Kashmar Rugs: Khorasan Rugs with Busy Fields

By Storied Rugs6 min read

A navy Kashmar rug with dense vines, a round medallion and a rust and navy border under a linen sofa, two leather armchairs and an oak coffee table, seen from a high corner

Kashmar rugs are Persian rugs from Kashmar, a town in Khorasan in the northeast of Persia, and they are known for busy fields. Most have a medallion surrounded by vines and flowers that fill every inch, and some go further and carry whole pictures of buildings, trees and animals. Nearly all the Kashmars we sell are room size, and all of them are about fifty years old.

A raspberry red Kashmar rug with a navy-ringed medallion and wide navy border under an oak dining table for six, seen from high across the room — A Kashmar, 8 feet 2 inches by 11 feet 4 inches. A round, lobed medallion with pendants sits on a deep red field packed with small flowers, inside a dark brown border.

Kashmar and the Khorasan family

Khorasan is the old name for the whole northeast of Persia, and the Birjand guide explains how its weaving towns relate to each other. Much of the province is desert, and its towns and villages grew up in scattered oases.^[1] Kashmar is one of the region’s weaving towns.

The Khorasan rugs share some habits. Room-size carpets from Mashhad, Birjand and the villages nearby often have unusually round medallions and coiling stems across the field.^[2] Kashmar shares that look. What sets it apart is how much it packs in.

Variety was part of the region from the start. One early writer put the range of Khorasan patterns down partly to copying, from rugs that pilgrims brought from other provinces when they came to Mashhad each year.^[1] The Mashhad guide covers that city and its large, formal red rugs.

Two kinds of Kashmar

The full medallion rug

Most Kashmars follow the formal plan: a medallion in the center, corners that echo it and a field of vines and flowers. The difference is density. On many of them the vines are so close that the field reads as one texture, with the medallion floating on top. A few drop the medallion altogether and fill the field with flowering shrubs, which suits a runner well.

A pictorial Kashmar rug with a bird medallion and panels of buildings and columns in front of a walnut desk and a cognac leather chair on dark oak — A Kashmar, 6 feet 9 inches by 9 feet 5 inches. The burgundy field is divided into panels of buildings and arches around a central medallion with a bird in it, framed in cream and terracotta.

The pictorial rug

The second kind tells a story, or at least looks as if it does. The field is divided into panels, and the panels hold domed buildings, arches, trees and figures, arranged around a central medallion. A small mat can be pictorial too, with a deer, birds and flowering trees on a cream field.

Animals and birds turned up in Khorasan rugs a century ago as well: an early twentieth-century guide lists them among the region’s common designs.^[3] Picture carpets are not new in Persia. A seventeenth-century silk carpet at the Met shows buildings drawn at a smaller scale, a sign of European perspective.^[4] A pictorial Kashmar is a much later, wool cousin of that idea. For what the common shapes on a rug mean, reading a rug is a good place to start.

A small cream pictorial Kashmar mat with a deer, birds and flowering trees on oak boards beside a bed with linen bedding — A Kashmar, 2 feet by 1 foot 9 inches. A small pictorial mat: a deer, birds and flowering trees in blue, burgundy and rust on a cream field.

How to recognize a Kashmar

Look at how full the field is first. A Kashmar rarely leaves open ground. Then look at the border. Khorasan rugs were noted early on for their borders, which are very wide, with a main stripe as wide as several guard stripes together.^[1] On a Kashmar the border often carries as much drawing as the field.

The drawing curves, as on other city and town rugs of the region, and the pile is low on the ones we sell, so the detail stays sharp when you stand over it.

Colors

Our Kashmars are split about evenly between blue and red backgrounds: navy or dark blue on a little under half, deep red or burgundy on about as many, and a few cream and taupe rugs. Rust, gold and antique gold do much of the drawing, with navy, terracotta or burgundy in the borders. Older Khorasan rugs were known for reds that lean to pink, rose or wine.^[1] The navy Kashmars are the calmer choice, and our guide to blue Persian rugs covers what to put around one. Browse the navy rugs for the same color from other origins.

A narrow cream Kashmar runner of flowering shrubs, deer and birds inside a rust and blue border, on dark oak boards down a white hallway — A Kashmar runner, 2 feet 9 inches by 10 feet 8 inches. No medallion here: flowering shrubs in navy and ochre, with deer and birds among them, fill a cream field from end to end inside a burgundy border.

Where a Kashmar fits

A busy rug works best with quiet things around it. Plain upholstery in linen, leather or wool lets the field do the talking, and a patterned sofa on top of it is usually one pattern too many. Patterned rug with a patterned sofa covers the cases where two patterns do work.

The density is also practical. A field with no open ground hides crumbs, footprints and the odd mark between cleanings, so a Kashmar is a good choice for a family room or a dining room that gets used every day. The pictorial rugs are better as the one thing people look at, in a study or a quiet sitting room.

If you are torn between a Kashmar and a Mashhad, start with color. Both use the same formal medallion plan, but nearly every Mashhad we sell is red, while a Kashmar is as likely to be navy.

Sizes and prices

Kashmars are big rugs. Most are between 8 by 11 and 10 by 13 feet, and the rest are mostly around 7 by 10. That matches the old description of Khorasan rugs as mostly large.^[3] There are only a few exceptions, a runner and a small mat among them. If you are choosing between the two common living room sizes, 8x10 vs 9x12 shows how to measure.

The largest Kashmars mostly cost from about $2,000 to $2,600, with the most expensive near $3,000. The 7 by 10 rugs mostly cost from about $975 to $1,650. For a table, dining room rug size has the measurements. A rug this size wants a pad underneath to cushion the floor and the weight of the furniture.^[5] Rug pads 101 explains which one.

Where to go next

All of them are in the Kashmar collection. Their neighbors are in the Mashhad and Birjand collections, and room-size rugs from every origin are in oversized rugs.