Songhor Rugs: Kurdish Village Weaving from Western Persia

By Storied Rugs5 min read

Cottage kitchen with pale blue clapboard walls, a dark red Songhor runner along cream cabinets and a farmhouse sink on white painted boards

Songhor rugs are Kurdish village rugs from Songhor, also written Sonqor, a small town in western Persia. They have straight-line drawing, strong color and long, narrow shapes. Most are runners or long rugs, so they are a good choice for a hall, a landing or the side of a bed. The ones we sell are about fifty years old.

Farmhouse room with whitewashed walls and dark beams, a cream Songhor rug with burgundy and navy border beside a bench and painted chest — A Songhor, 5 feet by 9 feet 9 inches, in the pale design. A tiny repeating motif fills the cream background around a small medallion, and the burgundy and navy frame does the rest.

Where Songhor rugs come from

Songhor is in Kermanshah province, near the border with Hamedan province. Kermanshah is Kurdish weaving country, and the trade groups Songhor rugs with the Kurdish village rugs of western Persia.^[1] You will often see the name paired with Koliai, after the Kurdish weavers of the villages around the town, as in Songhor-Koliai. Kurds also wove in the far northeast, as our Ghoochan guide explains.

Two of the best-known names in Persian weaving are close by. To the east is the Hamedan district, where several hundred villages wove straight-line rugs on cotton foundations for the Hamedan bazaar.^[2] To the north is Bijar, whose Kurdish weavers packed their knots so tightly that the trade calls the result an iron rug.^[3]

Songhor rugs have something of both. Like Hamedans, they are village rugs on cotton foundations, drawn from memory and made for everyday use. Like Bijars, they come out of Kurdish weaving.^[4] The Hamedan guide and the Bijar guide cover each neighbor, and tribal, village and city rugs explains what the village label tells you. Our Malayer guide covers one Hamedan market town that kept its own name.

Close high view of a deep red Songhor runner on pale oak, hooked diamond medallions joined down the center, small stars around them — A Songhor runner, 2 feet 6 inches by 8 feet 10 inches, up close: hooked diamonds joined down a deep red background, with small stars and hooks drawn in straight, stepped lines.

The two Songhor designs you will see most

Most Songhors follow one of two designs. The first has a pale background in cream, beige or tan, filled from edge to edge with a tiny repeating motif. The pattern usually sits inside a six-sided outline or around a small medallion, with red or dark corners and a darker red or navy border. From across a room the tiny motif reads as a soft texture, and the colored frame does the rest. The rug in the farmhouse room above is one of these.

The second design belongs to the long rugs. A column of medallions runs down a red or navy background. They may be hooked diamonds or stepped hexagons, joined by a pole or wrapped in a zigzag outline. The medallions are rarely identical. One comes out wider, the next a little shorter, and small hooks and stars fill the space around them. That is what drawing from memory looks like, and reading a rug explains the shapes themselves.

Craftsman hallway with sage green wainscoting, a narrow deep red Songhor runner with diamond medallions, a console lamp and coats on pegs — A Songhor runner, 2 feet by 9 feet 4 inches. Linked diamond medallions run down a deep red background, each drawn a little differently from the last.

Bedroom with glass doors to a garden, a navy Songhor runner with rose red hexagons beside a low walnut bed with white linen — A Songhor runner, 3 feet 5 inches by 8 feet 6 inches. Rose red hexagons run down a navy background inside a tan zigzag outline.

A few Songhors fit neither group. They have a single stepped medallion on a red background, with small trees drawn around it in single lines. These are the plainest village rugs of the lot.

What colors Songhor rugs come in

The background of a Songhor is usually red or burgundy, navy, or a pale cream, beige or tan. Burgundy and deep red do most of the framing, and cream does the fine drawing. Rust, dusty rose and the odd touch of olive turn up in the detail. The red and navy rugs look best with wood, leather and brass around them. The pale ones sit more quietly with light floors and white walls.

Olive green study, a Songhor rug with a beige lattice medallion, near-black corners and a deep red border at the foot of a cognac leather club chair, brass lamps nearby — A Songhor, 3 feet 2 inches by 5 feet 8 inches. One long stepped medallion holds a small lattice on a beige ground, with near-black corners and a deep red border, at home with wood, leather and brass.

Sizes: long, narrow and rarely wider than five feet

Songhors suit long spaces. Most are runners or long rugs, and they are rarely wider than five feet. The runners are 2 to 3½ feet wide and 7¾ to 10¾ feet long. The long rugs are four to five feet wide and 8½ to 12½ feet long. That size suits a wide hallway, a landing, or the floor beside a bed, where a narrow runner would look thin. The rest are small rugs for a doorway, a bedside or a reading corner.

Measure the space before you order a long rug, and go by the exact size, not the label. Choosing the right runner length shows how. The 4x10 and 5x10 collections gather wider long rugs from every origin.

What Songhor rugs cost

Most Songhors cost between $480 and $675. Small ones cost a little less, and the longest rugs cost more. Nearly all have a low pile, so they lie flat, clear a door and do not catch a foot in a hallway. On a hard floor, a thin pad keeps a runner from creeping, and rug pads 101 covers what to put underneath.^[5]

Where to go next

You will find them all in the Songhor collection. The Kurdish neighbors are in the Bijar and Sanandaj collections, and the villages to the east are in Hamedan rugs. For hall rugs from every origin, browse the runners. For Persian weaving region by region, see the ultimate guide to Persian rugs.