8'2" x 12'1" Persian Tabriz Mahi Rug | Herati Fish Design | Wool & Silk Pile

This is the Mahi drawing that made Tabriz famous, worked at a scale large enough to anchor a full room. The field carries thousands of tiny diamond compartments, each holding a rosette flanked by the curved leaves that give the pattern its fish name, and the whole repeat is knotted so evenly that the surface reads like woven fabric rather than pile. The medallion, pendants and corner spandrels are lifted with wool and silk accents that catch light as you walk past, and the cotton foundation is straight and true with clean, hand-finished ivory fringe. The rug has never been used, measures 8'2" x 12'1", and ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Mahi, or Herati, formula. A lobed oval medallion sits dead center, ringed by a scalloped halo and finished top and bottom with slender pendant finials that taper into the field. Inside the medallion the drawing tightens into a lace-like ivory arabesque over a rose and gold ground. Beyond it, the Herati repeat runs edge to edge in perfect register, a lattice of small diamonds each enclosing a rosette with 4 curved sickle leaves turned outward like fish around a pond. The 4 corner spandrels break the repeat with a scalloped, cloud-band edge and a lighter sage ground, a device that makes the dark field appear to float. The main border is a black ground turtle palmette and vine, drawn with the curvilinear confidence Tabriz masters are known for, and it is framed by paired guard stripes of running floral meander that keep the outer edge crisp.

Ivory, Charcoal and Sage: The Color Story

Ivory is the working color here even though it is not the ground color. Every rosette head, every outline in the medallion and every palmette in the border is picked out in ivory and cream, and against the charcoal to near-black field that white line is what carries the pattern across almost 12 feet. Around the medallion the palette warms into dusty rose, terracotta and old gold, with soft apricot in the innermost rings. The spandrels and the halo shift to a pale sage and celadon green, cooling the corners and giving the eye somewhere to rest. The border returns to black with cream palmettes, green leaf work and small flecks of rust and pale blue in the guard stripes. Nothing shouts. This is a quiet, layered range of neutrals with color used as accent, which is why the rug settles easily into rooms built on ivory, greige, walnut and soft green.

Tabriz Weaving and Workshop Quality

Tabriz sits in northwest Persia and has been the commercial and artistic center of Persian weaving for centuries, with workshops that measure their own fineness in Raj, the count of knots per gereh across the width. The Mahi design is the city's signature, and it is unforgiving: a repeat this small only holds its rhythm if the loom tension, the knotting and the beat-down stay identical from the first row to the last. Look at the back photograph and you can see the evidence, a tight, level cotton foundation with rows of even knots and a flat, disciplined selvage. The pile is fine wool clipped low so the drawing stays legible, with silk worked into the medallion and highlights for contrast in sheen. Well made pieces like this are why buyers keep coming back to Persian Tabriz rugs when they want one rug to carry a whole room.