic Persian floral style named after the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas, which began as a royal court pattern about 400 years ago. Its main features are stylized, feather-like palmette leaves and lotus flowers, the lotus being an ancient symbol of long life, arranged in strict symmetry with scrolling ornament around a central medallion, often a rosette. Early examples favored deep reds and blues, while later rugs in this style often turn to muted neutral tones. The design appears in Kashan, Nain and Tabriz rugs.
Rugs woven by local tribes in and around Shiraz in Fars province, southwestern Iran, in their own homes and sold at the local bazaar. Weavers settling in the area bring their home regions' patterns, giving a hybrid of Abadeh and Qashqai styles: geometric single or repeating medallions or all-over layouts, sometimes with boteh, in strong reds and browns lifted by cream, yellow, blue and green. The wool pile sits on a cotton foundation, which packs tighter, or a wool one, which is looser; density is low to medium, about 120 knots per square inch (roughly 186,000 per square meter).
The ornament set into each of the four corners of the field around a central medallion, usually echoing the medallion's motifs or color; in Tabriz rugs the corners are often made by dividing the medallion design into four and using one part per corner. Spandrels complete a medallion-and-corner layout, and in a well-made rug the corner pieces match one another and sit symmetrically.
Rugs from Tabriz, the large northwestern Iranian city and former Safavid capital, and its surrounding villages, where weaving is traced back at least to the 1500s. Weavers use the Turkish knot and small metal hooks, which give very regular, symmetrical patterns, usually on a cotton foundation (silk for the finest pieces), often double-wefted, with a short-clipped to medium pile. Densities run from about 50 to 500 knots per square inch (roughly 8 to 78 per cm²), silk-foundation pieces can exceed 600, and silk highlights lend vibrancy to floral designs. Some workshops weave only silk-and-wool rugs, favoring pastels. Tabriz offers the widest range of designs and colors of any Persian source: medallion, floral, Herati, hunting and vase patterns, plus most pictorial portraits. A rug sold as “Tabriz-style” is not necessarily woven in Tabriz.
A sampler rug: a small piece woven not for the floor but as a three-dimensional pattern reference, showing sections of borders, medallions, and field designs that a workshop could combine into full-size carpets. Essentially a weaver's catalogue in carpet form, vagirehs let master designs travel between villages without paper. Antique examples, particularly from Bidjar, are now sought-after collector's items in their own right.
A layout of vases holding flowers, spread across the rug, often with one large vase at the center surrounded by smaller ones around the medallion, the arrangement then repeated over the whole field. In Persian tradition the flowering vase stands for growth and opportunity, and it is also read as a symbol of abundance and paradise. The design is typical of Kashmar rugs and is also found in Bakhtiari, Tabriz, Sarouk, Qum and Kashan rugs; in Kashmar and Kashan rugs vases can also appear in the border.
A rug woven by settled villagers, sitting between nomadic tribal rugs and city-workshop rugs. Village weavers have better tools, materials and dyes than nomads but work in a looser, semi-structured setting than city workshops, often from memory rather than a drawn blueprint, and some sell through the bazaar of a larger nearby city, as Abadeh's weavers do in Shiraz. Designs are mostly geometric (medallion, all-over, boteh or Herati) with fewer florals than city rugs; knot density is usually higher than tribal but lower than city rugs, and varied loom sizes give a wide size range, from small pieces and runners to large rugs. Heriz is the best-known example, alongside Azerbaijan, Abadeh, Karaja, Mehraban and Senneh; Shiraz and Bakhtiari are also counted as village work in some classifications.
Fine Persian carpets from the city of Yazd in central Iran, known for their intricate medallion designs and high-quality craftsmanship. Traditional Yazd carpets feature a central medallion with elaborate floral motifs, often incorporating silk highlights on a wool foundation. The color palette typically includes rich blues, reds, and ivories with distinctive curvilinear patterns influenced by the historic textile traditions of this ancient city.
Tribal rugs from the Zagros mountains of western and southwestern Iran, woven by nomadic, semi-nomadic and settled village weavers such as the Bakhtiari, Qashqai and Luri. The weavers usually use wool from their own flocks, giving a sturdy, often dense pile on a cotton or wool foundation, colored with natural dyes in bold, rich tones. Their designs, from geometric medallions to the Bakhtiari garden-panel layout, are woven from memory and passed down through generations. Bakhtiari weaving spread across more than 200 villages after the once-nomadic tribe settled, while Qashqai nomads work on small portable looms, so their rugs seldom come in large sizes.
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.
A former Mashhad (Mashad) workshop whose rugs, no longer woven, are hard to find and are regarded as collectors' pieces. Typical examples have a cream ground with delicate floral designs on very thin branches, an allover layout with only a vaguely defined central medallion, and soft, subdued colors such as peach, blue and cream. The wool is described as soft, lanolin-rich wool from young sheep, which makes the colors look shinier. Weaving reportedly ended by the mid-1980s, because the next generation did not want to continue.