Lori Rugs: Tribal Weaving of the Lur People

By Storied Rugs5 min read

A rust and navy vintage Lori rug with a nested cream medallion and cross motifs on an oak floor in front of a linen sofa and a wooden bench

Lori rugs, also sold as Luri, are tribal rugs from the Lur people of the Zagros mountains in western and southwestern Persia. They are drawn in bold, straight lines, with pole medallions, small animals and plenty of red. The ones we sell are mostly long rugs and runners, about three to five and a half feet wide, plus a few small mats, and all of them are about fifty years old.

Bedroom seen from high above, a deep red Lori rug with a pole medallion of dark diamonds lying beside an oak bed with white linen on wide pine boards, a branch in a stoneware jug by the window — A Lori, 3 feet 3 inches by 7 feet 6 inches. Two dark diamonds and a framed center hang on one pole down a deep red background, with a zigzag edge running along both sides.

Who the Lurs are

The Lurs live mainly in three regions, Lorestan, Bakhtiari and Kohgiluyeh, which run northwest to southeast along the Zagros mountains.^[1] Their language, Luri, is closely related to modern Persian.^[1] The Bakhtiari are their close relatives, and the two groups moved their flocks through the same mountain range.^[2] The Bakhtiari guide covers that branch and its garden rugs.

The Lurs were never one tidy group. Several tribes fell under the name, and they did not form a confederacy.^[3] Some lived far to the south, in Fars province, close to the Qashqai.^[3] That is one reason the rugs are hard to pin down. Until the early twentieth century, most of these southwestern tribes were nomads who moved between summer and winter pastures.^[3]

What a Lori rug is, and what the name can and cannot tell you

Women in these tribes wove with wool from their own flocks, on looms they could carry from camp to camp.^[3] Much of what they made was for their own use. The Met holds a Luri bag from about 1900, flat-woven with sumak brocade rather than knotted, the kind of container nomads used for everyday things.^[4]

Lori rugs sit close to Qashqai weaving in the south. One museum exhibition of southwest Persian rugs shows a Luri rug that closely resembles a Qashqai type, mainly because of its border.^[3] The V&A catalogs one of its carpets as possibly Lur or Qashqai, which shows how often even experts hedge.^[5]

Treat “Lori” as a family name rather than a precise address. Rugs sold as tribal are by no means all woven by tribal people, let alone by nomads.^[6] Ours are hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation, like every rug we sell. Tribal, village and city rugs explains what the labels mean.

Small study seen from high above, a Lori rug of square panels in burgundy and near black, each holding a small burnt orange plant, under a walnut desk and chair on pale oak floorboards — A Lori, 3 feet 11 inches by 5 feet 11 inches. Square panels switch between burgundy and near black, and each one holds a small plant in burnt orange and copper.

The designs you will see

Many of our Lori rugs carry a pole medallion. Two or three diamonds or hooked shapes are strung down the center on a single line, with sharp, stepped corners at each end of the rug. The rug in the bedroom above is one of these. Others have a large six-sided medallion nested inside a second outline, so the center reads like a frame within a frame. A few skip the medallion and repeat one small motif over the whole field.

Then there is the drawing around the medallion. In several of ours, small animals, birds, rosettes and stars float in the open background, set down one at a time rather than in neat rows. One of our mats has goats and birds walking around its center on a cream background. One rug lays out its whole field in square panels, close to the Bakhtiari garden design. Reading a rug explains what these shapes mean.

Entry hall seen from high above, a small cream Lori mat with goats and birds around a red and brown medallion inside a rust zigzag border, on dark terracotta tiles by a pale blue door, a woven basket beside it — A Lori, 2 feet 2 inches by 3 feet 2 inches. Goats and birds walk around a red and brown medallion on cream, each drawn a little differently, inside a rust zigzag border.

What colors Lori rugs come in

Red leads. Deep red is the most common background, with burgundy, rust and terracotta close behind. Navy, dark blue and dark teal do much of the drawing, and cream picks out the outlines. A few have softened to dusty rose, slate blue or taupe, and those sit quietly in a pale room. The red ones look warm with wood, leather and white walls. If a strong red is what draws you, our post on oxblood rugs covers how to live with one.

Sizes and prices

Many of our Lori rugs are long rugs, about 4 to 5½ feet wide and 7½ to 10 feet long. That shape fits the floor beside a bed, a wide hall or the space in front of a sofa. The runners are about 3 to 4 feet wide and 7 to 12 feet long, and choosing the right runner length shows how to measure. The rest are smaller, down to mats of about 2 by 3 feet for a doorway or a bedside.

The mats cost about $240 to $350. Everything else runs from about $390 to $1,210, and size explains most of that spread. Like every rug we sell, they have a low pile, so they lie flat and clear a door.

Long white hallway seen from high at one end, a navy Lori runner with a chain of cream-outlined diamonds and a burgundy border on pale oak boards, daylight from side windows — A Lori runner, 2 feet 11 inches by 10 feet 2 inches. A chain of diamonds outlined in cream runs down navy, with small animals tucked into the background and a burgundy border around it all.

Where to go next

You will find every one we have in the Lori collection. Their relatives are in the Bakhtiari collection, and other tribal weaving is under Baluch and Sirjan. For long, narrow rugs from every origin, browse the runners. For Persian weaving region by region, see the ultimate guide to Persian rugs.

Sources

Lur: Orientation. Countries and Their Cultures, from the Encyclopedia of World Cultures.
Portable Storage: The Tribes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017.
Beyond Utility: Rugs of Southwest Persia. Georgia Museum of Art.
Luri Bag. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Carpet, Fars province, 1840-1875. Victoria and Albert Museum.
Afghan Carpets. Expedition Magazine, Penn Museum.