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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.