Shiraz Rugs

Shiraz is a market rather than a workshop. The rugs sold under its name were woven by the Qashqai, the Khamseh and the villages of Fars, and brought into the city to be traded, which is why Shiraz covers a family of related tribal designs rather than one house style.

What they share is a look: a field of one or several stepped diamond medallions, a ground of madder red or deep indigo, ivory used for outlines, and small geometric fill motifs scattered without much concern for symmetry. Borders are often several narrow bands rather than one wide one. Selvages are commonly wrapped in alternating colours, and the ends frequently finish in a flat-woven kilim strip.

These are coarser rugs than the city weavings, and that is the appeal. The knot is visible, the wool is lustrous and a little irregular, the drawing is confident rather than exact, and the whole thing looks made by a person instead of by a workshop. They are also the most affordable route into genuinely old tribal Persian weaving.