9'6" x 12'4" Persian Tabriz Rug | Sheikh Safi Medallion Design | Semi-Antique 1980s Navy Wool

A room-size Persian Tabriz rug from the 1980s, woven in the Sheikh Safi drawing that Tabriz workshops reserve for their more serious floor pieces. At 9'6" x 12'4" it covers a full seating group or a 10 seat dining table with the border still reading clearly around the furniture. The wool has the dry, slightly lustrous handle that good northwest Persian fleece develops with age, the 3/8" pile stands even from end to end, both ends keep their original ivory fringe, and the side cords are intact. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity stating origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The Sheikh Safi pattern descends from the great shrine rugs of Ardabil, and this weaver kept the essentials: a pointed ivory star medallion at center, ringed by lobed pendants and anchored by a small rosette core, with a hanging mosque lamp drawn at each end of the long axis. Around it the field runs as a true all-over floral design, layered with shield palmettes, serrated leaves, split arabesque vines and scattered blossoms that mirror across both axes without ever turning mechanical. Ivory spandrels fill the 4 corners with dense vinework. The main border carries alternating red cartouches and lobed medallions on a navy ground, framed inside and out by a yellow-gold guard stripe of running wave meander and a thin green minor stripe, a Tabriz finishing habit that gives the outer edge its brightness.

Color Palette

The ground is a deep indigo navy that photographs almost black at the borders and opens into a clearer blue under direct light, making this an easy piece for anyone shopping navy blue Persian rugs. Against it the medallion reads ivory warming to soft gold and antique camel, outlined in a clear rose red. The floral work supplies the rest: coral and salmon vine tracery, rose pink blossom centers, brick red and raspberry in the border cartouches, and a quiet run of greens from bottle and teal through pale celadon inside the lozenge motifs. Small hits of saffron yellow and cream appear throughout the field and along the guard stripes. The result is a dark, formal rug with far more color in it than a photograph from across the room suggests, which is why the close detail shots matter here.

Tabriz Weaving and Quality

Tabriz sits in northwest Persia and has been the country's most organized weaving center for centuries, the place where master designers put curved line and precise repeat drawing on paper before a single knot is tied. Tabriz weavers work on a cotton foundation with the hook-shaped knife, and they grade their own fineness by the Raj system, knots counted across the width. This piece is a solid workshop floor weave rather than a fine 60 Raj gallery rug: the knotting is tight enough to hold the small lamp pendants and arabesque tips cleanly, while the cotton warp and weft and the sturdy 3/8" wool pile are built for a room that gets used daily. Forty years on the knots are still firm and the drawing still crisp, which is the practical case for a semi-antique Tabriz over anything new in the same size.