8'5" x 12'4" Persian Mahal Rug | Allover Herati Field with Ivory Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is a full room size Persian Mahal, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and measuring 8'5" x 12'4". The field is a deep navy blue carrying an unbroken Herati lattice, anchored by a single ivory starburst medallion and finished with a wide tomato red main border. The pile stands at a full 3/8", even from end to end, with no low spots, no repair and clean original selvages, which is why it grades in excellent condition. It sits comfortably in the size bracket most buyers are shopping when they look at large Persian rugs for a main living space. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The field is drawn as a continuous Herati repeat, also called the mahi or fish pattern: a diamond lattice with a rosette at each center, flanked by the curved lanceolate leaves that give the motif its fish name. Between the diamonds sit small stepped cartouches and hooked palmettes, so the surface never reads as a flat grid. At the center a 12 point ivory medallion opens out of the lattice, filled with a red eight petal rosette and radiating sprays of rose, teal and sand colored blossoms. The 4 corners carry matching ivory spandrels with the same flowering sprays, a quiet way of balancing the composition without interrupting the allover repeat. The main border runs a turtle palmette and vine meander on red, framed by reciprocal flower head guard stripes and a narrow outer navy band. The drawing follows the classic Tabriz Herati formula, executed with the slightly bolder, more generous scale that village looms in the Mahal district are known for.

Colors in Detail

The ground is a saturated indigo navy, dark enough to read almost black in low light and clearly blue under daylight, which places it squarely among navy and blue Persian rugs. Against it the Herati rosettes alternate between brick red, soft salmon, rose pink, gold and a cool sea green, so the field shifts in tone as you walk around it. The medallion and spandrels are a warm undyed ivory with a faint cream cast, giving the eye a place to rest. The main border is a bright tomato red, lighter and warmer than the reds inside the field, outlined in ivory guard stripes dotted with navy and red flower heads. Turquoise is the accent that lifts the whole palette: it appears in leaf tips, in border rosette centers and in a thin line along the inner guard stripe. The wool takes light well, so the reds and salmons show a gentle sheen where the pile lies with the nap.

Mahal Weaving and Origin

Mahal rugs come from the villages of the Arak district in west central Persia, the same weaving belt that produced the Sultanabad carpets sent west in the late 19th century. The looms there were set up for room size and oversize work from the beginning, which is why Mahals turn up so often in true 8x12 and larger formats rather than small scatter sizes. The weave here is a symmetric knot on a cotton warp and weft, firm and heavy in the hand, with the thick 3/8" wool pile that makes these rugs famously durable under furniture and foot traffic. The wool is local, high in lanolin, and holds its dye and its luster for generations. What distinguishes this piece within the Mahal group is the discipline of the drawing: the Herati repeat stays in register across almost 12 feet of field, and the medallion is centered cleanly, which is the mark of a weaver working to a well prepared cartoon rather than from memory.