Ardabil Rugs: The Museum Carpet and the Town’s Own Runners

By Storied Rugs8 min read

Red and cream Ardabil runner lying side-on across terracotta tiles in a garden room with a green-cushioned window seat, lemon trees and ferns

The name Ardabil covers two very different things. The Ardabil Carpet is a Persian court carpet dated 1539 to 1540, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It is the reason most people search the word. Ardabil rugs, the kind you can buy, are village rugs woven around the town of Ardabil in northwest Persia during the last century. They are geometric, mostly runners and small mats, and usually red or navy.

Deep red Persian Ardabil runner with pale hooked medallions and a wide ivory border in an upstairs hall with a walnut chest and rush chair. — An Ardabil runner, 3 feet 5 inches by 11 feet, in an upstairs hall. Stepped medallions run down a deep red background in straight lines, which is typical of what the town wove.

The Ardabil Carpet in the Victoria and Albert Museum

The carpet in London is one of a pair. An inscription woven into one end gives the year 946 in the Islamic calendar, which is 1539 to 1540, and names Maqsud of Kashan.^[1] Maqsud was probably the court official in charge of the commission, not a weaver.^[2] A team of up to ten weavers may have worked on the carpet at once, over several years.^[2] The museum describes the pair as made for the shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din at Ardabil, the ancestor of the Safavid shahs.^[1] Its exact origins are unclear, but British visitors saw it in the shrine in 1843.

It is huge, about 34½ by 17½ feet.^[1] The wool pile is knotted on a silk foundation, far more finely than any village rug.^[1] The design is a yellow medallion on a dark blue background, with a hanging lamp at each end of it, one smaller than the other.^[1]

The museum bought it in 1893.^[1] Its smaller twin is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Its outer borders and part of its field are believed to have been cut away to repair the London carpet.^[3] Where the pair was woven is still argued over.^[1] Kashan and Tabriz are the cities most often proposed, and either way it came from a royal workshop, not a village loom.^[4]

Why the Ardabil Carpet is famous

The Ardabil Carpet is famous because it is the oldest dated carpet in the world and also one of the largest and finest.^[2] Its wool pile is very dense, about 340 knots to the square inch, which is what lets it hold so much detail.^[1] It is still the most famous carpet in the museum.^[1]

The inscription is part of the story. Its first two lines quote the 14th-century poet Hafiz, and the third gives Maqsud’s name and the date.^[1] The museum translates the first line as “Except for thy threshold, there is no refuge for me in all the world.”^[1] The two hanging lamps are another talking point, because they are different sizes. Some read that as a trick of perspective, and others as a deliberate flaw, since perfection belongs to God alone.^[2]

Its fame in the West began with its sale. The shrine was damaged by an earthquake in the 1800s, and the carpet was sold to a carpet firm in Manchester, England.^[2] Before the museum bought it, the designer William Morris inspected it and called it a carpet of “singular perfection.”^[2] Today it lies flat in a large glass case in the museum’s Jameel Gallery, so it can be seen on the floor as intended. It is lit for ten minutes on the hour and the half hour, to protect its colors.^[2]

Close view of an Ardabil rug with stepped red and ivory medallions on a pole, a brown field and a triangle border — An Ardabil, 2 feet 5 inches by 3 feet 7 inches, seen up close. Its stepped, hooked medallions and border of triangles are village drawing, with nothing in common with the court carpet but the name.

Can you buy an Ardabil carpet?

The original has no price, because both carpets of the pair belong to museums. What you will find for sale is one of two things. The first is a rug sold as “Ardabil design”, which copies the pattern of the London carpet. The second is a rug actually woven around the town of Ardabil.

The London carpet is so famous that its medallion and lamps have been copied again and again, by hand-knotting workshops and by machine-made rug makers alike.^[5] A rug sold as “Ardabil design” can come from anywhere, and the label tells you nothing about how it was made. If a listing uses the name, check whether it means a place or a pattern. Then check whether the rug is hand-knotted. How to tell a real Persian rug from a copy walks through the checks you can do at home.

What Ardabil rugs look like

Every Ardabil we sell is a village rug from the town and its surroundings, about fifty years old. None of them copies the museum design, and they share nothing with it but the name of the town.

Ardabil sits close to the Caspian Sea and to the border with the Republic of Azerbaijan, and its weaving looks north to the Caucasus. The trade often calls Ardabil rugs Persian cousins of Caucasian rugs, and one look at them shows why. Most have two to five medallions stacked down a long, narrow rug. Each medallion is stepped, hooked or cross-shaped, and they are joined by a pole or simply set in a line. Stars, small crosses and the odd bird or dog fill the space between. Almost nothing curves.

Long Persian Ardabil rug with a navy field and red and gold cross-shaped medallions on a limestone floor beside a pine kitchen table. — An Ardabil, 4 feet 5 inches by 10 feet 10 inches. Cross-shaped medallions in red and gold run down a navy background, with small birds scattered between them.

This is village weaving, drawn from memory rather than from a plan. It shows in small unevenness, such as one medallion a little wider than its neighbor, or a border that changes rhythm near a corner. Tribal, village and city rugs explains why, and reading a rug covers the motifs. A few Ardabils are drawn more finely, with a small pattern repeated across the whole rug. Those are closer to the Kurdish rugs of Bijar.

Small navy Persian Ardabil mat with a pale stepped medallion and animal figures on pine boards inside a blue back door beside boots. — A small Ardabil, 2 feet 4 inches by 3 feet 1 inch, inside a back door. A pale stepped medallion sits on navy, with small animals and birds tucked into the corners.

Sizes: mostly runners and small mats

Most Ardabils are runners or long, narrow rugs. Many of the runners are close to ten feet long, the length of a typical hallway. Some long rugs are four feet wide, which suits a wide hall or a landing where a narrow runner would look lost. The rest are mostly small mats, near 2 by 3 feet. Room-size Ardabils are rare.

So an Ardabil is a rug for a hall, a kitchen, a landing or the side of a bed, not for under a sofa. Choosing the right runner length has the measurements for halls and kitchens, and entryway rug size covers the rug by the front door.

What colors Ardabil rugs come in

Most Ardabils have a red background, usually a deep, full red, sometimes burgundy or rust. Navy and pale cream, beige or taupe come next, in about equal numbers. Cream does most of the drawing, with rust, burnt orange and a dark cherry red in the medallions and borders. Warm colors with strong contrast hold a long, plain hallway well.

Navy Persian Ardabil rug with a small repeating pattern and burgundy border beside an oak bed with linen bedding in a gray-green bedroom. — An Ardabil, 4 feet 3 inches by 6 feet 9 inches, along the side of a bed. It is one of the more finely drawn ones, with a small pattern repeated across the navy background inside a burgundy border.

What Ardabil rugs cost

Most Ardabil runners cost between $675 and $850. Small mats cost less and the few larger rugs cost more, so price mostly follows size. Most Ardabils have a low pile, so they lie flat and clear a door, and a few of the long rugs have a slightly deeper pile. Every one is washed and restored by specialists we trust before we list it.

Where to go next

You will find them all in the Ardabil collection (Ardebil is the other common spelling). The rugs listed as Azerbaijan come from the same corner of Persia and look much the same. For bold geometry at room size from the same region, see the Heriz guide. Heriz vs Tabriz sets village drawing against the city workshops, and the runners collection has runners from every origin.