6'9" x 9'10" Persian Tabriz Mahi Rug | Wool & Silk Herati Fish Design | 60 Raj Approx. 400 KPSI, Never Used

This is a Mahi from a serious Tabriz workshop, woven at roughly 60 Raj (about 400 knots per square inch) in fine wool with silk drawn through the medallion and the finer outlines, on a cotton foundation. The pile is short and tightly packed, which is why the tiny rosettes in the field stay legible instead of blurring, and the handle is firm rather than floppy. At 6'9" x 9'10" it lands squarely in the useful 7 x 10 Persian rug range, big enough to carry a seating group or a table for 6 without crowding the walls. It has never been on a floor: the fringe is full and untrimmed, the black selvage is intact, and the ends are square. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials, size and knot count.

Design and Motifs

Mahi means fish, and the field is the classic Herati lattice: a grid of small diamonds, each holding an 8 petal rosette, with slim curved leaves flanking every node like fish circling a pond. It reads as a quiet all over pattern from standing height and resolves into thousands of separate flower heads up close. At the center sits a scalloped cream medallion filled with its own miniature lattice and a rose colored rosette core, finished with a fine outlined cloud band edge and topped and tailed by two pendant cartouches. The 4 corner spandrels repeat the same cloudband drawing in cream against the dark ground, so the field is framed twice over. The main border carries large palmettes and paisley leaves on ivory, linked by thin vine scrolls, and is fenced by 4 narrow guard stripes of stepped geometric and small flower repeats. Corner resolution is clean on all 4 sides, which is the mark of a drawn cartoon followed properly rather than improvised at the ends.

A Near Black Field Lit by Cream, Rust and Olive

The ground is a very deep brown that reads black in most light, and it does the job of a dark field perfectly: it makes the ivory and cream flower heads look almost lit from behind. Scattered through the lattice are brick rust, tomato red, soft peach and small points of olive and teal green, with occasional pale blue and blush pink accents that only appear when you kneel down. The medallion shifts the balance to cream and apricot with rose pink at the heart and silk sheen catching across it as you walk around the rug. Borders turn the palette warm: ivory ground, terracotta and brick red guard stripes, olive and dark green palmette centers, and amber gold in the vinework. The overall effect is warm and traditional rather than cool, so it sits comfortably with walnut and cherry wood, cognac leather, and cream or greige walls, and it hides everyday traffic the way only a dark field can.

Tabriz Weaving and the Raj System

Tabriz, in northwest Persia, has been the commercial and technical center of Persian weaving for centuries, and its workshops grade fineness in Raj, the number of knots across one gereh of about 2.75 inches. 40 Raj is ordinary commercial work, 50 Raj is fine, and 60 Raj, roughly 400 knots per square inch, is where a Tabriz becomes collector grade and can hold drawing this small without losing the curve of a leaf. That density is exactly what the Mahi design demands, since the pattern lives or dies on the clarity of its tiny rosettes. Tabriz weavers also work on a stout cotton warp with a metal hook and comb, giving the flat, hard-wearing back you can see where the corner is turned over, and Tabriz wool takes dye cleanly and keeps its luster through decades of use. A never used 60 Raj Mahi in this size is the piece most buyers are looking for when they ask for a fine Persian rug that will actually be walked on.