Persian Rugs: Complete Guide by Origin
Persia’s weaving tradition spans fine city workshops and nomadic tribal production, and the two are easy to confuse if you don’t know what separates them. Twenty-two weaving origins, documented in detail below — more to come.
Tabriz
The design-engine city of Persian weaving — professional pattern cartoons, signed workshop pieces, and the widest motif range in Persia.
Read the guideKashan
Central Iran's dense floral medallion tradition, and the Mohtasham workshop era that defined its golden age.
Read the guideHeriz
Bold geometric village weaving from the same northwest region as Tabriz — coarser, thicker, and built to last generations.
Read the guideIsfahan
The finest curvilinear city weaving in Persia — ivory grounds, silk highlights, and the highest knot density in the tradition.
Read the guideShiraz
Tribal Qashqai and Khamseh weaving sold under the Shiraz trade name — wool foundation, bold geometry, real character.
Read the guideQashqai
The great nomadic confederation of Fars — wool-on-wool weaving from migrating ground looms, filled with the most spirited animal and bird motifs in Persian weaving.
Read the guideGabbeh
The thick-pile minimalist icon — coarse, luminous tent-floor weaving with huge open color fields and a lone tree or animal, rediscovered by the modern design world.
Read the guideSarouk
Exceptionally dense knotting and a signature detached-floral field — plus the American Sarouk painted-background tradition.
Read the guideSultanabad
The Ziegler & Co. export tradition — spacious design, deliberately looser weave, muted Western-market palette.
Read the guideBijar
The "Iron Rug of Persia" — Kurdish wet-packed construction that produces the most durable, and heaviest, rug in the tradition.
Read the guideKerman
Persia's softest palette and most ambitious pictorial weaving — pastel grounds, fine kork wool, centuries of technical refinement.
Read the guideNain
A modern fine-weaving tradition dating to the 1930s — ivory grounds, silk-highlighted florals, and the city's own 6-la/9-la quality system.
Read the guideHamadan
The most accessible entry point into hand-knotted Persian rugs — single-wefted construction, camel-hair runners, and one of Persia's oldest trading bazaars.
Read the guideMashad
Grand city weaving from Iran's holiest pilgrimage city — signed Saber master pieces, Khorasan wool, and some of the largest formats in the tradition.
Read the guideBakhtiari
Nomadic tribal weaving best known for the garden-panel (kheshti) design — a field of compartments, each holding its own piece of a stylized garden.
Read the guideMalayer
A genuine middle ground between Hamadan and Sarouk — the small-scale Herati fish pattern, mostly woven as runners, often undervalued for the quality.
Read the guideQom
Persia's pure-silk production center — calligraphic and mosque-dome motifs, investment-grade pieces, and some of the finest knotting in the tradition.
Read the guideSenneh
The most refined Kurdish weaving — fine single-wefted construction, miniaturized Herati design, extraordinary kilims, and the knot-naming paradox.
Read the guideArdabil
The city behind the most famous carpet in the world — and a modern tradition of Caucasian-influenced geometry from the Azerbaijan borderland.
Read the guideAbadeh
Qashqai tribal design executed with town precision — the Heybatlu diamond medallion and Zel-i-Sultan vase pattern on a tight cotton foundation.
Read the guideVeramin
The Mina Khani capital — all-over interlocking floral lattices in deep jewel tones from a melting-pot weaving town near Tehran, quietly undervalued.
Read the guideYazd
A silk-road desert city that traded silk looms for carpet looms — Kerman-influenced rosettes and medallions, less exported and less known than it deserves.
Read the guideZanjan
Northwest village weaving between Hamadan and Tabriz — bold Caucasian-leaning geometry, a runner specialty, and some of the best value in the Persian market.
Read the guideTafresh
The Hamadan-region sleeper — a rounded, almost European wreath medallion, double-wefted construction, and quality that routinely sells under bigger names.
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