Hosseinabad Rugs: Herati Village Weaving from the Hamedan District
Hosseinabad rugs, also written Hossein Abad, are village rugs from the Hamedan weaving district of western Persia. You can usually spot one by its field: a small, close repeat of flowers held in diamonds, known as the herati or mahi, on a deep red ground. Most are runners or long rugs, so they suit a hall, a landing or the side of a bed. The ones we sell are about fifty years old.
Where Hosseinabad rugs come from
Hosseinabad is one of the village names of the Hamedan district, the hill country around the city of Hamedan. The district’s rugs were woven in its villages and brought into the city to be sold.[1] A few villages kept a name of their own, and Hosseinabad is one of them, alongside Malayer.
The district wove repeat designs and medallions joined by a pole, and individual villages kept their own stock patterns.[1] In the Hosseinabads we see, that stock pattern is the herati almost every time. Our Hamedan guide covers the wider district, and tribal, village and city rugs explains what the village label tells you.
The herati: the pattern that marks a Hosseinabad
The herati is a repeat built on a diamond lattice, half hidden by a tangle of blossoms and leaves.[2] Each unit is a rosette set between two long, pointed leaves. Because the leaves look like fish, it is often called the fish pattern.[3] In Persian it is called the mahi, the word for fish, and herati is its more formal name. That name points to the city of Herat, where the design is thought to have begun.[3]
It is one of the most common patterns in Persian weaving, and you will meet it in rugs from many regions besides the Hamedan villages.
In our Hosseinabads the herati is drawn in straight, stepped lines rather than curves, and it is small and tight. From across a room the field reads as one deep red with a fine, even texture. Up close you see cream and rose flowers inside dark diamonds. Reading a rug explains the other shapes you will meet.
Medallion or no medallion
About half of our Hosseinabads have a single small medallion in the center, usually with corner pieces to match. The medallion is often cream and sometimes navy, and often drawn as a stepped diamond. It stays small, and the herati runs right up to its edges. The other half are herati from end to end, with no center at all.
The narrowest runners may set two cream rosettes down the length instead. Either way, all that detail stays within one color story, so the rug reads calm.
How to recognize one
The knot and the weft. Hamedan district rugs are traditionally tied with the symmetric knot on a cotton foundation, with a single weft after each row of knots.[1] The symmetric knot is also the usual Turkish knot, and Persian and Turkish rugs shows how to read it on the back.
The back. Turn a Hosseinabad over and the herati shows almost as clearly as on the front, in small, even rows of knots. How to tell if a Persian rug is real goes through the other checks.
The frame. A border in navy, rust, tan or charcoal, with narrow guard stripes on each side, closes in the red field.
What colors Hosseinabad rugs come in
The field of every Hosseinabad we have is deep red or burgundy. The deep red ones are warmer and brighter, while the burgundy ones lean toward wine and usually come with a navy or dark blue border. Cream, faded red, muted pink and rust do the fine drawing.
Red rugs like these look best with wood floors, leather, brass and white or pale walls. Decorating with a deep red rug has ideas for the darker ones, and why vintage colors age so beautifully explains how fifty years soften a red.
Sizes: mostly runners and long rugs
About half of our Hosseinabads are runners, from 1 foot 7 inches to 3 feet 9 inches wide and about 9 to 10¾ feet long. Most of the rest are long rugs a little over four feet wide and 9¼ to 13 feet long. That shape suits a wide hallway, a landing or the floor beside a bed. A room-size Hosseinabad is the exception.
Measure the space before you order, and go by the exact size, not the label. Choosing the right runner length shows how. The 4x10 collection gathers long rugs of that width from every origin.
What Hosseinabad rugs cost
Ours run from about $480 to $1,510, and most cost between $575 and $1,050. Every one is hand-knotted wool pile on a cotton foundation with a low pile, so it lies flat, clears a door and does not catch a foot in a hall. On a hard floor, a thin pad protects the rug and helps it last, and rug pads 101 covers which kind to use.[4]
Where to go next
You will find them all in the Hosseinabad collection. The wider district is in Hamedan rugs, and another of its village names is in Malayer rugs. For deep red rugs from every origin, see red rugs, and for halls, browse the runners. For Persian weaving region by region, read the ultimate guide to Persian rugs.
Sources
- Hamedan rug. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- Ferahan carpet. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- Herati Design. ClipArt ETC, Florida Center for Instructional Technology, University of South Florida.
- Basic care: Carpets and rugs. Canadian Conservation Institute.
