8'4" x 11'4" Indo-Tabriz Mahi Rug | Ruby Red Herati Field | Hand-Knotted Wool and Silk, Never Used

This is a brand new, never used hand-knotted Oriental rug woven in India in the classic Mahi drawing, with a wool and silk pile on a cotton foundation. The scale is the most usable one in the store: 8x11 area rugs anchor a full seating group or an 8 seat dining table without crowding the walls, and this piece measures 8'4" x 11'4" with a straight, true rectangle and even, tightly bound red selvages. The pile still has its original crisp finish, the fringes are untrimmed and hand tied, and the silk passages catch the light as you walk past. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity that records the weave, materials and measurements exactly as they appear above.

Design and Motifs

Mahi means fish, and the name comes from the Herati unit that fills the field: a small rosette inside a diamond, flanked by 4 curved leaves that read like fish circling a pond. Here that unit repeats across the entire ruby ground in tiny, perfectly regular rows, which is the hardest part of the design to weave because any drift in the count shows instantly across 11 feet. At the center sits an ivory scalloped medallion holding a dark, near black cartouche filled with its own miniature Herati lattice, finished top and bottom with lobed pendants and flanked by 2 small side cartouches. Large ivory spandrels close the 4 corners, each one carrying a fine tracery of vines and rosettes, and the main ivory border runs a measured rhythm of salmon and olive palmettes joined by slender arabesque stems, framed by narrow guard bands of reciprocal florets.

A Ruby Red Field Framed in Ivory and Olive

The field is a deep ruby red that shifts toward wine where the light falls across the pile and toward brown at the far end of the rug, a natural abrash that gives the surface depth rather than a flat printed look. Read up close, that red is actually a mosaic: cream and ivory florets, olive and moss green leaves, soft sky blue dots, gold ochre and small charcoal outlines, all worked at miniature scale so the field reads as one warm color from standing height. The medallion and spandrels are a creamy ivory with a faint peach cast, and the main border lifts the palette with coral and salmon rosettes, pale celadon, rose pink and brown vine work. A solid ruby red outer band and ivory cotton fringe close both ends. It is a warm, traditional color story that sits comfortably with cherry and walnut furniture, cream upholstery and dark wood floors.

Woven in India to the Tabriz Mahi Standard

India is where most of the world's good contemporary hand-knotted work is now made, and we say that with confidence: the best Indian workshops buy fine wool, blend in silk for the highlights, and hold their weavers to the same drawing discipline that made the Mahi layout famous in the first place. A Mahi field is the real test of a workshop, because the pattern is small, repetitive and unforgiving, and this one holds its rows straight from selvage to selvage. Turn the corner over and the back shows a fine, even knot face with the design fully legible, the mark of a controlled loom and careful finishing. Brand new and never walked on, it is ready for decades of daily use in a living room, dining room or study.