A Persian rug made in a city, often inside a workshop, one of the three families (city, village, tribal) into which Persian rugs are commonly sorted. Weavers usually follow a designer's drawn plan under experienced or master weavers, and a workshop can buy wool in bulk and color it all at once, so standards are stricter than in memory-based village and tribal weaving. City rugs generally reach the highest knot densities and the widest range of sizes, colors and designs, most often florals (Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan, Kerman, Nain, Mashhad, Sarouk). Workshop origin usually signals higher quality, but not every workshop rug is signed.
A style of drawing built from flowing curves, such as vines, scrolls, tendrils and rounded flower outlines, in contrast to the straight edges and angles of geometric design. It is the usual look of floral city and workshop rugs from Nain, Kashan, Tabriz and Isfahan, where curved lines and flowers are combined for a harmonious, fluid effect, while village and tribal rugs are mostly geometric and carry only some curvilinear flowers. Fine curves need a high knot density; with too few knots they look blurry or pixelated.
Antique Persian carpets from the Ferahan (also spelled Farahan or Feraghan) plain in central Iran, known for all-over Herati patterns and subtle color palettes. These 19th-century rugs typically feature a diamond lattice of small floral motifs, often in navy blue, rust red and ivory, and are prized for their fine weave and balanced, restrained compositions. In today's trade the name is also used for newly made Pakistani workshop rugs of the Peshawar (Chobi) type, woven from hand-spun wool and vegetable dyes in subdued colors and mostly Persian-inspired all-over designs, and sometimes for Sarouk rugs from the same region; such rugs are not antique Ferahan carpets.
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 senior weaver who oversees the other weavers of a workshop and keeps its standards of design and weaving high. Master weavers often found a workshop and lend it their name, as with Alabaf and Habibian, and in elite city workshops their names are frequently woven into the rugs as signatures. The most demanding pieces, such as pictorial rugs, are entrusted to them, and the Afghan master Khal Mohammadi, also an expert dyer, gave his name to a rug type. Rugs woven under such supervision are generally of higher quality than non-workshop rugs, though not in every case. The title is also used more loosely for any highly skilled weaver.
Carpets woven by nomadic tribes across the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa, who move with their flocks through spring, summer and fall and settle in winter to weave. Working on compact portable looms, they typically make small pieces (for example 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 ft, about 1.2 x 1.8 or 1.5 x 2.1 m), sometimes runners, using wool from their own flocks, often for both foundation and pile, traditionally dyed with local plants. The bold, mostly geometric designs are passed down through generations without written patterns and sometimes echo city rugs. Unlike city or workshop rugs, they often show asymmetry, color variation and patterns that do not resolve neatly at the corners.
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 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.
A rug woven in an organized workshop, a setup typical of city weaving, where a master weaver usually oversees the weavers and design and weaving follow stricter standards. Because a workshop can buy wool in bulk and dye it all at once, its material and colors tend to be better, so workshop rugs are generally of higher quality than non-workshop ones, though not in every case. Not every workshop rug is signed. Village rugs, made in a looser, semi-structured setting, usually have lower knot densities than city rugs.
A type of Persian carpet first made in the late 19th century for the European market by the firm Ziegler & Co., with enlarged, modified traditional Persian designs in softer, muted colors suited to Western tastes. A Ziegler Mahal design marks a particular period of production, yet old Ziegler patterns are still reproduced today, so design alone cannot date a rug. The name is also one of several trade names, alongside Oushak, Peshawar, Chobi and Farahan, used for workshop rugs made in Pakistan since roughly the 1970s in traditional Persian and Turkish designs, with a wool pile on a cotton foundation; which name applies varies with design and knot density.