9' x 12' Indian Rug | Mahi Tabriz Fish Design | Black Field, Wool and Silk Pile

This is a new hand-knotted room size piece drawn in the Mahi, or fish, tradition: a black field filled edge to edge with tiny diamond lattice rosettes, a layered ivory and gray medallion floating in the center, and a deep black main border of palmettes and scrolling vine. The pile mixes fine wool with silk, which is why the blush, ivory and olive tones read soft and slightly reflective against the dark ground instead of flat. At 9' x 12' it is the workhorse of formal seating plans, large enough to carry a sofa and two chairs fully on the rug, and it sits squarely in the most requested of all 9x12 area rugs. It has never been used, shows no wear anywhere on the pile or the selvages, and ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The field is pure herati: a repeating diamond lattice, a rosette at each center, and 4 curved leaves turned outward at the corners of every diamond, the shapes that give the pattern its fish name. That lattice runs uninterrupted from border to border, passing straight through the medallion and the spandrels so that only the color changes, never the drawing. The medallion is built in 3 layers, a small gray inner cartouche inside an ivory oval inside a wider scalloped surround outlined in rust and black, with a slim pendant finial at top and bottom. The 4 corner spandrels answer it in ivory and pale gray with the same lattice inside. The main border carries alternating palmettes and cupped lotus blossoms on a black ground, flanked by an olive minor border of paired buds and a set of narrow ivory and rust guard stripes that keep the whole frame crisp.

A Black Ground Lit by Blush, Ivory and Olive

Black is the anchor here, and it is a true dense black rather than a very dark navy. Against it the lattice is picked out in a soft blush that carries a rust cast under warm light, with rosettes in cream, ivory and pale gray, and small hits of deep burgundy and buttery yellow scattered through the repeat to keep the field from going monotone. The medallion shifts the balance the other way, ivory and light gray taking the lead with olive and rose detail, so the center reads bright from across the room. Olive green appears again in the minor border, the one cool note that stops the palette from turning too warm. The silk in the blend catches the light along the lattice lines, so the field looks lighter when you walk toward the fringe end and deeper when you look back across the pile. Cotton fringe at both ends and clean black selvages finish it.

Made in India, Woven to the Mahi Tradition

This rug was hand-knotted in India, which is where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted work is now made, and the weavers there have taken the Mahi Tabriz drawing and executed it at a level that used to be rare outside the original workshop towns. The proof is in the small details: the lattice never drifts out of register across 12 feet of length, the curved outline of the medallion stays smooth rather than stepped, and the guard stripes hold an even width along the full perimeter. That kind of control only happens on a tight cotton foundation with a short, evenly clipped pile, both of which you can see in the fold and back photos. If you are weighing this against a workshop piece from Persia, the design vocabulary is the same and the difference is explained well in our guide to what actually separates a Persian rug from an Oriental rug. Either way, the wool and silk blend means this one will hold its sheen and its detail for decades of everyday use.