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.
Subtle shifts in color within a handmade rug, often visible as horizontal bands across the field. They arise because successive dye batches never match exactly, because differences in the wool's fat and oil content make colors change unevenly with age, and, in cream areas woven from undyed wool, because the fiber changes tone as it ages. Abrash often grows more distinct with age, so in an older rug it counts as a sign of natural dyes and hand production rather than a fault, while a newer rug is still checked for even color. Machine-made and some new hand-knotted rugs imitate it on purpose.
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.
Tribal rugs woven by the Afshar, a Turkic people of Iran with a semi-nomadic past, with weaving communities around Kerman and elsewhere. In the Bijar area, Afshar weavers make a large share of the workshop-style Bijar rugs, so the Afshar name can also turn up on Bijar pieces. Afshar rugs are typically small to mid-sized, with geometric or stylized floral designs.
A finishing process applied to newly woven rugs to give them an antique look, best known from Pakistani Peshawar (Chobi), Oushak and Kazak-style rugs. The freshly woven rug, darker at first, is stone-washed in what the trade calls an antique wash that softens the dyes, sometimes with chemical washing as well; it may also be left in strong sunlight and has its pile cut short, so it feels thin yet stays durable. Natural aging fades color gently and evenly down the pile, whereas a treated rug tends to look bleached and shows a sharp band of color in the middle of the fibers. Because such rugs are made to look worn, a worn look alone does not prove a rug is old.
A famed Tabriz workshop begun in the early 20th century by Hassan Alabaf and run through three generations of his family, from Hassan to his son Abbas, who took over on his father's death, and on to a third generation that continues it. It reportedly ran over 300 looms with a thousand or more weavers. Its rugs in traditional Tabriz designs are regarded as among the finest made in Iran, often likened to the Rolls-Royce of Persian rugs, and pieces bearing its signature are sought by collectors and command higher prices.
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.
A type of Sarouk woven mainly in the 1920s and 1930s, with patterns and colors adapted to what international buyers, above all in the United States, appreciated, and very popular there. It is also known as Mohajeran Sarouk. Its floral design later served as a model for newer Malayer and Mehraban rugs.
A respected Tabriz workshop opened in 1923 by Amir Khizi Javan (born 1899), who founded it at about age 24; the name Javan means “young” in Persian. It began with four or five looms and grew to more than 150 looms and about 200 weavers, known for fine weaving, high knot density and distinctive color combinations. The founder, also known for his charity toward the poor of Tabriz, died in the early 1970s; his son continued the work until retiring in 2020, when production ended, so no new rugs with the Javan signature are made.
A Mashhad rug workshop described as very famous, best known as the place where Khalil Khadivi began his career as a designer and weaver and rose to foreman before setting up his own workshop and signature in the twentieth century.
Handmade rugs from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), known for their distinctive geometric patterns, vibrant colors, and cultural symbolism. These rugs often feature stylized motifs representing fertility, protection, and good fortune, with techniques dating back thousands of years, and are typically knotted with the symmetrical (Turkish) knot. Anatolian designs also traveled: Kurdish tribes with Anatolian roots carried them to Iran, where they still echo in Quchan rugs, and classic Turkish Oushak designs, together with Persian ones, became models for the mostly floral rugs of Pakistani workshops.
A chemical application to carpet fibers that reduces static electricity buildup, particularly important in commercial environments with electronic equipment.
A newly woven rug that copies the designs of much older rugs and is often finished to look aged, with a clipped low pile, stone washing, sun exposure and softly shaded natural dyes, although it has no real age. Peshawar (Chobi) rugs, and Oushak-style and Kazak-style rugs woven in Pakistan, are typical examples. Because old patterns keep being recreated, design alone cannot date a rug, and wear is an unreliable guide too. Experts look instead at the color: natural dyes fade gently down the pile fiber from tip to base, while treated color tends to look bleached with a sharp band. A supposedly very old rug with no repairs at all may be a recent copy.
A rug about 100 years old or older, the point at which an old rug is called antique rather than vintage or semi-antique. Age is a price factor of its own, since a 200-year-old rug costs more than an otherwise equal 100-year-old one, and it works alongside artistry, rarity (for example the output of a workshop that no longer exists) and condition. Very old rugs have often been repaired at some point, which shows most clearly from the back, so condition calls for close inspection.
The rounded feet-and-inches size under which a hand-knotted rug is listed, such as 9 x 12 ft (about 2.7 x 3.7 m), which only approximates its real dimensions. Persian and many other Oriental rugs are made to metric measurements and vary a little as they are woven by hand, so after conversion the actual size usually runs a few inches (roughly 5-10 cm) over or under; a rug listed as 9 x 12 ft may measure 9 ft 2 in by 12 ft 5 in (about 279 x 378 cm). Sizes are quoted width first, and the fringe is generally not counted in the length.
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.
Rugs from Arak, a city in central Iran formerly called Sultanabad, and the villages around it, a weaving region that grew in the Qajar era when exports of Persian rugs to Europe and America thrived. Rug texts also use the city as a reference point: the town of Sarouk lies about 50 km (31 miles) to its north, and the Malayer villages lie between Arak and Hamadan. Older pieces of the area are still sold under the old name Sultanabad.
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.
Standard dimensions for area rugs, typically 2'x3' (about 60x90 cm), 3'x5', 4'x6', 5'x7', 5'x8', 6'x9', 8'x10', 9'x12' (about 275x365 cm), 10'x14', 12'x15' and 12'x16', with runners usually 2 to 4 feet (60-120 cm) wide. Dealers group them as small (to 3'x5'), medium (4'x6' to 5'x7'), large (5'x8' to 8'x11') and oversized (9'x12' and up), though cutoffs vary. Because hand-knotted rugs are woven in metric units, real sizes can run a few inches off the label. A larger rug generally looks better than one too small: a good fit leaves 12-18 inches (30-45 cm) of bare floor to the walls, reaches at least the front edge of a sofa so seated feet rest on it, and extends 24 to 36 inches (60-90 cm) past each side of a dining table so pulled-out chairs stay on it.
The carpet-weaving enterprise of the charitable organization that runs the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran. It began as a small operation weaving chiefly for the shrine and, in the early 1980s (about four years after the Iranian revolution), grew into a large-scale producer of Mashhad rugs, reportedly over 6,000 square meters (about 65,000 square feet) a year with more than 500 artisans. It is known for special dyes, described as natural vegetable dyes, that give deep reds and blues. Rugs bearing its signature were often destined for shrines or commissioned as gifts.
A light do-it-yourself clean for a hand-knotted rug that freshens it and delays the next professional wash rather than replacing it. After vacuuming the front side to side, sparing the fringes, the pile is wiped section by section with a clean, preferably white, cotton towel dipped in diluted, bleach-free dishwashing foam, moving with the pile so the rug is only dampened and dries within 30 to 60 minutes. Dirty fringes are laid over a stick of wood and brushed with the same mixture, working from the rug outward.
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.
A type of machine-made carpet with a cut pile surface, known for intricate patterns and durability. Named after the town of Axminster in England where it was first produced.
Village rugs woven in the Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran, where Tabriz rugs also originate (the Iranian region, not the country of that name), traditionally by families working indoors through the cold winters. Designs pass down the generations without written blueprints, each generation adding small personal touches. A dense, durable wool pile on a cotton foundation carries mostly geometric layouts, sometimes with curvilinear florals or boteh, in vegetable-dyed navy and deep reds. Knot density is commonly quoted at about 120 to 170 KPSI (roughly 1,900 to 2,600 per 10 by 10 cm), and the thick pile suits busy areas, including runners wider than about 3 feet (90 cm).
The layer on the underside of a tufted or machine-made carpet that provides stability and structure. Primary backing holds the carpet fibers, while secondary backing adds strength and dimensional stability. The back of these carpets is typically stiff and plastic-like because it is synthetic (polypropylene, polyester or nylon), and it does not reveal the front pattern. A hand-knotted rug has no separate backing, canvas or latex layer: its back is the woven foundation, usually cotton, with the knots in plain view, softer to the touch and showing the front design.
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 of the older, more tribal-looking phase of Heriz-area weaving, made in the 1870s and earlier with open, loosely arranged compositions. Specialists place them before the more structured but still open Serapi of the late 19th to earliest 20th century and the busier Heriz patterns woven after the 1910s, and how closely a design matches this phase helps them estimate a Heriz-area rug's age. The name comes from Bakhshayesh, a town in the Heriz district of northwestern Iran.
Tribal rugs woven by the Baluch people of the border region between northeastern Iran and Afghanistan, who sell them in the bazaar of Mashhad because they have few buyers nearby. The designs blend Turkish, Persian, and Caucasian influences and stay closest to Turkmen weaving, which came first: repeating guls (flowers set in octagons), boteh, tree-of-life motifs, and prayer designs, mostly on dark navy, red, or brown fields with ivory and dark-purple accents, though newer pieces run lighter. The thin pile is wool, usually on a wool foundation. Because the weavers move around and cannot set up large looms, rugs are small, typically 4 x 6 ft (1.2 x 1.8 m), 5 x 7 ft (1.5 x 2.1 m) or smaller, and runners reach only about 10 to 12 ft (3 to 3.7 m) long and 1.5 to 5 ft (0.46 to 1.5 m) wide.
Yarn extruded as one endless strand and then texturized, as opposed to staple yarn spun from short lengths. The distinction answers a question every new carpet owner asks: staple constructions shed loose fibers for weeks after installation, while BCF carpets barely shed at all, because there are no short fiber ends to work loose. Most modern synthetic carpet is BCF.
The rotating bristled roller in the head of many upright and power-head vacuum cleaners, which beats and agitates the pile to loosen dirt. On a hand-knotted rug it is too harsh: it beats the pile down and can grab and shred the fringe, which should not be vacuumed at all. The recommended alternative is suction alone from a light canister vacuum whose head has no beater bar, passed side to side across the rug's width rather than lengthwise against the pile; if only a beater-bar machine is available, the bar should be switched off.
A step of hand-knotting in which the weaver, after finishing each row of knots and weft, pounds the row down against the rows below with a beater tool to pack the pile tight. The harder a rug is beaten, the denser and longer-lasting it turns out: Bakhtiari and Bijar weavers are known for especially forceful beating, and Bijar weavers often keep the wool wet so the weft and knots can be pounded down with more force. Because a weaver's beating force also varies over time, it is one reason hand-knotted rugs are not perfectly symmetrical.
A style of carpet characterized by loops of the same height, often flecked with color. Originally referred to handmade North African carpets but now commonly refers to loop pile carpets with a distinctive speckled appearance.
A floral motif of rose bouquets found in Bijar rugs and borrowed from French carpets. It goes back to the nineteenth century, when a revival of rug weaving in Iran took its inspiration from Europe, and it is one of several outside influences on Bijar design, alongside the rugs of Isfahan and Kashan and Russian and Caucasian designs.
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.
A strip of fabric sewn along the edge of a carpet or rug to prevent fraying and give a finished look, as on area rugs and stair runners. A hand-knotted rug is normally finished differently: the weaver wraps the weft several times around the outermost warp to form the overcast, or selvage, usually a rounded, corded edge (sometimes flat, or in a contrasting wool) whose regional style helps experts tell where the rug was made.
Carpet patterns and textures inspired by nature, designed to bring elements of the natural world into interior spaces. Part of the broader biophilic design movement that aims to increase occupant connectivity to the natural environment.
Rugs woven today chiefly in Pakistani workshops by Pakistani and Afghan weavers who rework older Persian-Turkmen designs rooted in Central Asia; in the trade they count as Oriental rather than Persian rugs. The hallmark is an allover repeat of guls, stylized octagonal (sometimes diamond-shaped) flower motifs, on a field most often red, then cream, sometimes blue or green, and more recently black, with black, peach, blue, and green accents, all in plant-based dyes. The pile is soft, silky-looking 100 percent wool on a cotton foundation, medium in height, and some pieces come oversized; a finer grade has higher knot density, more detailed drawing, and premium Ghazni wool.
A teardrop-shaped motif with a curved upper tip, ubiquitous in Persian and Kashmiri weaving for centuries. The Persian word is glossed as “budding flower or plant,” and the motif stands for growth and regeneration; it is also read as a cypress that bends in the wind but rarely breaks, a flame, a seed, a pine cone or a stylized almond. When Scottish mills began imitating Kashmir shawls in the 19th century, the boteh became known in the West as “paisley,” after the town of Paisley. In rugs it usually repeats throughout the field, notably in Tabriz, Sarouk, Kerman, Mashhad and Malayer pieces.
Carpet manufactured in wide widths (typically 12 or 15 feet) on a broad loom. Refers to wall-to-wall carpeting as opposed to carpet tiles or area rugs.
An animal fiber from camels, used less often in rugs than wool, cotton or silk and found mostly in tribal Persian rugs. Its natural warm tan tone has also become a color name: camel hair is a recurring field color in Mehraban rugs, alongside dark blue, dark red, cream and peach, so the phrase can refer to the fiber or merely to the shade.
Generated illustration: one canister vacuum with a suction-only head.
A vacuum cleaner whose motor, filter and dust container sit in a wheeled body that follows the user, joined by a flexible hose to a wand and cleaning head, unlike an upright machine in which motor and brush head form one unit. A light canister model with a head that has no beater bar is the type recommended for hand-knotted rugs; heavy-duty and industrial machines are avoided.
A stage of wool preparation that follows scouring and precedes carding, in which the fibers are softened and whitened. It is one of the washing steps that turn freshly shorn fleece into clean wool ready to be carded, spun and dyed into rug yarn.
A wool-preparation step in which cleaned wool passes through a carding machine that lines the fibers up in one direction and removes any impurities still left. It follows scouring and carbonizing and comes before spinning, leaving the wool ready to be spun into yarn for the rug.
Various techniques for cleaning carpets, including hot water extraction (steam cleaning), dry compound cleaning, bonnet cleaning, and encapsulation, each suited to particular carpet types, soiling levels, and drying times. Hand-knotted rugs need gentler care: side-to-side vacuuming with a canister vacuum whose beater bar is off, sparing the fringes; an occasional light wipe with diluted, bleach-free dish foam on white cotton towels, worked in sections along the pile so it dries within about an hour; and a professional wash every 5 to 10 years, every 3 to 5 in heavy traffic, and before storing a rug for a year or more.
Square sections of carpet (typically 18"×18" or 24"×24") that can be installed individually and replaced as needed. Popular in commercial settings for their flexibility, ease of installation, and reduced waste during replacement.
A small framed box woven into a rug to hold the name of the master weaver or workshop, often together with the city. It is one of the two usual ways in which Persian city workshops sign a rug; the other is weaving the name directly into the border stripes.
A carpet with a design created by cutting pile to different heights, creating a three-dimensional, sculptured effect. Often used to add visual interest and texture to solid-colored carpets.
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 signed and sealed document that a dealer issues with a hand-knotted rug to record what it is: its origin, type, materials, size, knot density and age, any signature the rug carries, and often a photograph. It is commonly likened to a birth certificate for the rug. Some dealers also state the rug's value on it, which lets it serve as proof of value for an insurance claim or a later resale. Buyers use it to confirm that a rug is what it is sold as, particularly for a gift or an investment piece; its worth rests on the reputation of the dealer who issues it.
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 stylized, ribbon-like cloud motif that curls in soft, swirling lobes and is Chinese in derivation. It is among the motifs credited to the Mongol (Ilkhanid) period of Persian weaving, when designs from China were blended with Islamic art, together with the lotus, dragon and phoenix. Few rugs from that period survive.
Dye that has migrated from one colored area of a rug into the neighboring areas, for example after a professional wash or after a liquid spill that was not properly dealt with. Older rugs that have been washed several times are checked for it in particular. A rug with no color run commands the best price, while a significant run is a serious flaw that can rule a rug out at inspection. It is damage, unlike abrash, the natural shade variation of handmade rugs.
The dyed variety of Gabbeh, the thick-piled, simply drawn tribal rug of Fars province. Because the weavers dye the wool, any palette is possible, from reds, blues and greens to yellows, and the strong colors usually go with bold, abstract designs of trees, animals and people. The counterpart is natural Gabbeh, woven from undyed white and black wool in cream, brown, gray and black tones.
The standard, entry-level grade of modern Kazak rug, also called regular Kazak and the one buyers see most often, woven by Afghan weavers in Pakistan. It has the lowest knot density of the three grades (commercial, Super Kazak and Kazak Azari), which suits its large, bold, mostly geometric patterns, and it comes in softened, subdued colors with a good choice of shades. It is generally the lowest-priced of the three.
A globally recognized measure of safer, more sustainable products made for the circular economy. For carpets, it evaluates material health, product circularity, clean air and climate protection, water and soil stewardship, and social fairness.
The towering rack of yarn packages that feeds a tufting machine — often holding well over a thousand cones at once, one for every needle across the machine's width. Pattern and color changes begin here: rethreading a creel can take a full shift, which is why machine-made carpet is economical in long runs of one design and expensive in short custom batches.
A certification program by the Carpet and Rug Institute that identifies carpets, adhesives, and cushions with very low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) emissions for better indoor air quality.
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.
A simple check of dye stability in which a damp towel or cloth is left lying on the pile of a rug for several minutes and then examined for transferred color. Hand-knotted rugs colored with natural dyes typically show little or no bleeding, whereas hand-tufted and machine-made rugs colored with chemical dyes tend to start running, so the result serves as one clue among several to whether a rug is authentic. Even a genuine rug can bleed after a careless wash or an unattended spill.
Low-grade wool taken from dead sheep rather than shorn from living ones; in the wool trade it is usually pulled from the hides of slaughtered animals. The fiber is thin and dry, so it ends up mainly in cheaper, poorer-quality rugs and counts as a mark of low quality. Its opposite is wool shorn in spring, especially from sheep raised at high elevation, which is thicker and oilier.
A measure of how tightly a carpet is packed. In machine-made carpet it describes the fibers in the pile and is calculated by multiplying the face weight by 36 and dividing by the pile height; higher density generally indicates better durability and performance. In hand-knotted rugs it means knot density (KPSI, knots per square inch), counted on the back and averaged over several areas (150 KPSI is about 23 knots per cm²). Like image resolution, higher density allows finer curves and sharper designs, usually with a lower-trimmed pile and more labor, but it is not the sole measure of quality: bold geometric village rugs are made at low to medium density.
A structural technique in which alternate warp threads are pulled to a second, lower level inside the rug, so the knots pack into two planes instead of one. This is the hidden engineering behind many very finely knotted carpets: it nearly doubles the achievable knot density and produces a stiff, heavy handle. Running your fingers across the back of a rug and feeling ribbed, offset knot nodes is a classic connoisseur's test for warp depression.
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.
A carpet installation method where adhesive is applied directly to the subfloor and the carpet is laid on top. Common in commercial settings and for carpet tiles, providing a secure installation without the need for padding.
A carpet installation method where the padding is glued to the subfloor, and then the carpet is glued to the padding. Provides extra stability and is often used in high-traffic commercial areas.
A construction in which two weft threads, rather than one, are run through the warp between successive rows of knots. The doubled weft covers the foundation, so on the back of a finely and tightly woven rug only knots and weft show, without the white flecks of warp that give away a single-weft rug, and the rug is thicker, denser and heavier. Bijar and Heriz are typical double-wefted types, as are finely woven Persian rugs in general.
Traditional Persian rug sizes based on the zar, an old unit of measure of roughly 104 cm derived from the arm. A dozar ("two zar") measures about 2 × 1.3 m, while a zaronim ("a zar and a half") is around 1.5 × 1 m. Terms like these reveal how deeply rug making is woven into daily life: sizes were standardized around rooms, doorways, and bodies centuries before metric measurements.
A single batch of dye, together with the yarn colored with it, all of which takes the same shade. Natural dyes are made in small artisanal batches, and when one runs out the replacement cannot be matched exactly, so yarn from different lots differs slightly in tone. In a finished rug the difference shows as the color shifts known as abrash, which is read as a sign of hand dyeing, whereas a perfectly flat, uniform color suggests synthetic dyes and machine making.
Carpets manufactured with sustainable materials, low environmental impact production methods, and recyclable components. May include carpets made from recycled materials, natural fibers, or those produced with reduced water and energy consumption.
The "skirt": a supplementary band of design at one or both ends of a Turkmen rug, outside the main border, often woven in a deliberately different technique or pattern from the rest of the piece. Elems served practical roles on tent bags and animal trappings, and for collectors they are a fingerprint — the style of an elem helps attribute a piece to a specific tribe such as the Tekke, Salor, or Yomut.
A type of flooring that combines multiple layers of different materials for improved stability and performance. In the context of carpet, may refer to carpet tiles with engineered backing systems designed for specific performance characteristics.
A rug woven by Turkmen tribes to hang over the doorway of a yurt rather than lie on the floor. Its characteristic design divides the field into four quadrants (often called the hatchli or cross layout), traditionally read as a protective symbol guarding the threshold. Because they were made for a doorway, authentic ensis share a remarkably consistent size — roughly that of a door.
A transparent, objective report that communicates the environmental performance and impact of a carpet throughout its lifecycle. EPDs are based on international standards and life cycle assessment methodology.
A carpet deliberately treated after weaving to look worn and antique. The finish typically involves washing (often stone washing, sometimes chemical treatment), occasionally strong sunlight, and cutting the pile short, which softens the colors and leaves a thin, low pile while keeping the durability of a new rug; many new Oushak-, Kazak- and Peshawar-style rugs are finished this way. Treated color can be told from genuine age: it looks bleached and shows a sharp band of color inside the fiber, whereas natural fading is gentle and even from tip to base, so a worn look alone does not prove a rug is old.
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.
A European classification system for the fire performance of construction products, including floor coverings. Ranges from A (non-combustible) to F (easily flammable), with additional smoke production (s) and flaming droplets (d) classifications.
The modern method behind most woven Wilton carpet: two carpets are woven simultaneously as a sandwich, connected by shared pile yarns, then a traveling blade slices the sandwich apart into two identical cut-pile carpets. The technique doubles loom output and explains why the pile of a face-to-face Wilton is always cut — the loops never existed as loops, but as bridges between the two carpets.
A province in southwestern Iran that includes the city of Shiraz and is home to many weaving tribes and settled villages. Its best-known rugs are Gabbeh, thick-piled and simply drawn, woven by the province's tribes and villagers, and the tribal Shiraz rugs, sold through the Shiraz bazaar, whose patterns blend those of neighboring weaving groups such as Abadeh and the Qashqai.
A type of carpet made by compressing and matting wool fibers together using heat, moisture, and pressure rather than weaving or tufting. The resulting material is dense, durable, and naturally water-resistant. Modern felted wool carpets combine traditional techniques with contemporary designs for a unique textile that provides excellent thermal and acoustic insulation.
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.
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.
Chemical processes applied to carpets to reduce flammability and meet fire safety standards. Common treatments include applying flame-retardant chemicals during manufacturing.
A type of carpet constructed without pile, where the warp and weft threads are woven together to create a flat surface. Examples include kilims, dhurries, and soumaks. Flatweaves are typically reversible, lightweight, and easier to clean than pile carpets, making them popular for casual spaces and warmer climates.
A traditional handmade Greek rug characterized by its long, shaggy pile made from 100% wool. Authentic Flokati rugs are woven in Greece, then washed in the cold waters of the Pindus mountains, causing the wool to fluff and create their distinctive fluffy texture. Originally used by shepherds for warmth, they are now popular decorative pieces known for their luxurious softness and natural cream color.
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.
Lasting lines left where a rug has been kept folded for a long time. Long-term folds can weaken the foundation until it eventually rips, which makes them one of the main hazards of storage. A small rug is therefore best rolled whole, evenly and tightly; a rug too large for that is folded evenly, first lengthwise and then across, and then rolled tight.
A type of cut pile carpet with tightly twisted fibers that curl in different directions, creating a textured, casual appearance with excellent durability and ability to hide footprints.
The warp ends that extend past both short ends of a rug. In a hand-knotted rug the fringe is not a trim added at the end but the visible continuation of the foundation, whose warp threads can be followed through the whole rug on its back, so it is made of the same fiber (cotton, wool or silk) and shows what the foundation is made of. It should not be cut off; if it has to be hidden, it can be tied back against the reverse. Weavers cut, tie, braid or decorate it, with braided or decorated ends especially common in tribal and village rugs, and how it is finished helps identify the origin; it is also seldom perfectly even, one end often running longer than the other. A fringe attached afterward, or none at all, points toward a machine-made rug.
The upkeep routine for a rug's fringe, the exposed warp ends. The fringe is kept out of vacuuming or at most swept gently with a broom, because a rotating brush roll grabs and shreds the threads, and it can be combed softly with a wide-tooth brush to keep it from tangling. When dirty it is washed by laying it over a board or stick and brushing it from the rug toward the tips with heavily diluted, bleach-free dish soap, then leaving it on the stick until fully dry. Bleach and other harsh chemicals are kept away, since they can rot the foundation.
A small padded cup or pad set under the legs of heavy furniture, such as a sofa, coffee table or dining table, to cushion the weight each leg puts on the rug. It is used together with a rug pad, and alongside rotating the rug from time to time so that the load does not stay on the same spots.
A rug from Fars province in Iran, first documented in the 1600s, about 400 years ago, and woven by the region's tribes and settled villagers on a wool or goat-hair foundation (rarely cotton), with a long, thick, dense wool pile that is not clipped short. Its low knot density gives simple, bold designs in which trees, animals, and people become abstract geometric shapes. Color Gabbeh is dyed in any hue, often strongly, while natural Gabbeh uses undyed white and black wool in cream, brown, gray, and black tones, usually on a cream ground. Typical sizes are about 3-4 by 6-7 ft (0.9-1.2 by 1.8-2.1 m). Finer city-woven versions come from Shiraz, and very fine, heavy pieces are sometimes called Qashqai, though they are not true Qashqai rugs.
A layout in which the field is divided into a grid of framed, mostly square panels, each holding its own imagined garden of flowers, plants, trees and birds, usually on a single background color of its own. Scenes vary, from cypress trees and villas to lakes, deer in a forest or a tree of life, and in some rugs the panels carry the four seasons. Weavers treat each panel as a window onto paradise and a sign of hope for a bright future. Best known from Bakhtiari rugs, it is also woven in Tabriz, Sarouk, Kashmar, Kerman and Qum. The Persian name Kheshti comes from khesht (“brick”), after the square frames.
In machine-made carpets, refers to the distance between needles on the tufting machine. Lower gauge numbers indicate more needles per inch and a denser carpet.
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 Tabriz workshop known for some of the most unusual designs in the city, woven on a silk foundation at extremely high densities of about 700 to 1,200 knots per square inch (roughly 108 to 186 per cm²). That is far above the 50 to 500 knots per square inch (about 8 to 78 per cm²) typical of Tabriz rugs as a whole, which makes its rugs exceptionally fine and detailed pieces.
A prized rug wool from the Ghazni region of Afghanistan. Like other top-grade fleece it is thick and oily, and it is ranked with Manchester wool and New Zealand wool among the three best-known high-quality wools for Persian and Oriental rugs. Kazak rugs woven by Afghan weavers in Pakistan use it hand-spun.
An animal fiber that tribal weavers sometimes use for a rug's foundation in place of wool, as in Gabbeh and Quchan rugs, while the pile itself stays wool. Together with mohair, camel hair and cow hair it is among the less common rug materials, seen mostly in tribal work, and it also turns up in some flat-woven kilims.
A floral rug design associated with the city of Hamadan, noted for especially beautiful blossoms and regarded as a rare kind of floral pattern. The Persian name gol-e farang means “foreign flower”, that is, a flower in the European manner.
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.
Environmentally friendly carpet cleaning methods that use non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning agents and reduced water consumption. These approaches minimize chemical residues, decrease indoor air pollution, and reduce environmental impact while still effectively cleaning carpets. Methods may include plant-based cleaners, steam cleaning with minimal chemical use, or encapsulation cleaning that reduces water waste.
A narrow band running alongside the wide main border of a rug, framing it and completing the boundary around the field much as a frame surrounds a painting; it is also called a secondary border. Many Sarouk rugs, for example, wrap a much thinner secondary border around the primary one, and wide floral borders, as on some Tabriz and Kashan rugs, are often edged by narrow guards. The broad main border and its slim guards together form a hierarchy of bands that sets off the design.
An octagonal or polygonal, stylized flower motif repeated in rows across the field of Turkmen rugs. The same repeat is typical of Baluchi rugs, where a flower sits inside each octagon, and of Bokhara rugs, woven chiefly in Pakistan after Turkmen models. In older Turkmen rugs each tribe (Tekke, Salor, Ersari and others) typically kept its own gul, so an expert can often tell the tribe from the motif, whereas modern pieces mix guls freely. The word means “flower” or “rose” in Persian, though the shapes are highly geometric rather than naturalistic.
The Nain workshop founded by Fatollah Habibian, who is said to have begun weaving in 1903 under his father and, after the family's older styles lost their market and its stock was sold off, started his own workshop with his brother. He is regarded as the creator of the modern Nain rug, and the name has become synonymous with Nain rugs: Persian-knotted, densely woven, intricately designed, with silk highlights and a modern look. Habibian is one of the few well-known signatures found on Nain rugs, most of which are unsigned, and the founder's grandsons carry the workshop on.
One of three master weavers of Tabriz, with Kurban Dai and Sheikh Safi, who are credited with making possible the export of Tabriz rugs to the West. Weaving in the city goes back to the 1500s, but that export trade did not begin until the 1900s.
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 rug construction in which the weaver ties each knot of wool or silk pile yarn by hand around adjacent warp threads on a loom, then runs a weft through the row and beats it down. The cut knot ends form the pile, the warps and wefts form the foundation, and the warp ends become the fringe. A rug can take months or even years, and the work leaves subtle irregularities: patterns not perfectly symmetrical, opposite edges a few inches different in length, an uneven fringe. Authentic Persian, Oriental and Turkish rugs are hand-knotted, unlike hand-tufted rugs (sometimes sold as “handmade”) and machine-made ones, whose backs feel stiff and evenly aligned.
Wool yarn spun from cleaned, carded fleece by hand or on a manual wheel rather than by machine, after which the spun threads are twisted together into thicker, stronger strands before dyeing. It gives finer, softer threads than machine spinning, so the wool feels softer and looks shinier, and hand spinning is said to preserve the wool's natural lanolin. It is usual in Kazak and Peshawar rugs woven in Pakistan and in Afghan Khal Mohammadi rugs, all of which are also colored with natural dyes.
A rug made by punching pile yarn through a stretched cloth base with a hand-held tufting tool and fixing the loops with a glued backing, rather than tying knots by hand around warp and weft threads. Its back shows cloth and adhesive instead of individual knots and feels less soft than a knotted rug's. It ranks below hand-knotted and above machine-made rugs, does not last as long as a knotted rug, and is not considered a genuine Persian or Oriental rug. Because it is sometimes sold simply as "handmade", the term hand-knotted is the one that identifies a knotted rug.
A loose sales label for a rug made by hand rather than by machine. It is sometimes simply another word for hand-knotted, but it is not a guarantee of it: some dealers apply it to hand-tufted rugs, in which yarn is punched through a backing with a hand-held tufting gun. Hand-tufted rugs rank below hand-knotted ones, are not expected to last as long and are not considered authentic Persian or Oriental rugs, so hand-knotted is the term to look for in a description. Machine-made rugs rank lowest.
Rugs from Herat, a historic city in western Afghanistan that was among the largest rug-producing centers of the Safavid period (16th to early 18th century), alongside Tabriz, Kashan and Kerman. The city also gives its name to the Herati design, a repeated diamond holding a small flower or leaves, with curved leaves at its sides, which is said to have originated there and is still woven in many Persian 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.
The rust red for which Heriz rugs are best known, usually set with dark navy and cream in the field and border. According to local tradition, the weavers keep the dyed wool for a while in a river of the Heriz area that carries copper minerals, and the copper shifts the dye to this rustic tone, which is why the color is tied so closely to Heriz.
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.
The tallest pile tier in one dealer's four-tier scheme, about 1/2 to 5/8 in (12.7 to 15.9 mm) measured from the back of the rug to the top of the pile. It feels cushioned and cozy underfoot and usually comes with larger, bolder patterns, because rugs of lower knot density need no close trimming to look sharp. Together with medium pile it is recommended for busy living rooms, hallways, entryways and heavy furniture, but it needs more clearance under doors and takes longer to dry in damp rooms. Heriz, Mashhad, Sarouk, Bijar, Zanjan and Gabbeh rugs typically have it.
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.
Weakening of a rug's pile and foundation caused by prolonged exposure to high humidity or damp conditions. Moisture working into the natural fibers leaves them frail and can eventually make them decay, and the same dampness attracts moths and other pests. Damp, hot or poorly ventilated storage, bathrooms and humid climates are the usual settings; remedies are a dehumidifier, good airflow, a rug pad that blocks moisture rising from the floor, a lower pile that absorbs less humidity, and airing the rug outdoors in the sun for a few hours once or twice a year, without leaving its face in strong sun for long. Humidity swings also make a wool foundation stretch and shrink and distort the rug, whereas a cotton foundation holds its size better.
A pictorial layout in which the field is filled with animals in the chase or in flight, such as leopard, stag, fox, rabbit and birds. Some examples hold well over a hundred different animals, and a few carry a second scene in the border instead of the usual flowers, for instance herons, cranes or deer resting under blossom trees. The design is woven in Isfahan, Qum, Kerman and Tabriz rugs. The Persian term shikargah (also shekargah) means “hunting ground”.
The era of Mongol and Ilkhanid rule over Persia, which some rug histories date from the 1300s into the 1500s. It is credited with blending Chinese and Islamic art in Persian carpet design: pictorial, open-space compositions and motifs such as the phoenix, lotus, cloud band and dragon are traced to this contact, and Persian rug weaving as it is known today may have begun here. Little evidence remains, since much of the period's work was destroyed, but rare glimpses of its rugs show floral motifs and birds starting to appear.
Generated illustration: an indigo source leaf and processed dye cakes.
A deep blue natural dye, traditionally obtained from Indigofera plants and named alongside madder root and walnut husks among the plant dyes that color the wool of natural-dye rugs. It provides the deep midnight blues of rugs such as Heriz and Bakhtiari, and the dyed yarn reveals its full blue only as the dye oxidizes in air. In rug descriptions the word also names that deep blue shade itself.
A very large government-owned Iranian rug producer, known by the initials ICC and in the United States as the Iranian Rug Company, whose roots reach back to 1934. It runs a network of workshops in about 44 cities, including Tabriz, Hamadan and Sarouk, with some 25,000 workers, and turns out roughly 50,000 square meters (about 540,000 square feet) of rugs a year. It supplies wool and materials and lends money for replacing old looms. Dyeing and weaving are tightly controlled, and even a small flaw has to be unpicked and redone, so its signature signals consistent, high quality whichever town the rug comes from.
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.
Handcrafted carpets from Jaipur, India, known for their vibrant colors and intricate designs. Traditional Jaipuri rugs feature distinctive floral patterns, geometric motifs, and sometimes incorporate block-printing techniques. These rugs often use a cotton foundation with wool pile and are renowned for their craftsmanship, with techniques passed down through generations of artisans in Rajasthan.
A traditional flat-woven textile from Iran and the Caucasus region, similar to kilims but typically woven in narrow strips that are sewn together. Jajims feature colorful stripes and simple geometric patterns, often in bright blues, reds, and yellows. Historically used as floor coverings, bedspreads, or wrapping cloths by nomadic tribes, they are now appreciated as decorative textiles and wall hangings.
A budget shortcut in hand-knotting in which each knot is looped around four warp threads instead of the two spanned by the symmetrical (Turkish) and asymmetrical (Persian) knots. It speeds up weaving but gives a much looser, sparser weave: a jufti rug can weigh about half as much as a regular-knotted rug of the same size, and its patterns look fuzzy, pixelated and less detailed, usually plain with open space. It is hard to spot from the back, so weight and pattern clarity are the best clues; the rugs wear less well and are cheaper. It turns up, for example, in lower-grade Kerman pieces.
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.
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.
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.
The most expensive of the three grades of modern Kazak rugs that Afghan weavers make in Pakistan, above commercial and Super Kazak. Its knot density equals that of a commercial Kazak or runs slightly higher, but it offers a much wider range of patterns and harmonious colors, with designs inspired by Persian Heriz rugs, and a medium-to-thick pile that feels more luxurious. Its hand-spun wool is the best of the three grades, thick and rich, and its colors come from vegetable dyes. Although the rugs look antique, they are newly made.
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).
Fine Persian carpets from Kerman in southern Iran, a city on the old Iran-India trade route and one of the historic rug-weaving centers, famed for its master dyers. Designs vary widely: florals and allovers, tree of life, hunting, garden and open-field layouts, fine “spring” florals of tiny flowers, and the distinctive “vase” technique. The pile is usually soft kork wool on a cotton foundation, sometimes silk-and-wool or pure silk. One rug can hold 15 to 30 colors, mostly deep reds, several blues, green and cream, with pastels such as champagne, lime green, pink and gray-blue in newer pieces. Roughly half of Kerman rugs, from lesser workshops, use the jufti knot, a shortcut yielding a sparser, lower-quality weave.
The Mashhad workshop founded by Khalil Khadivi, who began as a designer and weaver at the older Amoghli workshop and rose to foreman. While still foreman he wove a few pieces of his own on the side; their quality drew buyers, and he set up his own workshop and signature. He put quality ahead of volume, and his rugs are prized as very fine, densely woven and scarce; at its peak the workshop ran about 35 looms with several dozen workers in Mashhad and nearby towns. One of his sons ran it afterward, and the family continues the signature today.
Trade name among rug specialists for the finer grade of Khal Mohammadi, the Afghan rugs known for deep, natural-dyed reds. Colors and design match the regular grade, but the higher knot density gives a sharper, more detailed drawing, so the difference shows in the crispness of the pattern rather than in its overall look.
Rugs of Afghan origin and design, named, unusually, after a person rather than a place: according to trade legend, a master rug maker and dyer who stayed in northern Afghanistan during the Russian invasion and began producing them there. They are known for deep, naturally dyed reds and blues with orange, black and rust accents, and for geometric layouts with fine floral details inspired by Bokhara and Turkoman designs; slight shade variation is normal in natural dye. The pile is 100 percent wool from mountain sheep whose fatty wool has a soft sheen, on a cotton foundation, at a medium height. Some are classed as Pakistan-made. A finer, denser grade, often labeled Belgique, draws the same design more sharply.
A flat-woven rug with no pile, traditionally made in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and the Balkans. Colored weft threads are interlaced with the warp without knots, so both sides look alike. The fibers are typically wool, cotton, or goat hair, and natural dyes often give slight shade variations that are normal, not flaws. Its low profile clears doors easily, and it can hang as wall art. In a knotted rug, "kilim" also names the flat-woven band at each end, where extra weft rows secure the ends beside the fringe.
The band at each short end of a knotted rug, between the last row of pile and the fringe, woven with weft only. The weaver passes extra weft through the warp there several times, without knots, to secure the pile and give the ends a tighter, stronger finish. It is a finishing detail of a pile rug, not a kilim rug in its own right; a fringe that has to be hidden can be tied back against it on the reverse. In Bijar rugs the fringe at this end is often braided.
The number of knots in one square inch of a hand-knotted rug (KPSI; 1 KPSI is about 15.5 knots per 10 x 10 cm), counted on the back with a ruler by multiplying the knots along one inch of height by those along one inch of width, averaged over two or three areas. More knots give sharper detail, like a higher-resolution screen, and, all else equal, somewhat more durability and a higher price, but density alone does not grade quality: Heriz and Bijar are durable at low to medium counts, while floral curvilinear designs blur without enough knots. Figures run from under about 80 for coarse tribal weaves such as Gabbeh and Qashqai, through roughly 120 to 225 for many village rugs and 300 to 700 for fine city rugs such as Nain and Isfahan, to 600 to 1,000 or more for pure silk Qum.
A small metal hook that weavers usually use, when tying symmetrical (Turkish) knots, to grab the yarn and pull it through between the warp threads. The rug is still made entirely by hand, and the tool contributes to the very even, precise knotting for which Tabriz weavers, who use the Turkish knot, are known. Asymmetrical (Persian) knots are usually tied with the fingers alone, and weavers typically do not use a hook for them.
A fine, soft grade of wool taken from the neck and inner fleece layer of young sheep, often from the first shearing. Oily with natural lanolin, it feels soft and resilient and gives colors extra shine. It is used for the pile of many fine city rugs from Isfahan, Kerman, Qum, Tabriz, and Mashad, and older antique Sarouks cut to a short pile use it too. Also spelled cork or kurk wool.
Rugs woven by Kurdish tribes and villagers in Iran. In the west, Bijar rugs come from Kurdistan Province and are dense and double-wefted, while Senneh rugs come from Kurdish weaving villages around Sanandaj. In the north-east, above Mashhad, Kurdish tribes settled by the Safavids in the 16th century to guard the border weave Quchan rugs, whose designs echo their Anatolian homelands. Kurdish weavers are known for handling strong colors without disharmony, and Kurdish tribal rugs of the greater Hamadan area are usually single-wefted.
A Persian grading scale specific to Nain rugs, in which a number such as 4, 6 or 9 counts the layers (la, "layers") of thread at each warp position. The scale runs backward: the lower the number, the denser the knotting, typically about 650 KPSI for 4 la, 400 to 500 for 6 la and 200 to 300 for 9 la (roughly 10,100, 6,200 to 7,750 and 3,100 to 4,650 knots per 10 by 10 cm).
The natural wax that coats wool fibers and serves as the fleece’s own protection, waterproofing it. Wool from sheep raised at higher elevations is thicker and oilier ("fatty"), and a warm, slightly oily hand is a quick sign of real wool. In a carpet, the lanolin that remains repels liquids, so spills bead on the surface for a few moments instead of soaking in, one reason wool resists spills and soil. Hand spinning preserves it, while repeated harsh chemical cleaning strips it away, so gentle washing is recommended.
A size band above medium, running from about 5 x 8 ft (152 x 244 cm) through 6 x 9, 7 x 10 and 8 x 10 up to about 8 x 11 ft (244 x 335 cm); from 9 x 12 ft (2.7 x 3.7 m) a rug counts as oversized. It suits a small apartment living room (5 x 8 to 6 x 9), a medium living room (7 x 10 to 8 x 11) or a home office, where a 5 x 8 or 6 x 9 sits in front of the desk. City Persian types such as Tabriz, Sarouk and Kashan are made in this size, while tribal rugs such as Baluchi and Qashqai are seldom woven this large. Dealers' size labels vary, so the dimensions matter more than the name.
A synthetic rubber compound applied to the back of carpets to secure the tufts and provide dimensional stability. Available in various formulations including SBR (Styrene Butadiene Rubber) and synthetic latex, which offer different levels of flexibility and durability.
A pictorial rug theme drawn from the classic Persian love story of two young people whose families forbid them to marry. The man, known as Majnun (“madman”), loses his reason from longing and roams the desert composing poems and songs; the woman, Layla, is married off to a wealthy nobleman to safeguard her family's honor and dies of grief, and he weeps himself to death on her grave. The best-known Persian telling is the verse romance of Nizami (1188), and the story appears on pictorial rugs, for example from Tabriz.
A carpet construction where yarn loops are all the same height, creating a uniform, textured surface with excellent durability and soil hiding capabilities.
The frame on which the warp (vertical) threads are strung first and held under tension so the weft (horizontal) threads can be interlaced through them and the knots tied onto them. Hand-knotted rugs are made on simple looms, from those set up in weavers' homes to the compact, transportable ones of nomadic weavers, where every knot is tied by hand. Loom size sets rug size: nomads' small looms typically yield rugs no larger than about 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 ft (1.2 x 1.8 m or 1.5 x 2.1 m), city workshops with very large looms weave palace sizes, and the number of looms a workshop runs gauges its scale. Wooden looms in tribal and village weaving expand and contract over time, one cause of crooked rugs. Power looms such as Wilton, Axminster, and Jacquard, the industrial descendants, make machine-woven carpet.
A carpet construction where the yarn forms loops that remain uncut on the surface. Available in level loop (all loops the same height) or multi-level loop (varying heights to create patterns or texture). Generally more durable and less prone to crushing than cut pile carpets.
A type of Anatolian carpet with a lacy arabesque of yellow scrolling lines on a red ground, named after the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto, who showed such carpets in his paintings. The pattern belongs to the late Renaissance, so recognizing it gives a rough age for a rug, although modern reproductions of old designs exist and the pattern alone does not prove that a rug is antique.
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.
The shortest pile tier in one dealer's four-tier scheme, about 1/8 to 1/4 in (3.2 to 6.4 mm) measured from the back of the rug to the top of the pile; the next tier, low-medium, runs to 1/3 in (8.5 mm). It feels smooth and shows a sharp, high-resolution design, so finely knotted rugs, silk Tabriz and other pure silk rugs are trimmed low, as are antique rugs worn down by age and antique-washed Oushak and Kazak rugs. It clears doors that swing over it, absorbs less humidity and dust and vacuums more easily, but bears heavy traffic and furniture less well than a taller pile.
A rug produced by industrial machinery, typically on power looms, rather than knotted by hand, usually from synthetic fibers such as polyester, polypropylene or nylon, and finished in hours rather than months. Its design looks perfectly symmetrical yet slightly fuzzy, and its edges measure almost exactly alike. The back feels stiff and plastic-like, with a regular honeycomb texture on which the pattern cannot be read. Any fringe is a uniform synthetic trim attached at the end of production, and some rugs have none, unlike a hand-knotted rug, whose fringe is its own foundation threads. Machine-made rugs are less expensive, of lower quality and wear out sooner, and are not authentic Persian or Oriental rugs.
Wool yarn spun by mechanical equipment rather than by hand or on a manual wheel, the counterpart of hand-spun wool. Machine-made rugs are built on machine-spun or synthetic yarns, and in judging wool quality machine-spun ranks below hand-spun, which yields finer, softer threads with more sheen. Spinning is only one factor in wool quality; the sheep's grazing, the elevation they live at and the season of shearing count as well.
The root of the madder plant (Rubia tinctorum), a natural red dye and the source of the terracotta tones in Persian and Oriental rugs. Together with indigo and walnut husks it is among the plant dyes used to color the wool, bonding to its natural lanolin. Slight shade variations within one color area, known as abrash, are normal in rugs dyed this way.
A rectangular woven box-bag — nomadic luggage — used by tribes of Persia and the Caucasus to store and transport bedding on migration. Woven flat in kilim, soumak, or mixed techniques and then assembled, mafrash panels display some of the boldest tribal design work, and many antique examples have been opened up and repurposed as striking flatweave rugs or cushions.
The widest band framing the field of a rug, usually flanked by one or more much thinner guard borders. Its color normally differs from the field, and its ornament, such as floral vines, vases, rosettes or geometric repeats, runs around all four sides. In city rugs the pattern is expected to turn cleanly at the corners, whereas tribal rugs are less likely to keep it continuous. Under a dining table mostly the border stays visible, so its color and design deserve extra attention when choosing a rug.
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.
A high-grade wool imported from Manchester, England, that Kashan weavers typically use for the pile of their rugs. It is ranked with Ghazni wool and New Zealand wool among the three best-known high-quality wools for Persian rugs, so where a rug's wool comes from is one of the quality points that can be checked.
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 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.
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.
A size band between small and large, running from about 4 x 6 ft (122 x 183 cm) to 5 x 7 ft (152 x 213 cm). Rugs this size fit entryways and kitchens, or flank a bed, one on each side in front of the nightstands. Tribal rugs such as Baluchi and Qashqai are woven at this size or smaller, because migrating weavers cannot set up a large loom in one place. Being light, medium rugs tend to slide and are best used with a rug pad. Dealers' size labels vary, and some call 5 x 8 or 6 x 9 ft medium.
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.
An arch- or doorway-shaped niche woven at one end of a prayer rug's field, echoing the niche of a mosque that marks the direction of Mecca. It is the focal point of the rug and reminds the person praying that they stand in a sacred space. The drawing ranges from a bare outline of a doorway to an architectural rendering with columns and fine detail.
An all-over repeating pattern of round flowers linked by a diamond lattice of vines, usually with the blossoms rendered in white or yellow on a dark blue or red ground. Beloved in Kurdish, Baluchi, and northwest Persian weaving, the design reads from a distance as a field of stars. Its name is popularly traced to a legendary patron, Mina Khan.
The long, silky, lustrous hair of the Angora goat. In Persian rugs it is one of several animal fibers, listed together with goat hair, camel hair and cow hair, that can serve as a material but are much less common than the usual wool, cotton and silk; this group is seen mostly in tribal 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.
Holes and eaten-away spots left where moth larvae, or other pests such as mice, have fed on a rug's natural fibers. It is a leading risk during storage and can affect used and new rugs alike, so inspection covers both the face and the back for spots that look as if something has been eating the rug away. Moisture, dirt and dark places, such as the parts of a rug covered by heavy furniture, attract the pests; cleanliness, good ventilation and dry air are the main prevention, along with vacuuming beneath furniture once or twice a month and checking there for moth, and moving the furniture to air the rug every few months.
Protection of carpets from moths and other pests that eat away natural fibers such as wool and silk, leaving holes and spots that look eaten away, even on newer rugs. Treatment of the fibers is one measure, and mothballs are sometimes used for storage longer than about a year or in moth-prone places, though they leave a lingering odor. The main defense is upkeep: moths favor dark, damp, undisturbed places such as beneath sofas or in storage, so a clean, dry, ventilated rug that is vacuumed under furniture and shaken out and aired every few months is far less likely to be attacked. A rug going into storage is cleaned first and wrapped in breathable material, then unwrapped and checked about every six months if it stays a year or more.
Rugs of eastern Iran that the trade sells under the name Moud Mashad, listing them with Mashhad rugs. They usually carry a Herati design in beige, blue, rust and red and are typically signed by their maker. The foundation is cotton; older pieces have a plain wool pile, while newer ones use a silk-and-wool pile.
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.
The direction in which the pile fibers lie, which can be found by feeling the rug by hand. The rug looks lighter or darker depending on the direction from which it is viewed relative to the nap. Wiping and brushing are done with the nap, since going against it works liquid deeper into the pile, and vacuuming runs side to side rather than head-on against the nap, so the fibers are not pulled.
Colorants extracted from plants, seeds, flowers and roots and, in some traditions, from animal sources, used to color rug wool and silk. Weavers, above all tribal weavers, often prepare them from local plants and other natural resources of the region, which helps give each region its characteristic tones; madder root (terracotta reds), indigo (blues), walnut husks (browns) and pomegranate rind (yellows) are typical dyestuffs. Because dye is made in small artisanal batches, shades differ slightly from batch to batch, producing abrash. Natural dyes are prized for rich, harmonious, mellow color that fades gently and evenly with age and bleeds little on a damp cloth, though a rug may combine mostly natural dyes with a few synthetic ones.
Wool sourced from New Zealand, ranked with Manchester and Ghazni wool among the three best-known high-quality wools for Persian and Oriental rugs; good rug wool of this kind feels thick and oily. Because it is imported rather than taken from local flocks, its use affects a rug's price. It is cited for the pile of Pakistan-woven Oushak, Ziegler and Peshawar rugs, sometimes paired with Ghazni wool, and for the thick pile of Kazak Azari rugs.
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.
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 hand-knotted rug from the weaving lands of Asia and the Middle East, usually named for the city or region it comes from and known for intricate designs. In the trade pairing “Persian and Oriental,” Persian means made in Iran and Oriental covers the other origins, such as Turkey, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and China, for example Pakistan-made Kazak, Oushak-design and Bokhara rugs or Afghan Khal Mohammadi rugs; used broadly, the word also takes in Persian rugs. Look-alikes from Pakistan, India or China are not Persian. Only hand-knotted rugs are authentic; hand-tufted rugs, which are sometimes sold as “handmade,” and machine-made rugs rank below. A rug’s country and city of origin tell a buyer what to expect of its typical colors and quality.
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.
A technique where vintage or antique rugs are bleached to remove original colors and then re-dyed, typically in vibrant, saturated hues like turquoise, purple, or hot pink. This process gives traditional Oriental rugs a contemporary look while preserving their original patterns and textures. Popular in modern interior design for adding a bold color statement with traditional patterns.
The largest standard size class of hand-knotted rugs, starting at about 9 x 12 ft (2.7 x 3.7 m) and running through 10 x 13, 10 x 14 and 12 x 16 ft up to about 14 x 22 ft (4.3 x 6.7 m); some size charts start the class above roughly 10 x 14 ft (3 x 4.3 m). Rugs this large suit big living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms and come mostly from city-workshop Persian and Pakistani weaving, with some Heriz and Bakhtiari pieces and few from tribal weavers such as the Qashqai or Baluch. Workshops such as those of Sarouk also weave palace sizes beyond 12 x 18 ft on commission. Their weight usually holds them without a pad, though a pad helps under heavy furniture or in humid rooms.
Hand-knotted rugs woven in Pakistan, often by Afghan weavers, that reproduce Persian, Turkish, Turkoman and Caucasian designs; the best-known families are Kazak, Oushak, Peshawar (Chobi) and Bokhara, and Afghan-style Khal Mohammadi rugs are sometimes grouped with them. Compared with Iranian rugs they usually have softer, more muted colors that designers choose to suit modern interiors, a low-to-medium pile from antique-style washing and short cutting, and a wide choice of large sizes. Kazak production is credited to Afghan weavers in Pakistani workshops from the 1980s and 1990s, Oushak-style production to workshop owners who moved from Iran to Pakistan in the 1970s after an embargo on Iran. Because they are not woven in Iran, they are not Persian rugs.
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.
A stylized fan- or palm-leaf-shaped flower motif whose petals or leaves spread from a single base. It is repeated in the fields and borders of city rugs such as Kashan and Tabriz, usually alongside arabesque scrolls, rosettes, and floral sprays. In Sultanabad rugs the palmettes are drawn oversized and set among angular vine scrolls in an allover pattern.
The soft, mellowed look a rug's natural dyes acquire over decades of use and light, as the colors settle into subtler, more harmonious tones that mellow rather than merely fade; the wool also grows softer and loose fibers wear away, so the pattern reads more sharply. It is fullest in antique rugs and is treated as a mark of genuine age. Artificial aging treatments imitate it but tend to give a bleached look with an abrupt band of color in the fiber instead of a gradual fade from tip to base.
The oldest known pile carpet in the world, woven around the 5th century BC and discovered in 1949 in the frozen tomb of a Scythian noble in Siberia's Altai Mountains. Grave robbers left the burial mound open, so cold and moisture froze the chamber and sealed the carpet in ice for some 2,500 years. Its symmetrical knots, about 36 per square centimeter (roughly 230 per square inch), show that carpet weaving was already a mature art in antiquity. It is often described as the oldest Persian rug and as early evidence of tribal weaving, a craft that began as protection against cold and damp. It is displayed in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
The asymmetrical knot of hand-knotted rugs, the counterpart of the symmetrical Turkish (Ghiordes) knot. The weaver wraps the yarn around one warp thread and passes it under the neighboring one, usually working by hand without a hook. On the back of the rug the knots look staggered or diagonal rather than like tidy squares, and the pile feels softer; the knot permits finer detail and higher knot density. In Iran, a rule of thumb ties it to the central, eastern, and southern rugs (Kashan, Isfahan, Nain, Kerman), while the northwest and west favor the Turkish knot, though exceptions exist. Fine curvilinear florals are often credited to it, but Turkish-knot rugs can be just as intricate.
A hand-knotted rug woven in Iran, the country called Persia in the West until 1935, in a tradition said to reach back some 2,500 years. It is named after the city, town, region or tribe where it was made (Tabriz, Kashan, Heriz, Baluchi) and belongs to one of three groups: city rugs woven in workshops from a blueprint, village rugs, and tribal rugs, the latter two woven largely from memory. The pile is wool, silk or a blend, on a cotton, wool or silk foundation. Look-alikes woven in Pakistan, India or China are not Persian rugs.
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.
A rug woven as a picture, with landscape scenery, scenes from history or mythology, biblical or other stories, and human figures in place of a repeating ornament, comparable in composition to traditional art. Master weavers in city workshops make them, chiefly in Tabriz, which is known for a wide variety of pictorial designs, and also in Kashan, Isfahan, and Sarouk. Faces and floral areas are often woven at a higher knot density than the rest of the rug, so the knot count is best averaged over two or three areas.
The surface of a rug or carpet, made of upright fibers in cut tufts or loops. In a hand-knotted rug it is formed by the cut ends of thousands of wool or silk knots tied onto the warp row by row, trimmed lightly during weaving and given its final height by shearing at finishing. Pile thickness, measured from the back of the rug to the top of the pile, typically runs from low, about 1/8 to 1/4 inch (3 to 6 mm), to high, about 1/2 to 5/8 inch (13 to 16 mm). Fine, dense designs are cut short to keep the pattern sharp; higher pile suits traffic and heavy furniture, lower pile suits door clearance and humid rooms.
An expert test of dye type and age: the pile is parted or folded and viewed from its tip down to the base where it meets the foundation. Color that grows darker toward the base usually means a synthetic dye that has faded from light exposure at the top, dating the rug to the late 19th century or later. Natural dyes, almost universal before the 1860s, fade gently and evenly, whereas color treated to look old tends to look bleached and shows a sharp band midway down the fiber.
The flattening of pile fibers under sustained weight, as in a high-traffic path or beneath heavy furniture, which leaves the pile looking worn. In storage the same happens when heavy items are stacked on a rug for long periods. A rug pad and padded coasters under furniture legs spread the load, and rotating the rug about once a year shifts where the weight falls; a medium to high pile and a dense weave withstand heavy beds and dining tables best, and regular vacuuming and professional cleaning keep the pile in shape.
The height of a rug's knotted pile, measured from the back of the rug to the top of the pile with a ruler or caliper, so the foundation is included. One dealer scheme sorts it into low (1/8 to 1/4 in, or 3.2 to 6.4 mm), low-medium (1/4 to 1/3 in, or 6.4 to 8.5 mm), medium (1/3 to 3/8 in, or 8.5 to 9.5 mm) and high (1/2 to 5/8 in, or 12.7 to 15.9 mm). The final trim sets it: sharply detailed, densely knotted rugs, including silk and silk-and-wool pieces, are cut low, while coarse ones with large designs, such as Heriz and Gabbeh, keep a taller pile. A higher pile feels more cushioned, and a medium-to-high pile suits busy areas and heavy furniture; a lower pile clears doors, absorbs less humidity, traps less dust and vacuums more easily.
A condition where areas of carpet appear lighter or darker than surrounding areas due to light reflecting differently off pile fibers that have changed direction. Not a manufacturing defect but a physical characteristic of cut pile carpets. Also known as watermarking or pooling.
The cutting back of a rug's knotted pile with shears. Weavers trim it lightly every few inches (roughly every 5 to 10 cm) of knotting so the pattern stays visible, and a final trim after the rug comes off the loom sets the finished pile height. Finely knotted rugs, such as silk Tabriz and other silk and silk-and-wool pieces, are cut short so that sharp detail shows, while rugs made to look antique, such as Kazak and Oushak-style pieces, are deliberately cut short so they feel thin and look aged.
The outer skin of the pomegranate fruit, a plant dyestuff used for the yellows in naturally dyed rugs, alongside madder root for reds, indigo for blues and walnut husks for browns.
An industrial loom driven by machinery rather than by a weaver's hands, on which machine-made rugs are woven through an automated process, typically from synthetic or machine-spun yarns. Because no one ties knots by hand, the design comes out perfectly aligned and symmetrical, the back feels stiff and plastic-like, and the pattern and colors cannot be read from it as they can on a hand-knotted rug. The process is faster and less labor-intensive than hand-knotting, giving a less expensive rug of lower quality.
A professional carpet installation tool that uses leverage and teeth to grip and stretch carpet tightly across a room. Essential for proper installation to prevent wrinkles, ripples, and premature wear. More effective than knee kickers for larger areas.
Small rugs made for Islamic prayer, each featuring a mihrab (also spelled mehrab), an arched doorway that symbolizes the niche of a mosque and reminds the person praying that they stand in a sacred space; the arch also marks the direction of Mecca. The design is unidirectional, meant to be viewed from one end, and the arch may be a bare outline or an elaborate architectural frame with columns. Prayer rugs are often no larger than about 3' x 5' (0.9 x 1.5 m), are said to date back to the very early stages of rug making in Muslim lands, and are woven by Turkmen, Baluchi, Qum, Isfahan and Malayer weavers, among others. Any small rug can serve for prayer, but a true prayer rug carries the arch as its focal point.
The specialist wash of a hand-knotted rug, done after weaving, again when a dealer prepares new or used stock for sale, and periodically during ownership. A skilled wash removes dirt and loose fibers and leaves the design crisp and harmonious, while a careless one leaves it hazy and can make dyes run, so the quality of the washing is a quiet factor in how a rug finally looks. Owners typically repeat it roughly every 3 to 5 years, stretching to about 10 for a rug that stays clean and coming sooner for heavy traffic or quick soiling, wash it again before storing it for a year or more, and keep it away from conventional dry cleaners.
A rug whose pile is entirely silk, woven on a cotton foundation or on a silk foundation; when both are silk, no wool enters the rug. Silk's fineness allows the highest knot density of any Persian rug, roughly 600 to 1,000 knots per square inch (about 9,300 to 15,500 per 10 x 10 cm), so the pile is kept low to show the design, and the fibers give a luminous sheen that shifts with the light. About 90 percent of Qum rugs are silk on both foundation and pile, as are some Isfahan rugs. These are the most expensive Persian rugs; they are delicate and stains are hard to remove, so they suit display, formal rooms or wall hanging rather than dining rooms or homes with pets.
The era of the Qajar dynasty, which ruled Persia in the 19th century and produced the largest rug output in Persian history. Weaving revived after the turbulence of the 1700s that had halted the main manufacturing centers, and exports to Europe and America thrived, with England and Germany the biggest buyers. Newer centers such as Sultanabad and Kashan rose alongside Tabriz and Kerman, and European and American companies set up their own manufacturing hubs in Persia. Rugs from these large factories follow standardized, easily recognized designs, unlike village and tribal rugs, whose weavers still design their own patterns.
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.
A carpet tile installation method where each tile is rotated 90 degrees relative to adjacent tiles. This technique helps minimize visible seams, disguises slight color variations between tiles, and creates a more dynamic visual effect, especially with patterned carpet tiles.
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 tufting technique in machine-made carpets where tufts are placed in a radial pattern rather than in straight rows, creating more natural-looking designs.
A Persian term for knot density, used alongside the knots-per-square-inch figure (KPSI) to express how finely a rug is knotted. In Iran it is traditionally counted along a stretch of about 7 cm (2.75 in) of a row of knots rather than per square inch. A higher raj means finer, more detailed weaving, but the figure is easy to over-read: a bold geometric design needs a lower count than an intricate curved or floral one, so what matters is whether the density suits the pattern.
Carpet made from post-consumer or post-industrial recycled materials. May include fibers made from recycled plastic bottles (PET), reclaimed nylon from used carpets, or recycled backing materials.
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.
The process of removing wrinkles and ripples in carpet by pulling it taut and reattaching it to the tack strips. Necessary when carpet becomes loose due to age, humidity changes, or heavy furniture movement.
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.
The practice of giving a rug fresh air and light so that damp, stale air does not build up in it. Every few months the rug is shaken out and lifted, with furniture moved aside, so air reaches the underside, especially under sofas and beds, where moths favor the dark. A rug in a humid room such as a bathroom, or one kept in storage, is also carried outdoors once or twice a year for direct sun, for a few hours up to a day, with both sides given time to dry and the face's exposure kept limited because prolonged sun fades the colors.
A written document, usually signed by the dealer, that gathers a rug's details in one place, such as origin, type, materials, size, age, knot density and any signature, often with a photograph, together with its value. It serves as proof of value for an insurance claim if the rug is damaged, lost or stolen, and for resale. Dealers typically provide one, and in some shops the same single document is called the certificate of authenticity.
The practice of estimating how old a handmade rug is by weighing several clues together, since no single one settles it. Experts look at wear, the polish of the back, how the dye fades from tip to base, the foundation (rugs woven after the 1930s usually have cotton rather than wool), whether the design fits a particular era or a stage in its locale's style over about 150 years, and whether a supposedly very old rug shows any repairs. Old patterns are copied today, so design alone is not enough.
The last production stage of a hand-knotted rug, after all knotting is done. The rug is taken off the loom, its pile is sheared to an even surface that fixes the final pile height, and it is washed professionally, sometimes with a spell in direct sun to calm colors that are too strong. Stray fibers are then trimmed away, and the rug is inspected for flaws before it goes to market.
The skeleton of a hand-knotted rug: the warp and weft threads on which every pile knot is tied. Cotton is the usual material in city and village rugs because it barely stretches or shrinks with humidity, so the rug keeps its shape, and it is rigid enough to knot through easily; that same rigidity can carry over into the design, which reads as less fluid than on a wool foundation. Wool, and sometimes goat hair, is typical of tribal rugs, whose weavers can use one material for both foundation and pile; it gives more character but a less straight shape. Silk, being finer, permits very high knot counts. The fringes at each end are the foundation's exposed warp ends, so they reveal its material.
A method of displaying a rug on a wall as a work of art; any style, tribal or floral as well as pictorial, can be hung. Strips of strong, adhesive-free cotton fabric (for a wide rug, for example three of about 24 by 4 inches, or 61 by 10 cm; for a small rug, one strip set about 1 inch, or 2.5 cm, in from each end) are hand-stitched to the back about 2 inches (5 cm) below the top, clear of the fringe or kilim end, with stitches every 1/2 to 1 inch (1.3-2.5 cm), and folded into a pocket. A wood or metal dowel slid through the pocket rests on wall hooks strong enough to carry the weight, which avoids damaging the rug.
A cushioning layer placed under an area rug to prevent slipping, protect the floor, cushion the weight of furniture, and extend the rug's life by guarding it from underside friction and floor moisture. It matters most for small or lightweight rugs, such as those in entrances, kitchens and bathrooms or on tile, which otherwise slide and become slip hazards. Very large rugs stay put under their own weight, but a pad still helps beneath heavy tables and sofas and in humid rooms, where it insulates against ground moisture.
Specialist work that mends damaged rugs, including re-knotting or reweaving worn areas, patching, overcasting (rebinding the edge), stretching, fringe replacement and color restoration. Small, skilled repairs that are hard to see are generally acceptable on an older rug, and an unrepaired rug commands the highest price. Visible patches, seams or stitching, easiest to spot from the back, and replaced fringes (the fringe being the rug's own warp ends, not a trim) count as major repairs that shorten a rug's life and lower its value considerably. Very old rugs often carry some repair, so a supposedly antique rug with none may be a newer recreation, though that clue alone is not conclusive.
The practice of turning a rug around on its spot, typically a half turn (180 degrees), at set intervals so that foot traffic, furniture weight and sunlight fall on different areas and the pile wears evenly. The interval depends on the load: at least every two years in ordinary use, about yearly under heavy furniture or an office chair, and about every six months in a hallway or entryway. Even wear also counts in a used rug's favor when its value is judged.
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.
The routine for keeping a rug packed away for months or years. It is cleaned first (professionally if storage will last a year or more), rolled evenly and tightly with the pile inward (a rug too large to roll whole is folded lengthwise, then across, before rolling), and wrapped in breathable material, ideally natural fiber, cut about a foot (30 cm) longer than the roll at each end so both ends can be tied off. It then rests somewhere dry and well ventilated, with a few inches (several centimeters) of space on either side and nothing heavy on top, guarding against moths, mice, damp and long-held folds.
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.
A weaving workshop in Mashhad (Mashad), northeastern Iran, founded around the mid-twentieth century by Abbas Gholi Saber and known for large, high-end rugs of typically about 12 square meters (roughly 129 square feet, or 10 by 13 feet) and up, made on about sixty looms at its peak. Some pieces use a silk foundation, very uncommon among Mashhad rugs, which are usually woven wool on cotton; one such piece is said to reach nearly 1,000 knots per square inch (about 155 per square centimeter). After the founder's death his longtime foreman reportedly kept up the same quality but stopped adding the Saber signature, so signed Saber rugs are rare, collectible and bring higher prices.
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 first washing of raw wool after shearing, in which dirt and other impurities are removed from the fleece. It is one of the opening processes in preparing wool for Persian and Oriental rugs and is followed by carbonizing, carding and spinning into yarn.
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.
The era of Seljuk Turk rule over Persia in the 11th and 12th centuries, when the new rulers brought weavers highly skilled in the Turkish knot. According to a common account of rug history, this period introduced the Turkish (Ghiordes) knot to Persian weaving, an influence still seen most strongly in rugs from Tabriz, Azerbaijan and Hamadan.
The woven-in side edge of a hand-knotted rug, made during weaving as the weft is wrapped several times around the outermost warp to form a rounded, corded band. Depending on the region, the wrapping may use wool of a contrasting color, use the warp itself, or be kept flat rather than round, so the edge is one clue experts use to place a rug's origin. The word overcasting names this same edge and also appears in lists of common rug repairs.
An age class for rugs that are no longer new but not yet antique, in trade usage typically no older than about 60 to 70 years, though dealers' cut-offs vary, some counting from about 50 years or stretching the class toward 100 years, and the looser label vintage, applied to rugs of roughly 20 to 90 years, overlaps it. They are priced on the same factors as new rugs (material, design, colors, weaver skill, straightness) plus condition: repairs, color run and how evenly the pile has worn. Because material and labor costs rise every year, a comparable semi-antique rug usually costs less than a new one.
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.
An antique Persian rug from the Heriz weaving area of northwestern Iran, the middle stage of Heriz design: more structured than the tribal, more open Bakshaish of the 1870s and earlier, yet less busy than the Heriz woven from the 1910s onward. Woven from the late 19th to the earliest 20th century, Serapis keep an open, spacious layout with bold geometric drawing in an earthy palette. All are now over a century old and fairly rare, and collectors prize them for their decorative appeal and durability.
An edge finish in which yarn is wrapped over and over around the outer edge of a rug, by machine or by hand, forming a rounded, rope-like band. It is the usual finish on the long sides of machine-made rugs (fringe usually marks the warp ends), and the way a worn edge of a hand-knotted rug is rebuilt (the repair called overcasting). The original edge of a hand-knotted rug is normally a selvage, woven in as the weft wraps the outermost warp during weaving, rather than an applied serge. On hand-made pieces, the evenness of the serging is a quick clue to the care taken in finishing.
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.
The clipping of the fleece from a living sheep with specialized shearing tools, the first step in making a wool rug. It is traditionally done in spring, when the wool is considered best for rugs, and the first or second shearing of the season yields wool with the most natural fat. Wool taken from dead sheep is thin and dry and turns up in cheaper, poorer-quality 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).
A Tabriz workshop founded in the 1990s, young by the standards of Persian rug making, and known for contemporary designs with innovative, unusual color combinations, using a palette of light colors such as cream along with red and yellow. Its rugs carry the workshop's signature and are woven not only on the usual cotton but also on a silk foundation, which allows very high knot densities. The founder's three sons now run the workshop.
A rare classical Persian design of dramatic, curved saber-like leaves sweeping among palmettes and vines, associated with 16th–17th century "vase technique" carpets from Kerman. It holds the world auction record for any carpet: the Clark sickle-leaf carpet sold at Sotheby's in 2013 for 33.8 million dollars, more than tripling the previous record and placing carpets firmly in the territory of masterpiece art.
The method of running the vacuum across a rug's width instead of along its length, so that the suction does not tug the pile in the direction it lies or work against it. It goes with a light canister vacuum without a beater bar and with keeping the fringe out of the machine, which may come close but must not be sucked in. The face is done every one to two weeks (monthly in a little-used room) and the back every month or two, flipping half the rug at a time.
A rug whose pile combines silk and wool, usually mostly wool with silk yarn knotted into chosen details such as floral motifs to add sheen and sharpen the pattern. Silk is finer than wool and permits denser knotting, roughly 400 to 700 knots per square inch (about 6,200 to 10,850 per 10 x 10 cm) on a cotton foundation and 500 to 1,000 (about 7,750 to 15,500) on a silk foundation, although Nain, almost always on cotton, drops lower in its coarser la grades, where a higher la number means fewer knots. The wool keeps the pile thick and durable and the price below that of pure silk, though above that of wool alone. Tabriz, Nain, Mashad, Bijar, Isfahan and Qum all weave these rugs, usually with the pile cut short to show the detail.
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.
Silk yarn knotted into selected parts of an otherwise wool pile, such as flowers, animals and other pattern details, so those areas shimmer against the wool and the design gains vibrancy and depth. Because silk is finer than wool, it also permits a higher knot density. The device is a hallmark of Nain rugs, where blue or ivory silk picks out different areas of the design, and it is common in Tabriz and some Sarouk rugs. Stains are harder to remove from silk than from wool, so a pile of pure wool is the better choice for a dining room.
A construction in which the weaver passes just one weft thread between successive rows of knots. Because the warp is not fully covered, the back of the rug shows a zigzag of small white foundation specks, an easy way to recognize it, and the pile tends to be thinner and lower than in double-weft weaving. Single weft is standard practice in the greater Hamadan area, from Hamadan, Karaja and Mehraban rugs to Senneh and many Kurdish tribal pieces, and in the Hamadan-influenced type of Malayer rug.
A size band for the smallest hand-knotted rugs, running from about 2 by 2 ft (61 x 61 cm) to 3 by 5 ft (91 x 152 cm), with 2 by 3, 2 by 4 and 3 by 4 ft in between; larger pieces fall into the medium band, which starts at roughly 4 by 6 ft (122 x 183 cm). Small rugs suit entrances, doorways, bathrooms, kitchens, hallway and staircase ends, walk-in closets, an office corner or the spot beneath a statue. Because they are light, they tend to slide and are best used with a rug pad. City, village and tribal weavings all come in this size, and tribal rugs are often woven small.
A dyeing method where color is added to the liquid synthetic fiber solution before extrusion, resulting in colorfast carpets highly resistant to fading and bleaching.
A flat-woven rug technique that creates a textured surface resembling braiding or embroidery. Unlike kilims, soumaks have a raised pattern created by wrapping weft threads around warp threads. This technique produces durable rugs with distinctive geometric designs and a textured surface, traditionally made in the Caucasus region, Iran, and Turkey.
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.
The first-aid steps for a fresh liquid spill on a rug, which reduce the mark but do not remove it entirely. Excess liquid is scraped up with a spoon or blotted with a clean white cloth, never rubbed; the spot is then covered with dishwashing foam, soaked up with a white cotton towel, dabbed dry with a second towel, brushed along the pile and propped up so air reaches the back. Harsh chemicals are avoided, and a professional cleaner treats whatever remains.
A finishing treatment that makes newly made rugs look antique, best known from Peshawar (Chobi) rugs and Kazak-style rugs woven today. The freshly woven rug, whose colors start out dark, is stone-washed (Peshawar rugs are also left in strong sunlight) so the colors soften and fade, and the pile is cut short, which is why these rugs feel thin and low yet stay durable. Oushak-style rugs from the same workshops receive a comparable antique wash. Colors treated to look old tend to show a bleached look and a sharp band of color in the middle of each fiber, unlike the even fade of natural aging.
The degree to which a hand-knotted rug holds true, parallel edges and a width that stays nearly the same at the top, middle and bottom. A machine-made rug almost always measures identical at every point, but a handmade one never does exactly, because wooden looms expand and contract over time, and wool foundations, which also react to humidity, do so more than cotton ones; village and tribal weavings are especially prone to being crooked. A difference of an inch or two (2.5 to 5 cm) is acceptable, while major differences count as a flaw that lowers quality and value. It is checked by eye from a distance, against the lines of a hard floor, or by measuring the top, middle and bottom with a tape.
Antique Persian carpets from Sultanabad, the former name of the Arak region of Iran, a newer weaving center that flourished under the Qajars in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and supplied European and American buyers. Their typical layout is an allover field of oversized palmettes, lotus blossoms, floral sprays and angular vines, recalling the Shah Abbasi pattern in a rustic village manner rather than the precise curvilinear drawing of city rugs. Indigo or midnight blue with rust or brick red, gold and olive is a classic palette. Because Sultanabad no longer exists under that name, antique examples are scarce and command higher prices.
The lightening of a rug's colors after long exposure to direct sunlight, most noticeable when one part of the rug sat in a sunny window patch while the rest stayed in shade, leaving that area visibly paler. Natural dyes soften with age in any case, but patchy fading counts as a condition flaw and is not the same as abrash, the gentle color variation that comes from dye batches and wool. Curtains or blinds at peak hours, UV-filtering film, a piece of fabric laid over an exposed patch and occasional rotation of the rug limit it; a rug sunned outdoors to dry should not have its face left long in strong sun.
The grade of modern hand-knotted Kazak rugs with the highest knot density, woven in Pakistan by Afghan weavers. The tighter weave allows finer, more detailed geometric patterns, and the high-quality wool has an almost silky look and a soft sheen, in a good range of colors. It is priced in the middle of the three grades: the standard (commercial) Kazak, with the lowest density and large, bold patterns, costs less, and the Kazak Azari, with a wider range of designs and colors and thicker wool, costs more.
Colorants manufactured chemically rather than extracted from plants or animals. They dominate machine-made and hand-tufted rugs, where they give flat, uniform color, and are sometimes used for a few shades in otherwise naturally dyed hand-knotted rugs. They tend to bleed more readily than natural dyes under a damp cloth and to fade or age less gracefully. Experts read a pile that is lighter at the tips than at the base as synthetic dye faded by light, which points to a rug made in the late 19th century or later. Weavers choose between the two according to the colors they want.
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 rug that a dealer labels with a famous rug city's name plus “style,” as in Tabriz-style. Such a rug is not necessarily authentic: a genuine Tabriz rug comes from Iran and, within Iran, from the city of Tabriz, whereas rugs from countries such as Pakistan, India or China can resemble Persian designs without being Persian. A “-style” label is therefore a cue to ask for the exact country and city of origin, since origin indicates a rug's typical colors and quality.
A coded script used in Kashmir and Persia to record carpet designs as compact symbols indicating the number of knots and their colors. In traditional workshops a talim reader chants the code line by line — almost like a song — while several weavers knot in unison, allowing one design to be reproduced precisely across looms and generations without the weavers ever seeing a drawing.
A design in which one large, elaborate tree rises through most of the field, surrounded by botanical ornament, with birds, animals and flowers spread among its branches. The tree can also occupy a single panel of a garden-panel rug or appear as a border pattern. In Persian tradition it stands for the connection between earth and the environment, is also read as a link between heaven and earth, and symbolizes strength, wisdom and the continuity of life. It is woven in Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan, Kerman and Malayer rugs and in Baluchi rugs.
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.
A relatively new synthetic carpet fiber known for its exceptional stain resistance, durability, and softness. Often marketed under the brand name Sorona® by DuPont.
A laboratory measure of the force needed to pull a single tuft out of a carpet's backing, usually expressed in pounds or newtons. It is one of the most revealing specs on a carpet datasheet: low tuft bind is what turns a snag into a run, especially in loop pile where one pulled loop can unzip a whole row. Good latexing or thermal bonding raises it dramatically.
One of the two main knots of hand-knotted rugs, also called the symmetrical knot (the other being the asymmetrical Persian or Senneh knot). The yarn is looped around two adjacent warp threads with both ends emerging between them, so the back shows small, even, squarish knot heads; weavers often tie it with a hook. Named after the town of Ghiordes (modern Gördes) in Turkey, it is typical of Turkey, the Caucasus and northwestern Iran (Tabriz, Bijar, Heriz, village Hamadan), where Seljuk Turks are said to have introduced it, and gives a durable, precise pile. The Persian knot is often credited with finer detail, yet knot type is a tendency, not a limit: Tabriz rugs woven with the Turkish knot reach about 500 knots per square inch (roughly 78 per cm²).
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.
A border pattern of repeating, highly stylized forms that read as turtles or crabs, giving the frame a steady rhythm. It is regarded as a signature of Heriz weaving and is also described as a classic Bakhtiari border, where it is paired with rosettes.
A precision cutting technique used in carpet manufacturing where ultrasonic vibrations generate heat to simultaneously cut and seal synthetic carpet fibers. This prevents fraying and creates clean, precise edges for intricate patterns or custom shapes.
Wool left in its natural fleece colors, with no dye applied, so its shades run only through white, cream, brown, gray and black. Weavers combine white and black wool to reach these tones, which is how natural Gabbeh rugs, usually on a cream ground, get their palette. Many cream grounds in Persian and Oriental rugs also contain undyed wool; these areas can show slight variations of tone that shift as the rug ages, which is normal and not a defect.
A layout meant to be viewed from one direction, with a distinct top and bottom, so that the rug has to be placed the right way round rather than reading equally well from either end. Prayer designs typically work this way, built around an arched doorway called a mihrab that can be as simple as the outline of a doorway or as elaborate as an architectural arch with columns.
A single-layer backing system applied to carpet, typically made of latex or synthetic materials. Unlike traditional carpets with primary and secondary backings, unitary-backed carpets have a single, more substantial backing layer that provides stability and dimensional integrity.
A carpet's ability to withstand fading or degradation when exposed to ultraviolet light. Important for carpets in sunlit areas or outdoor applications. Solution-dyed fibers typically offer superior UV resistance compared to conventionally dyed carpets.
A periodic care step in which a rug is turned over, or has half of it folded back at a time so the whole piece never has to be flipped, and its reverse side is vacuumed to loosen dust and dirt that has worked down through the pile; debris that has collected beneath the rug can then be swept up. It is recommended about every one to two months, alongside vacuuming the pile side across the rug's width every one to two weeks (about monthly in a little-used room), and it is optional rather than essential.
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.
A semi-synthetic fiber made from cellulose, used in carpets to create a silk-like appearance at a lower cost. Less durable than wool or synthetic fibers.
The green outer covering of the walnut, a traditional plant dye for brown wool. Rug dyers boil it to obtain deep brown to umber shades, and it belongs to the same vegetable palette as madder root (terracotta reds), indigo (blues) and pomegranate rind (yellows). Plant dyes of this kind are what separate traditionally dyed rugs from those colored with synthetic dyes.
Generated illustration: enlarged cord model of plain weave.
The two thread systems that make up a carpet's foundation: the warp, the vertical threads strung on the loom first, and the weft, the horizontal threads passed through them between rows of knots. The foundation is usually cotton, though wool is common in tribal and older rugs and silk in very fine ones. Single-weft rugs, standard in the greater Hamadan area, show zigzag rows of white warp dots on the back and have a thinner pile, whereas double-weft construction, standard in fine, tightly woven rugs and in Bijar and Heriz, hides the warp and gives a thicker, denser pile. The warp ends form the fringe, and extra weft passes at each end form the flat-woven kilim end that secures the pile.
A standardized system that indicates the durability of carpet and its suitability for different levels of foot traffic. Often expressed as light, medium, heavy, or extra heavy residential or commercial use.
A hand tool a weaver uses to beat down each finished row of knots and weft against the rows already woven, compacting the pile and making the rug denser. It is one of the basic implements of hand-knotting, and how firmly it is applied shapes the result: Bakhtiari weavers, for example, pound each new row down hard, which gives their rugs a dense, solid and durable pile.
A drawn design plan, also called a blueprint, that a workshop weaver follows knot by knot. In the Safavid period, as patterns grew more complex, separate designers, often miniature painters, are said to have drawn them on such plans, so that weavers only carried out others' designs, and weaving schools grew up around this way of working. City rugs from workshops in places such as Tabriz and Isfahan are so precise because they are woven from such plans. Village weavers rely on plans much less, and tribal weavers work from memory and from designs handed down within the family, so their rugs tend to be less symmetrical.
The capillary action by which a spill absorbed deep in the backing climbs back up the pile as the carpet dries — the reason a "removed" stain can reappear a day after cleaning. Professionals defeat wicking by extracting moisture thoroughly and drying fast, or by placing weighted absorbent pads over the spot overnight. If a stain keeps returning, the residue below the pile, not the fiber, is the culprit.
A type of woven carpet made on a Wilton loom, known for its dense construction and ability to create intricate patterns. Often considered higher quality than tufted carpets.
A natural animal fiber used for the pile, and in some rugs also the foundation, of high-quality rugs. It is durable, resilient, stain resistant and flame resistant, feels soft and cushioned underfoot, insulates against cold, and takes up dye readily and holds it for many years. It also traps dust particles, which helps reduce allergic reactions. Quality depends above all on where the sheep graze: high-elevation pastures and good feed give thicker, oilier wool, with Manchester, New Zealand and Ghazni wools the best-known prized examples. Early-spring shearing and hand spinning (finer, softer thread than machine spinning) improve it further, while thin, dry wool from dead sheep goes into cheaper rugs.
A rug base in which the warp and weft threads are wool instead of cotton. It is typical of tribal rugs such as Baluchi, Turkoman and Gabbeh (Gabbeh and Quchan sometimes use goat hair instead), turns up in some Qashqai, Shiraz, small Bakhtiari and Iranian Azerbaijan pieces, and is common in older village and tribal rugs, including some Hamadan and very antique Karaja. Experts use it as a clue to age, since rugs made after about the 1930s usually have a cotton foundation, once machine-spun cotton became widely available. Wool's soft, less rigid structure gives the design a fluid, warm character, and the fringes are sometimes braided or in different colors. The drawback is that wool shrinks and stretches with humidity, so these rugs tend to be less straight than cotton-based ones.
The stage of rug making in which cleaned, carded wool is made into yarn, either by hand or on a manual spinning wheel, and the individual threads are then twisted together into thicker strands. Twisting gives the yarn extra strength and durability, after which the wool is ready for dyeing. Hand-spun yarn is regarded as superior to machine-spun: its threads are finer and softer, and the wool looks shinier.
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.
Loss of pile height from use, where the wool has been walked short or away entirely, typically in a hallway, entryway or other high-traffic path, and in a badly worn rug the foundation begins to show. Even wear across the whole surface is the normal pattern on an older rug and is what buyers look for, whereas patchy wear, with short or bare zones beside fuller pile, weakens those spots and makes further damage likely, which matters most for a rug meant for heavy traffic. Rotating the rug periodically spreads the wear. Wear alone does not date a rug, since some new rugs are finished low to look old and some antiques keep a full pile.
In carpet manufacturing, refers to exceptional or unique features that distinguish a particular carpet from others, such as proprietary stain resistance technologies or exclusive fiber blends.
A proprietary stain and soil resistance treatment applied to carpet fibers that creates a molecular shield around each fiber. This technology repels liquids and prevents stains from bonding to the carpet, making cleaning easier and extending the carpet lifespan.
A specialized tufting technique where the needles create an X-pattern in the carpet backing rather than straight rows. This method increases tuft bind strength and creates a more stable, durable carpet construction that resists pile distortion in high-traffic areas.
Outdoor carpet products specifically designed for water conservation landscaping (xeriscaping). These carpets are typically made from drought-resistant synthetic materials that require minimal maintenance and water, while providing an aesthetic alternative to natural grass in arid environments.
The use of woodblock printing techniques to create patterns on carpets or to transfer designs onto weaving templates. This ancient technique involves carving designs into wooden blocks, applying dye, and stamping the pattern onto fabric or paper.
Generated illustration: space-dyed yarn, one example of yarn dyeing.
Various techniques for coloring carpet yarns, including beck dyeing (immersion in dye baths), continuous dyeing (application after tufting), space dyeing (multiple colors on a single yarn), and solution dyeing (color added to liquid polymer before extrusion). Each method offers different benefits for colorfastness, pattern capabilities, and environmental impact. In hand-knotted rugs the wool is dyed as spun yarn before knotting, with natural dyes from plants, roots, and flowers, which tend to mellow with age, or with synthetic dyes; differences between dye batches are a main source of abrash.
The number of single yarns twisted together to form a carpet yarn. Two-ply or three-ply yarns are stronger and more durable than single-ply yarns. In hand-knotted rugs, wool is first spun into threads, by hand or on a wheel, and those threads are then twisted together into thicker, sturdier strands before the yarn is dyed.
A traditional method of dyeing carpet yarn in which loose skeins (loops) of already spun, plied yarn are immersed in dye baths before the yarn is knotted or woven into the rug. This technique, common in handmade carpets, works in separate batches, and small differences between batches, together with differences in the natural fat of the wool, produce the subtle color variations known as abrash that give traditional rugs their characteristic depth and visual interest. The process is still used by artisans who create custom-dyed yarns for specialty carpets.
The number of turns per inch in carpet yarn. Higher twist levels generally provide better durability and appearance retention, particularly in cut pile carpets.
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.
Turkmen rugs of the Yomut, counted among the finest Turkmen pieces. Most Turkmen rugs are wool on wool, but the Yomut are known for pieces with a silk foundation under a wool pile, and the silk allows a higher knot count and more detailed drawing than is usual for the type. Grounds run to reds, browns and beige, and the rugs are typically unsigned.
Tribal carpets woven by the Yoruk (Yürük) nomadic people of Anatolia and the Balkans. These distinctive rugs feature bold geometric designs, vibrant colors, and tribal symbols with cultural significance. Characterized by their coarse weave, sturdy construction, and use of natural dyes, Yoruk rugs often incorporate protective motifs and symbols representing fertility, family, and tribal identity.
Traditional floor coverings used in Central Asian nomadic dwellings (yurts). These rugs are typically made from wool with geometric patterns and serve both decorative and practical purposes, providing insulation and defining living spaces within the circular structure.
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.
A category of carpets with extremely low or non-existent pile height, including flat-weaves and certain low-profile commercial carpets. These floor coverings offer durability, easy maintenance, and accessibility benefits while providing sound absorption and comfort underfoot. Popular in high-traffic commercial spaces, healthcare facilities, and modern residential interiors where a minimal profile is desired.
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.
A traditional flat-woven textile from Iran, particularly the Yazd and Meybod regions. These cotton or wool floor coverings feature geometric patterns created using a special weaving technique that produces a reversible fabric with different patterns on each side. Historically used in mosques and homes, zilus typically display blue and white patterns with cultural and religious significance.
The practice of using different carpet types or designs to define separate functional areas within a larger space. Common in open-plan environments where changes of carpet can subtly mark transitions between work, relaxation, or circulation zones without physical barriers. With area rugs, a single rug can anchor a zone where there are no walls, and two rugs can split a large living room into two functions; rugs in neighboring spaces read as connected when they share a type, design or colors, and as separate when their colors and patterns differ.