7'8" x 9'9" Mamluk Oriental Rug | Burgundy & Grey-Green Geometric Panels | Brand New

This is a brand new, never used hand-knotted Oriental rug woven in Pakistan in the Mamluk tradition, measuring 7'8" x 9'9" with a wool pile on a cotton foundation. The drawing is unusual for a rug this size: instead of a continuous border running the full way around, the weaver set 4 large grey-green squares into the corners and let the burgundy field carry the geometry right out to the selvage, so the layout reads like a tiled panel rather than a framed medallion. The pile is clipped low and even, which keeps every cream outline crisp, and the 7'8" x 9'9" footprint sits in the useful 8x10 range that anchors a sofa group or a 6 seat table without crowding the walls. It ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming it as a genuine hand-knotted piece.

Design and Motifs

The Mamluk layout is built on hard angles and interlocking shapes, which puts this piece squarely among geometric rugs rather than the curved floral school. At the center sits a tall grey-green panel holding an octagon with an 8 petal rosette in dark olive and rose, flanked by 4 pairs of gold candelabra sprays and a stepped crest above and below. The burgundy field around it is filled with large shield shaped cartouches, paired hooked scrolls that read almost like mirrored letters, small hexagons and a dense run of cream keyed tracery and tiny cross forms that fills every gap. The same vocabulary repeats at reduced scale in the 4 corner squares, each with its own octagonal rosette and gold spray, so the eye travels from corner to center and back again. Every outline is drawn in a pale cream line, a single knot wide in places, which is what holds the pattern legible against the deep field.

A Closer Look at the Colors

The field is a muted wine burgundy, not a bright red, and it is abrashed with lighter streaks of dusty rose and mauve where the wool took the dye unevenly, giving the ground a heathered, slightly antiqued surface. Against it, the panels and corner squares are a soft grey-green olive that shifts between sage and warm beige depending on the light. The motifs are picked out in a dark brownish olive that reads nearly black in shadow, a warm tan gold for the sprays and crests, and pale cream for the outlines and tracery. Rose and salmon tinted accents sit inside each rosette and soften the contrast. It is a quiet, tone on tone palette, which makes it far easier to live with than most burgundy rugs, and it sits comfortably with walnut and oak floors, linen upholstery, brass and olive or charcoal accents.

Origin and Weaving Quality

Pakistan is where the Mamluk revival is woven best today, and this piece is a good example of why: the pattern comes out of the 15th and 16th century Cairene workshops, and modern Pakistani weavers reproduce that angular panel geometry on hand-knotted wool with a discipline that suits the drawing. The reverse, shown next to a ruler in the last photograph, is tight and uniform, with clean knot rows, a flat handle and no cupping or skew, and the selvages and ends are finished by hand. Buyers often ask how a piece like this compares to work from central Persia, and the short answer is in the drawing school and the wool, which we cover in our guide on the difference between Persian and Oriental rugs. If you are still comparing proportions, it is worth browsing the rest of our 8x10 Oriental rugs alongside this one.