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A Sarouk rug is a type of Persian rug from Markazi Province in Iran. Sarouk (also Saruk or Sarough) rugs are those woven in the village of Saruk and also the city of Arak and the surrounding countryside.
Sarouk rugs have been produced for much of the twentieth century. The early successes of the Sarouk rug are largely owed to the American market. From the 1910s to 1950s, the "American Sarouk", also known as the "painted Sarouk", was produced.
American customers had an affinity for the Sarouk’s curvilinear and floral designs. What they did not appreciate, however, was the color, so for much of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, rugs exported from Iran were dyed to a desirable, deep, raspberry-red color, once they arrive in the USA. In the second half of the 19th century, a huge market was created for Persian carpets in Europe and in the US. Many merchants bought the old and antique Persian rugs from all over Iran and exported them to other countries. They used the city of Tabriz in northwest Iran to export these antiques to Europe via Erzurum in Turkey. Some merchants also used the southern ports on the Persian Gulf to export Persian rugs to the US by ship.
By the later decades of the 19th century, probably around 1880, the supply of these fine antique rugs from Persia was on the low side. Therefore, many of the merchants from Tabriz decided to establish workshops in Sultanabad to produce rugs for the western market. This region had a fine carpet weaving tradition and was a perfect place to set up looms and rug workshops. Sarouk is a village located 30 miles north of the city of Sultanabad (today called Arak). Sarouk is famous for weaving very heavy body carpets.
To meet the rising demand in the west for Persian rugs, the British-Switzerland company Ziegler & Co. opened its office in Tabriz in 1878 and in Sultanabad in 1883. The first World Oriental Carpet Exhibition in 1891 in Vienna and another one in London in 1892 created a rising demand for Persian rugs in the west. Companies such as the British-Italian Nearco Castelli Brothers and the Eastern Rug Trading Company of New York established their branches in 1909 in Tabriz and later in Kerman. Atiyeh Brothers of Oregon also established their weaving facilities in Kerman after the start of the 20th century.
Of these cities, Sultanabad and the surrounding towns and villages such as Sarouk, Farahan and Lilihan were the most famous in the US. After establishing the offices and branches of foreign companies, the designs were created based on the customers' tastes and demands, and new types of Persian rugs were produced. The kind of rugs today called Ziegler, or Sultanabad, were produced from the early years of the 20th century with the designs and color combination that Americans liked. There are many of them which are called the American Sarouk. Their colors look kind of dark or dirty pink. They have overall designs with no medallion or a very small floral medallion.
Sarouk rugs continue to be produced today, using the same methods as during early production, with the exception of the post-production dye job. Known for their exceptional quality and ability to withstand decades of wear, Sarouks continue to be best sellers. They are made with a high quality, tough wool using a Persian knot. [1] A tell tale sign of a Sarouk is usually its blue weft threads, salmon or tomato-red color mixed with ivory and blues, and a very traditional, floral style. The finest of the modern Sarouk rugs come from the small town of Ghiassabad.
A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, nylon, or polyester have often been used, as these fibers are less expensive than wool. The pile usually consists of twisted tufts that are typically heat-treated to maintain their structure. The term carpet is often used in a similar context to the term rug, but rugs are typically considered to be smaller than a room and not attached to the floor.
A Persian carpet or Persian rug, also known as Iranian carpet, is a heavy textile made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes and produced in Iran, for home use, local sale, and export. Carpet weaving is an essential part of Persian culture and Iranian art. Within the group of Oriental rugs produced by the countries of the "rug belt", the Persian carpet stands out by the variety and elaborateness of its manifold designs.
The Iranian city of Isfahan has long been one of the centres for production of the famous Persian carpet. Isfahani carpets are renowned for their high quality. The most famous workshop in Isfahan is Seirafian. In Europe, they became incorrectly known as Polish rugs because of the trade route from Persia to France running through Poland.
A Tabriz rug or carpet is a type in the general category of Persian carpets from the city of Tabriz, the capital city of East Azerbaijan province in northwest of Iran. It is one of the oldest rug weaving centers and makes a huge diversity of types of carpets. The range starts at Bazaar quality of 24 raj and on up to the incredibly fine 110 raj. Raj is the unit of knot density. It shows the rigidity of the rug which based on the number of strings used for the foundation of the rug. Strings materials are usually made of cotton or silk which is used for very fine rugs.
An oriental rug is a heavy textile made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes and produced in "Oriental countries" for home use, local sale, and export.
Arak rugs, otherwise known as Arak carpets, are made in the province of Arak, Iran. Technically, all rugs from Arak can be considered Arak rugs but those termed Sarouk are marked as of the best quality, while the more general term Arak is used for rugs of lesser quality. Meshkabad used to be the term for the worst quality rugs, but such rugs are now called mahal or Arak. Araks are much more coarsely knotted than the rugs of than Sarouk rugs. Their designs are quite similar, although rather more crudely executed, and often display bold floral medallions set against open fields.
Anatolian rug is a term of convenience, commonly used today to denote rugs and carpets woven in Anatolia and its adjacent regions. Geographically, its area of production can be compared to the territories which were historically dominated by the Ottoman Empire. It denotes a knotted, pile-woven floor or wall covering which is produced for home use, local sale, and export. Together with the flat-woven kilim, Anatolian rugs represent an essential part of the regional culture, which is officially understood as the Culture of Turkey today, and derives from the ethnic, religious and cultural pluralism of one of the most ancient centres of human civilisation.
Ardabil rugs originate from Ardabil located in the province of Ardabil Province in northwestern Iran, 639 kilometers from Tehran. Ardabil has a long and illustrious history of Persian carpet weaving.
A Pakistani rug, also known as Pakistani carpet, is a type of handmade floor-covering heavy textile traditionally made in Pakistan and is used for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes. Rug/carpet weaving is an essential part of Pakistani culture and Pakistani art.
Bakshaish rugs and carpets are a tapestry from the village of Bakshaish in north-west Iran. Bakshaish is situated in the mountainous region 60 miles east of the large city of Tabriz. It's rugs are notable for their diverse abstract adaptations of age-old tribal and classical Persian motifs.
Armenians wove Lilihans in Lilihan village in what used to be called Kamareh district in Iran. The term Lilihan is better known in the US, in Europe it is not as widely used.
Sultanabad rugs and carpets are floor coverings of distinctive design made in Arak, Iran since the 19th century.
Kerman carpets are one of the traditional classifications of Persian carpets. Kerman is both a city and a province located in south central Iran. The term also sometimes describes a type which may have been made elsewhere. Typical manufacturing techniques use an asymmetrical knot on cotton foundation, but less frequent examples incorporate silk or part silk piles, or silk foundations with wool pile.
The Dilmaghani family, the oldest existing manufacturers of hand knotted carpets and oriental rugs, can be traced back to the 1850s Qajar dynasty, Persia. In an industry which largely produces untitled items often identifiable only by experts, the history and lineage of any name relating to specific types of rugs for so many decades is unusual. Through the 1960s, the Dilmaghani family was still designing, manufacturing and importing Persian carpets from Iran to the United States. Dilmaghani is seen as an important connection of 19th and 20th century Persian rug and carpet production in and around the cities of Tabriz and Kermān. Dilmaghani remained as of 1980 among the best known names of branded hand knotted carpets.
The Bakhtiari rug, along with other weavings, is a major artform of the Bakhtiari tribe, located in Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari, Iran. Since the early 19th century, Bakhtiari rugs have been exported around the world.
Borujerd rugs is a type of Persian rug woven in Borujerd, Western Iran. Borujerd rugs are different from Luri rugs as well as rugs of Arak and Central Iran. However, they have more features similar with rugs of Hamadan province.
A pictorial carpet, picture carpet, tableau rug, carpet tableau or rug tableau is an ornamental rug specially prepared for hanging on room and hall walls for decoration. The designs and samples on pictorial carpets are completely different from those on common floor rugs. Pictorial carpets are generally made of silk but they have also been made from wool. Pictorial carpets are usually framed to sell and use.
Ziegler & Co. was a Manchester-based Anglo-Swiss producer and distributor of Persian carpets in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The company had workshops in Tabriz and Sultanabad, and it supplied retailers such as Liberty & Company and Harvey Nichols.
Chobi rugs CHOBI is a widely used commercial term used for hand made carpets from Afghanistan and to a diminished extent in the NWFP region of Afghanistan/Pakistan border. This term has been used since the displacement and return of refugees during and after the Soviet Afghan war in the 1980s. The uprooting of weaving populations effected traditional all wool weaving which had previously been almost exclusively based on Turkmen designs with an all wool structure in red tones as expressed by Afghan carpets. Strong demand for furnishing concepts from the west to produce Persian style patterns most notably the concept of Ziegler carpets proved a good commercial success and a well made robust product using increasingly cotton as a foundation resulted. Following a western lead in tase since late 1980s the business has since 2000 fallen to a considerable degree to being administered via Pakistan merchants given the ease of export from Pakistan. Afghan weavers had largely returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan refugee camps during late 20th cent however since the Taliban/ Pashtuns take over of Afghanistan in 2021 disruption to weaving has again occurred.
Afshar is a handwoven rug style produced by the Turkic Afshar tribe, a semi-nomadic group principally located in the mountainous areas surrounding the modern region of Iranian Azerbaijan. An additional population of Afshar tribes-people is located in the Kuchan area in Razavi Khorasan Province of Iran and city of Kerman. Carpets in the Afshar style are known for their stylized floral geometric designs, tribal artistry, and a characteristic palette of rust and blue color tones.
