2' x 6'5" Persian Yalameh Runner Rug | Tribal Panel Medallion Design | Perfect Condition

This 2' x 6'5" Yalameh is a narrow tribal runner woven in the 2000s, and it is the kind of piece that reads far older than it is because the drawing follows patterns the Yalameh weavers have kept unchanged for generations. The pile is full and even from end to end, the selvages are tight, and the handle is firm without being stiff, so it lies flat in a hallway and stays put. Woven with a wool pile on a cotton foundation, it belongs squarely in the family of hand-knotted Persian tribal rugs that are collected for their honesty rather than their polish. Every piece we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity that records the origin, materials and knot construction.

Design and Motifs

The field is divided into 12 square compartments, set 2 across and 6 down, in the panel layout the Yalameh weavers call khesti. Each panel holds a stepped, latch hook medallion, and no 2 panels repeat the same combination of ground and medallion color, so the eye moves down the runner rather than settling. Inside the medallions sit small 8 petal rosettes and star heads, while the panel grounds are filled with tiny hooked brackets, stars and paired butterfly motifs at the 4 corners of many compartments. The main border runs a chain of rosettes and diagonal leaf bands, flanked by a reciprocal sawtooth guard stripe and a barber pole edge, and the whole drawing is angular throughout, entirely built from straight lines and steps rather than curves. The macro photo shows how cleanly the outlines hold, panel by panel.

Rust, Blue and Green Color Palette

The dominant note is a warm rust that softens into terracotta and rose salmon in the panel grounds, and it alternates with deep indigo navy and a lighter, almost sky mid blue. Several panels invert the scheme, placing a rust medallion on navy or a navy medallion on rust, and a handful use ivory grounds that lift the whole runner and keep the reds from going heavy. Green appears in small, deliberate touches: teal and pine flecks in the star heads, the leaf band of the border and the fillers between panels. Ivory does the outlining work, tracing the stepped medallion edges so each shape stays legible, while the outermost border drops to a dark burgundy with ivory and red hooks. The wool takes dye with a slight variation from row to row, so the rust reads a shade warmer in raking light than it does flat on the floor.

Yalameh Weaving and Origin

Yalameh rugs come from the villages around Aliabad, south of Isfahan in central Persia, woven by families of Luri and Qashqai descent who settled the area and kept their tribal repertoire intact. Their reputation rests on wool: the flocks graze high pasture, and the fleece is springy and lustrous, which is why a Yalameh pile wears slowly and keeps its color. The knotting here is a good, dense village weave, tight enough to hold the small rosettes and bracket fillers crisply, with a low even clip that shows the drawing. At 2' x 6'5" the practical constraint is width rather than style, which makes this a genuine working runner for narrow hallways, a galley kitchen or the foot of a bed, and the dark border reads well against both wood and stone floors.