Ghoochan Rugs: Kurdish Weaving in Northeast Persia

By Storied Rugs6 min read

A deep red vintage Ghoochan rug with rows of octagonal guls under a wooden coffee table in a sitting room with a brown leather sofa, seen through a doorway

Ghoochan rugs, also written Quchan, are Kurdish rugs from the country around the town of Quchan in Khorasan, in the far northeast of Persia. They are red, drawn in straight lines and hooks, with stacked panels, hooked medallions or rows of small octagons down the field. Most of the ones we sell are long rugs about five feet wide or wide runners, and all of them are about fifty years old.

A deep red Ghoochan rug with three hooked cream and navy medallions on slate tiles in an entry hall beside a wooden bench — A Ghoochan, 4 feet 5 inches by 6 feet 9 inches. Three hooked medallions in cream and navy run down a deep red field, inside a cream border with a zigzag edge.

Kurds in the northeast of Persia

Most people think of Kurdish weaving as a western Persian craft, and the Sanandaj guide covers that side of it. Quchan is the other end of the country. Most of its people descend from a tribe of Zafaranlu Kurds who were resettled there by Shah Abbas I in the seventeenth century.^[1]

They were moved there to guard a frontier. In return for military service on the border, the resettled Kurds kept wide self-rule under a hereditary tribal leader.^[1] Britannica notes that many people in the area still live as nomads, moving their flocks to better grazing in summer and living in tents.^[1] The town itself sits on the main road from Mashhad toward Ashgabat in Turkmenistan.^[1] The Mashhad guide covers the region’s big city.

The designs you will see

Ghoochan rugs are village and tribal rugs, drawn in straight lines. On the ones we sell, three layouts come up again and again.

Stacked panels

Two or three large rectangles are stacked down the field, each filled with stripes or zigzags and framed by hooked or arrow-tipped lines. Small hooked motifs fill the space between them. From across a room these read as bold blocks of darker red on red.

A deep red Ghoochan runner with three framed panels of purple zigzag stripes on terracotta tiles in a narrow kitchen, seen from above — A Ghoochan runner, 3 feet 8 inches by 8 feet 7 inches. Three panels with zigzag stripes, framed by lines that end in arrows, on a deep red field. At nearly four feet wide it suits a wide kitchen or hall.

Hooked medallions

The second layout is a column of hexagons or diamonds with hooks along their edges. They are often cream and navy, so they stand out from the red. Hooked forms turn up in Kurdish weaving elsewhere too: Britannica describes Kurdish rugs from the borderlands with diamond grids, each diamond holding a latch-hooked figure.^[2] The rug at the top of this page is one of these.

Rows of octagons

The third fills the field with small octagons in rows, like a grid of stamps. That will look familiar if you know Turkmen rugs, where shades of red and lobed motifs called guls are the hallmarks.^[3] Quchan sits on the road into Turkmenistan, and these Ghoochans share the look. The Torkaman guide explains the gul itself. A few Ghoochans skip all three layouts and cover the field with a diamond lattice instead.

A worn deep red Ghoochan rug with rows of octagonal guls under a small wooden desk and chairs on pale pine boards — A Ghoochan, 4 feet 11 inches by 7 feet 10 inches. Rows of small octagons in dark brown on deep red, a layout close to the Turkmen rugs from just across the border.

How to recognize a Ghoochan

Look at the drawing first: every line is straight or stepped, and edges carry small hooks instead of curves. Then the color, a deep red field with cream and navy doing the outlining. On ours the shape is a clue too, since most are long and about five feet wide.

The motifs alone are not enough, because rugs from across this part of Persia borrow from each other. A Ghoochan with octagons can look close to a Turkmen rug, and one with hooked medallions can look close to a Caucasian or Hamedan village rug. When in doubt, go by the whole rug rather than one motif, and compare it with the Baluch guide as well. The Baluch rugs come from the same corner of Persia, but they are usually darker and smaller.

Colors

A Ghoochan is a red rug. Almost all have a deep red field, and the rest are burgundy, a softer faded red or a pale cream. The borders are burgundy, rust, faded red or cream. Cream, rust and navy do most of the drawing, with small touches of antique gold, teal or sage. The overall effect is warm and quite dark.

That makes a Ghoochan easy to pair with wood, leather, wool and brass, and it hides daily wear well in a hall or a kitchen. If you want the same warmth from other origins, browse the red rugs. For tribal rugs in darker reds and browns from the same part of Persia, see the Baluch collection.

Farmhouse back door seen from high above, a small deep red Ghoochan mat with a white stepped medallion and a cream border patterned with navy and red crosses on terracotta tiles, a wooden bench with a linen cloth beside it — A Ghoochan, 2 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 11 inches. A small mat with a white stepped medallion on deep red, framed by a cream border full of navy and red crosses.

Sizes and prices

Ghoochans come in a shape you do not see often: long rugs about four and a half to five and a half feet wide and seven to ten feet long. That is wider than a runner and narrower than a room rug. It suits a wide hallway, a landing, the length of a bed or the space in front of a long sofa. The runners are wide too, about three and a half to four feet across and eight and a half to nine and a half feet long. A few are larger, around 6 by 9 to 7 by 10, and there are a few small mats.

Most of the long rugs cost from about $675 to $750. The runners cost from about $620 to $1,010, the largest rugs about $1,050, and the small mats under $300. Measure the space before you choose, and go by the exact size rather than the label. Choosing the right runner length shows how. On a hard floor, put a thin pad underneath to cushion the rug against the floor.^[4] Rug pads 101 covers which one.

A five-foot-wide rug fills a wide hall properly, where a narrow runner would look thin. Leave a strip of bare floor along each side so the rug sits inside the space rather than wall to wall.

Where to go next

All of them are in the Ghoochan collection. For the city weaving of the same province, see the Mashhad collection, and for hall rugs from every origin, browse the runners.