Tabriz Rugs and Carpets

The city of Tabriz is the seat of East Azerbaijan province in northwest Persia. It is the second city of the country, next to Tehran, and has been a center of art, craft, and industry for centuries. It is an old city, dating to before the Arab conquest of 641 AD, and has been the capital of the Empire from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. Carpet making developed in Tabriz under royal patronage in the later 15th century, and in the sixteenth, under Shah Tahmasp Safavi, reached a classic high point never to be surpassed.

The royal Safavid carpet workshop seems to have invented the medallion and corners pattern. Before that only allover designs appeared on rugs, although book covers of the 15th century were already in that design format. From about 1500 until the capital was moved to Qazvin in 1548, the royal and commercial shops wove numerous outstanding rugs. Noteworthy are famous carpets including the magnificent pair of royal blue ground, medallion pattern Ardebil Mosque Carpets now in London and Los Angeles. [...]

The city of Tabriz is the seat of East Azerbaijan province in northwest Persia. It is the second city of the country, next to Tehran, and has been a center of art, craft, and industry for centuries. It is an old city, dating to before the Arab conquest of 641 AD, and has been the capital of the Empire from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. Carpet making developed in Tabriz under royal patronage in the later 15th century, and in the sixteenth, under Shah Tahmasp Safavi, reached a classic high point never to be surpassed.

The royal Safavid carpet workshop seems to have invented the medallion and corners pattern. Before that only allover designs appeared on rugs, although book covers of the 15th century were already in that design format. From about 1500 until the capital was moved to Qazvin in 1548, the royal and commercial shops wove numerous outstanding rugs. Noteworthy are famous carpets including the magnificent pair of royal blue ground, medallion pattern Ardebil Mosque Carpets now in London and Los Angeles. Allover patterns of cartouches were also popular. All these carpets had woolen piles on silk or cotton foundations. Size was no limitation and some approached 40 feet in length. The loom type is not known, but the dyes, designs and execution are all absolutely of the highest class. Because of its exposed position near the Ottoman Empire, Tabriz was invaded by the Turks in 1514 and 1538, but surprisingly few carpets were looted. The royal carpet atelier moved to Isfahan under Shah Abbas around 1600 and by then the Tabriz carpet was in terminal decline. No carpets can be attributed to Tabriz between the late 16th century and the Revival of the 1870s.

Tabriz remained a geopolitical football through WWI when the Turkish, Russians and British all coveted the wealth and position of the city. Carpet weaving was affected, but it has always bounced back.

The merchants of Tabriz saw a commercial export market develop in Europe and America, and first gathered used carpets from around Persia to be sent to Constantinople and thence to buyers overseas. When the domestic supply ran low, they turned to making carpets in salable sizes and patterns. The industry expanded rapidly and by 1900 there were about 3000 looms operating in the city and nearby villages. Most Tabriz weaving took place in workshops for better supervision, and men and women both worked at the looms.

The name 'Haji Jalili' is assigned to those finely made carpets woven between 1875 and 1900 with medallions and corners on open rust red fields. This is a quality grade name and not a precise attribution. PETAG, a German firm, and Benlian, from Britain, were active in the interwar period, and specialized in close interpretations of classical carpet designs taken from book illustrations. Almost all antique Tabriz carpets lack signatures and dates; hence attribution to particular master weavers is difficult, unlike the fine antique rugs of Isfahan or Mashad.

Tabriz rugs are very carefully and evenly woven, without the intrusions of even the slightest imaginations of the weavers. Thus the designs have a precision and formality to them, and the small scale, layered Herati all over design is extremely popular. We have a number of these in our collection. The artisans work from scale paper patterns under close supervision. Unlike Kerman with its long history of imaginative design, Tabriz carpets hew closely to established design canons. The medallion and corner pattern, often with variants on the turtle palmette border is a Tabriz standby. Another mainstay, the Garden Carpet pattern of the 17th/18th centuries is frequently woven. Tabriz carpets also borrow the "Vase Carpet" 17th-century pattern of diagonal palmettes on a multilevel vinery lattice. But they have adapted from locally made Heriz rugs as well, providing the angularity and semi-geometric style of a village rug. The knotting on good quality carpets runs from 120 to 450 per square inch, depending on the complexity of design; the silk pile, silk warp pieces, both antique and contemporary, are among the finer. However, today decorative appeal that is current with interior design trends is a greater quality than knots and material.

The pile wool comes from the flocks of the Sheik of Maku, to the northeast of the city and it is strong and resilient, but lacking in sheen. Tabriz carpets develop a tough luster through use, but never the patina of Kerman rugs. The knotting is symmetric (Turkish) and the pile is clipped quite short. The foundations are generally all cotton.

The Tabriz weavers work on vertical looms in which the warps are slid around to provide fresh knotting areas and the completed section is moved to the back. Carpets twice the loom height can be woven. Roller looms which allow longer sizes have not traditionally been used in Tabriz. Steel looms add to the perfect rectangularity of Tabriz carpets. Rugs run from 2’ by 3' scatters up to 20' by 30' oversize rugs, and any custom format may be accommodated, but Tabriz runners are quite uncommon.

The Tabriz dyer quite quickly took to European synthetic dyes. The rust red and deep blue of the Haji Jalili period are natural madder and indigo, respectively. By 1900 almost all shops were employing German or Swiss dyes. Since many, if not most, of Tabriz carpets were given a final wash to tone the colors, absolute consistency of dye was a major concern, and synthetics provided it. Red, navy and lighter blue, black, green, orange and ivory are among the usual Tabriz shades, but the dyers are skillful and virtually any half tone can be created. The palettes are more saturated and richer than in Kerman rugs.

Tabriz carpets have been more popular in Europe, especially Germany, than in America. There is no Tabriz equivalent to the "American" Sarouk. The production of the Tabriz shops is immense and varied in size, design, and color. Tabriz carpets are almost always floral and formal and perfect for equally formal interiors.