Sarouk Rugs: The Arak Village Name Americans Know Best

By Storied Rugs7 min read

A deep red Sarouk rug with scattered flower sprays and a wide beige border under a linen sofa, two linen armchairs and an oak coffee table in a white plaster living room

A Sarouk rug is a Persian rug named after Sarouk, a village in the Arak district of west central Persia. Most rugs with that name, though, were woven in Arak itself and the villages around it, for the American market. The classic Sarouk has a red field filled with loose sprays of flowers and plants, curving drawing and a cotton foundation. The ones we sell are about fifty years old, and most are small mats.

A small deep red Sarouk rug with flower sprays and an ivory border on oak boards beside a bed with white linen — A Sarouk, 2 feet 2 inches by 4 feet 4 inches. Sprays of flowers and leaves cover a deep red field with no medallion, inside an off-white and dark blue border. It is the Sarouk layout in miniature.

A village name that became a trade name

Sarouk is a real place. Walter Hawley, an American rug writer, described it in 1913 as a mud-walled village toward the western end of the Feraghan plain.^[1] The first rugs to carry its name were woven there. They were of very good quality, with a short pile and a range of designs.^[2]

The name soon outgrew the village. Later Sarouks were made on a commercial scale, mainly in the city of Arak and the weaving villages nearby, for buyers in the United States.^[2] Even then, Hawley guessed that probably not one Sarouk in twenty for sale in America had been woven in the village itself.^[1] In the district, the Sarouk and Mahal names took over from the older Ferahan carpets.^[3]

That older link survives in a trade name. A finely woven antique Sarouk from around 1900 is often sold as a Ferahan Sarouk, also spelled Fereghan Sarouk.^[4] The label points to age and fine weaving, so ask the seller what the rug’s age and knot count actually are.

So the word tells you a style and a district more than a single village. Our Arak guide covers the city and its other names, and the Mahal guide covers the big, coarser grade woven in the same area.

How to identify a Sarouk

Four things mark a Sarouk: a red or rose field, scattered flower sprays, curving drawing and a cotton foundation. The commercial Sarouk has a look that is easy to learn. Its field is filled with separate sprays of flowers and plant forms rather than one connected pattern. The old commercial pieces also had rose-colored fields and a longer pile.^[2] The drawing curves. There are no stepped village outlines, and the flowers bend on long stems.

Other Sarouks keep a medallion. Curving medallion layouts came into Sarouk weaving in the early twentieth century.^[2] A museum example from the 1930s, listed as probably Sarouk, has a dark blue medallion with pendants on a pink field, with cream corners.^[5]

Turn a corner over to check the build. Sarouks are knotted with the asymmetrical knot on a cotton foundation.^[2] On ours, that cotton shows at each end as the fringe. How to tell if a Persian rug is real walks through the other checks on the back.

A small red Sarouk mat with a lobed ivory medallion and cream floral border on slate tiles inside a green front door, beside a wooden bench — A Sarouk, 2 feet 2 inches by 3 feet 1 inch. A lobed medallion with pendants above and below, in deep red and burgundy, sits inside a cream floral border. Curving lines, no steps.

The American Sarouk, or painted Sarouk

An American Sarouk is a Sarouk woven for buyers in the United States in the early twentieth century, and often recolored after it arrived. Many of the commercial pieces were chemically bleached when they arrived in the United States, and then the field color was painted back in.^[2] Their fields were often a lighter salmon pink when they were woven, while American taste of the time ran to much deeper colors.^[4] Dealers retouched the red to turn it toward burgundy.^[6] The treatment was most common on rugs of the 1920s and 1930s, though older pieces were sometimes done too.^[4]

On an older Sarouk, it is worth comparing the color at the tips of the pile with the color at its base. Collectors prefer a Sarouk that was never re-dyed, because it keeps its original colors.^[4]

The Sarouks we sell all have a deep red field, with borders in cream, beige, sage or dark blue, and every one is washed before we list it. For chemical color in general, overdyed vs faded rugs explains how to read the back and the base of the pile.

A deep red Lilihan rug with a bright pink medallion and navy flowered border in a study beside a leather armchair and a walnut desk — A Lilihan, 3 feet 11 inches by 5 feet 6 inches. A muted pink medallion sits on deep red, with flowering branches drawn around it and a navy border.

Lilihan vs Sarouk

Some of our rugs from the same family carry a different name, Lilihan. We keep the name each rug came with rather than folding them together. Side by side, the two look closely related. Both are curving, floral and mostly deep red.

On the rugs we sell, the difference is in the layout. The Lilihans more often have a medallion, sometimes in muted pink, with branches of flowers drawn around it. A pale one has a cream field, a deep red medallion and a burgundy border. Our Sarouks vary more: some fill the whole field with flower sprays, others have a lobed medallion, and a small one is a pictorial scene with two figures. If you like one, look at the other too. The choice will come down to the rug in front of you, not the name.

Both sit well in a warm room. A deep red Sarouk or Lilihan looks at home with walnut, brass and leather. A cream Lilihan suits a lighter room with white walls and pale oak. Because the drawing curves and the colors are rich, even a small one carries a lot of color for its size.

A small cream Lilihan rug with a navy and red medallion and a denim-blue scalloped frame on terracotta tiles in a pale wood galley kitchen — A Lilihan, 2 feet 6 inches by 4 feet 9 inches. The pale one: a cream field with a deep red medallion and two clusters of flowers, framed in burgundy with touches of denim blue.

What is a Sarouk rug worth?

A Sarouk’s value comes down to its size, condition and age, and to whether its color is original. Most of our Sarouks and Lilihans are small, from doormat size up to about 4 by 6 feet. They suit a doorway, a bedside or the floor in front of a sink, and where to put a small rug has more ideas. A few are room size, from about 7 by 10 to 9 by 13 feet.

The small ones cost from about $250 to $450. The room-size rugs cost from about $1,200 to $2,300. Ours are about fifty years old, so they are vintage rather than antique. If you see a Sarouk described as antique, the label means something specific, and antique vs vintage rugs explains it.

When you compare Sarouks, check the pile for even wear, the sides and ends for loose spots, and the field for color that has been touched up. A Sarouk with a painted field is still hand-knotted, but it is not the same rug as one with its original dye. Size, condition and age set the price far more than the word on the label, and what a rug costs goes through each.

Where to go next

The Arak and Mahal collections hold the other rugs of this district. For curving floral drawing in a red field from any origin, browse red rugs. If the rose of the old commercial Sarouk is the color you are after, the pink rugs are the place to start.