Persian Rugs & Carpets

When one thinks of handmade oriental rugs, antique Persian rugs are what first come to mind. The ancient country of Iran may well be the birthplace of the knotted pile carpet and there are a very few examples that can be confidently attributed to Achaemenian times, before 332 BC. Persian carpets as we presently understand them are a product of the 16th century when design canons and structural techniques evolved into what we see today in antique 19th century and more modern carpets. Carpets tend to be woven where there is wool, wool means sheep, and sheep are all over the Iranian plateau. Every carpet weaving city, town, village or tribe has ready access to good quality wool. This introduction cannot touch on matters of the weaver's or dyer's crafts, nor can it consider the art of design. We will concentrate instead on the various significant types/areas. Reference to a handy map is suggested. [...]

When one thinks of handmade oriental rugs, antique Persian rugs are what first come to mind. The ancient country of Iran may well be the birthplace of the knotted pile carpet and there are a very few examples that can be confidently attributed to Achaemenian times, before 332 BC. Persian carpets as we presently understand them are a product of the 16th century when design canons and structural techniques evolved into what we see today in antique 19th century and more modern carpets. Carpets tend to be woven where there is wool, wool means sheep, and sheep are all over the Iranian plateau. Every carpet weaving city, town, village or tribe has ready access to good quality wool. This introduction cannot touch on matters of the weaver's or dyer's crafts, nor can it consider the art of design. We will concentrate instead on the various significant types/areas. Reference to a handy map is suggested.

We begin in the very northwest with the Tabriz area. The city of Tabriz has been a Persian capital and is a center of art and industry. Carpets were woven in a royal workshop in the 16th century and the revival of carpet making in the 19th began there. The town carpets are always precise, finely woven, often with curvilinear medallion patterns. Silk carpets were also woven there and this small production continues today. The Heriz area, east of Tabriz, weaves vigorous, bold semi-geometric carpets in both medallion and allover patterns with high piles and crisp colors. The design filiation of antique Tabriz rugs and Heriz carpets is often evident. Serab has its own style with camel tones lavishly employed in runners.

Heading due south, we encounter the vast Hamadan weaving district, with hundreds of predominantly Kurdish villages, each with their own designs, producing thousands of affordable scatter rugs. The uncomplicated patterns tend toward the geometric and the weaving is often coarse. In the city itself, there is a small production of solidly constructed carpets, the Alvand or Kazvin. Nearby, Malayer weaves finer Persian rugs in the Hamadan manner.

In the far northwest is Kurdistan, with extremely fine, closely patterned scatter rugs, some on silk foundations, from Senneh; others board like and indestructible with saturated colors, bold patterns and in large carpet sizes from Bidjar; and a myriad of rustic village and tribal scatter rugs with semi-geometric abstract patterns and medium coarse weaves. In particular, the Jaffi and Sanjabi tribes have woven many attractive bag faces and mats with a striking range of blues.

The Arak, or Sultanabad, district is famous for the popular red “American” Sarouk, but it also is the home of the Mahal carpets with their clever allover patterns, and the antique Ziegler Sultanabad with its soft palette and large scale drawing in the style of art nouveau beloved of decorators everywhere. The Sarouk is one of the most serviceable Persian carpets and for many years was a sign of affluence in an American home. In the same general area is Seraband with dark red or blue gallery carpets in small leaf or cone patterns.

In the northeast are two distinct rug styles: there are the Turkmen tribes who weave carpets similar to their conferees in Turkmenistan – red carpets with repeating medallion patterns; and transplanted Kurds with colorful scatters in patterns seemingly borrowed from Anatolia. But then there is also the shrine city of Mashad with a range of urban carpets in medallion and allover layouts, some of enormous size and others of incredibly fine workmanship. The province of Khorassan has a long, if interrupted, weaving tradition, and gallery (kellegi) carpets were woven in the smaller towns since the 18th century.

Another tribal group from Khorassan is the Baluchis. Being nomadic, their rugs are small and flatweaves are common. Prayer rugs with camel tone fields are a specialty, and the palettes are otherwise dark with navy and deep red dominant. The wool is good and the weaves can get quite fine.

In the southeast is Kerman and its surrounding villages. The range of Kerman styles is immense, constantly changing with tastes in America, but always perfectly artistic, drawing from both a deep well of traditional Persian designs and foreign influences as well. The wool is excellent, just soft enough, and the dyes are superb. The Kerman dyer has complete control of his materials with cochineal instead of madder as the main red. The Afshar tribes in Kerman province weave mostly scatters in semi-geometric styles with almost anything, rural, urban, textile, whatever, as design influences. The rugs are eclectic, colorful and genuinely cheerful.

Fars province lies immediately to the west and there are no urban carpets from its seat of Shiraz, but the Qashqai and Khamseh tribal groups are intensely creative with semi-abstract scatter rugs employing birds, hooked diamonds, prayer designs, various pole medallions, botehs (paisley), stripes and stepped crosses. Their designs are intricate, but never repetitive. The Luri of neighboring Luristan province have a similar design repertoire and bright color schemes. The best Persian tribal kilim rugs are also from the Qashqai weavers.

The old capital city of Isfahan developed a thriving carpet industry in the 20th century with extremely fine, silk warp, light colored, complex patterned pieces, often with designs taken from classical carpets. The Chahar Mahal/Bakhtiari weaving area nearby is famous for its strongly colored panel pattern rustic carpets whose designs often trace back to early garden carpets. There are also rare fine antique Bakhtiari carpets, often in very large sizes, made for the local rulers.

The town of Kashan in central Persia began making rugs in the 1880's and its production is almost entirely in the medallion and corners style with palmettes and arabesques on red or dark blue fields. The carpets are finely woven with short piles. There are a small number of antique silk Kashan carpets as well. Kashan carpets adhere to basic traditional designs and do not display the constantly mutating Kerman aesthetic.

This is only the briefest overview of Persian oreitnal rug weaving and it does not cover many of the smaller towns with their distinct styles nor the many tribal groups. It may be assumed that any non-urban area makes flatwoven carpets in addition to or in place of pile rugs and these require their own treatment. New pile rug types frequently come to market. We direct the interested reader to our remarks on individual carpet types for further details.