Types Of Persian Rugs

Persian rugs can be classified into Persian City Rugs and Persian Tribal Rugs. Each type within these two is normally named after the city or tribal name in which it is manufactured and designed. These are some of the most popular Persian rugs (the first four fall under Persian City Rugs):

Afshar Rugs: These are smaller rugs usually designed with geometric pattern. Multiple connected medallions in diamond shape, All-over gul farangi (roses), botehs, and chicken-like motifs (Afshar-e-Morghi) are the common designs. Colors range from dark red, reddish brown, brown, dark reddish-blue, dark blue, burnt orange, ocher, and camel. The foundation is often wool, but cotton foundation may also be used in some rugs.

Tabriz Rugs: Most of the designs are curvilinear though geometric are also found. The symmetric (Turkish) knot is common with numerous colors used in one rug, and very diverse in palette. The common background and border colors used in this design are pink, peach, camel, beige, and ivory. The overall look of Tabriz rugs is pastel. Motifs may come in an assortment of colors such as blue, green, yellow, orange, and lavender. The foundation is usually silk and wool pile with silk highlights.

Kashan Rugs: About 95% of the Kashan rugs pattern is curvilinear. An elongated diamond-shaped and lobed medallion with floral pendants is a popular traditional design. This design usually has a navy medallion with similar corners and border in a red background or vise versa. Vase, hunting and pictorial are also popular. The common background Kashan rug colors are navy, rich red, beige and ivory. Other colors such as red, blue, turquoise, ocher, beige, white, brown and occasionally green are used for the designs.

Kerman Rugs: These are also mostly curvilinear in pattern. They are famous for Kerman pictorials which fall under the pictorial category of pattern. Traditional Kerman designs include all-over floral, boteh, stripes, paneled garden, prayer, vase, garden, hunting, animal, and pictorials using both Persian and European themes etc. Modern versions consist of Aubussons or Koran (Quran) medallion-and-corners with an open field. Rich red, red-blue, lime green, pink, ivory, gray-blue, turquoise, orange, champagne and beige are some of the colors commonly used.

Baluch Rugs: These rugs are hand-woven by the nomadic people of the Baluch tribe in southern Iran, following an ancient Persian tradition, dating back to 2500 years. The design is unique with an overall pattern, with rich burgundy with some navy and ivory as the main colors.

Shiraz Rugs: Hand-woven rugs made in Shiraz, Central Iran, simply done with crudely done with the pile cut long with plain color schemes. Geometric motifs, small animals or plants are commonly used in the designs with selvages done with a barber-pole effect using two colors. Red is the main color used.

Wiss Rugs: These tribal handcrafted rugs come from the village of Wiss, near Hamedan in Iran. Traditional dense floral patterns with vases, foliage, palmettes, and garden elements are commonly used. Dark shade of red or burgundy is the main color. Wiss rugs are known for the resemblance to Arak and Tabriz designs.