Rug No. has found its new home.
Every rug we sell is one of a kind, so that piece is gone. Here are others in the same spirit, or tell Rug Finder what you are looking for.
Shiraz Rugs
Shiraz, in the Fars province of southwest Persia, is tribal country, home to the Qashqai and Khamseh nomads. Their rugs are bold and geometric: hooked medallions, little birds and figures, warm reds and blues. Each carries the small irregularities that only a rug woven by hand, away from a city loom, can have.
Shiraz: bold tribal weaving from the Fars highlands
Shiraz is the marketing city for the tribal weaving of the Fars region in southern Persia, including Qashqai and Khamseh work. These are nomadic and semi-nomadic weavings, made on portable looms in hand-spun wool, and they have a directness that workshop carpets do not. Fields are often filled with stacked diamond medallions, animal figures, birds and small geometric fillers scattered wherever the weaver saw space.
The color is where these rugs win. Madder red, deep indigo, ivory and saffron are used at full strength, often with abrash where the dye lots changed.
Spotting Fars weaving
- Field: stacked or single diamond medallions, tribal figures, birds and animals as fillers.
- Color: strong madder red in most of ours, with indigo, ivory and gold; frequent visible abrash.
- Wool: hand-spun, often with a slightly uneven and very characterful surface.
- Sizes: mostly small mats and runners in ours; genuinely large Shiraz pieces are scarce.
A rug with personality
A Shiraz is a character piece. It suits a room where you want the floor to be interesting rather than restful, and it works beautifully layered or used as a single strong element in an otherwise plain space. Bedrooms, studies and entryways all suit them.
Because the drawing is asymmetric and lively, a Shiraz also rewards being looked at properly. The small filler figures scattered through the field are usually where the personality lives.
Tribal irregularity is the point
Sides that are not perfectly parallel, a field that widens slightly toward one end, a medallion that sits off center. In nomadic weaving these are inherent to the process, and to collectors they are evidence of authenticity rather than defects. If perfect geometry matters to you, a city weave is the better direction.
Asked about Shiraz
Why is my rug not perfectly rectangular?
Portable looms and hand-spun wool. Slight irregularity is normal, expected, and generally desirable in tribal weaving.
What is the difference between Qashqai and Shiraz?
Qashqai refers to the tribal group; Shiraz is the city where their carpets were traded. Much of what is sold as Shiraz is Qashqai or Khamseh work.
Are the animal figures significant?
They are part of a long tribal vocabulary of birds, dogs and horses, used freely by weavers rather than to any fixed system. They are one of the most enjoyable things to find in a Fars weaving.
Choosing among them
Look for strong color and lively drawing rather than regularity. Not one of them repeats another.
Why most Shiraz rugs we hold are small, and where a rug that size earns its place: the Shiraz guide.