Classifications of Persian Rugs

One of the most popular rugs in the world today is the Persian rugs. They were invented thousands of years ago making those rugs part of the Persian culture and arts. The art of weaving being practiced by most of the people in Persia made the Persian rugs became one of the top export products of their country. Those rugs can be classified depending on the place where the rugs are woven and who wove those rugs.

There are two basic classifications of rugs: the Persian City Rugs and the Persian Tribal Rugs. Under these two classifications, there are different types depending on the name of the city and the tribe’s name where the Persian rugs are made.

Let us consider first the types of Persian rugs: Afshar Rugs; Tabriz Rugs; Kerman Rugs; and Kashan Rugs. The first two (Afshar and Tabriz rugs) are designed with geometric patterns. Afshar rugs are smaller than other types and usually made of wool and cotton. Common designs and patterns of Afshar rugs are connected diamond-shaped medallions, botehs, roses and chicken.

Afshar rugs are available in dark colors, usually brown, reddish brown, dark blue, reddish dark blue, dark red, beige, and yellowish-brown. The Tabriz rugs are the type of City rugs which are curvilinear and geometrically designed. Those types of Persian rugs are very colorful. They are usually made of wool and silk foundation and have pink, camel, peach and ivory border colors and backgrounds. Because of those light colored background and borders, Tabriz rugs’ overall color became pastel. Symmetric and colorful knots are also noticeable in Tabriz rugs with different motifs like green, yellow, blue, lavender, and orange.

The next two types of Persian Rugs, the Kerman Rugs and the Kashan Rugs have mostly curvilinear patterns. The Kerman rugs are well-known for the Kerman images or the pictorial pattern designed in those rugs. Most common designs of those types of Persian rugs are animal and hunting patterns, vases, garden, flowers, prayer, and stripes. They are usually made of different colors like red, red-blue, pink, green, turquoise, orange, beige and champagne. Kashan rugs are made of the same colors as Kerman rugs. They are designed with lobed and diamond-shaped medallions with flower-patterned pendants.

The other types of the Persian rug or the Persian Tribal Rugs on the other hand are: Shiraz Rugs, Baluch Rugs and Wiss Rugs. They are hand-woven by different tribes, the Shiraz, Baluch and Wiss tribes respectively. The Shiraz rugs are usually long and plain-colored. Red is the color mostly used in making those types of Persian rugs. They have geometric motifs of plants and animals designs. Baluch rugs are made by the tribe in southern Iran. They usually incorporate the Persian tradition 2500 years ago to the designs that they used in weaving their rugs. Ivory and navy are the main colors that the Baluch tribe used in their rugs.

Lastly, the Wiss rugs which are made by the people in the Village of Wiss in Iran, have flower-like patterns and garden elements designs. They are usually made of dark red and burgundy colors. All of these make up the Persian rugs which are present until today.