Things you should know about Persian rugs

Persian rugs are rugs that are made in Iran. Some other countries including Turkey, India, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan produce hand made rugs. They are not Persian rugs, although some producers and dealers like to call them Persian rugs to sell them for a higher price.  They also might have a good quality and might be beautiful but they are NOT Persian rugs.  Persian rugs are made in Persia and Persia was the English name for Iran till 21 March 1935 (If I remember the dates correctly).

Persian rugs come in many different styles which are named after the city they are made.

Persian rugs can be classified in two category: city rugs or nomadic rugs. City rugs are often finer (more knots  per area) and more expensive but not necessary.

Piles can be made of wool or kork (baby lamb wool :-)) or silk or a combination of those.

Foundations could be cotton or silk. For silk carpets foundation is always silk for kork carpets , however, foundation could be either silk or cotton.

Carpets made in city of Isfahan (which has the best Persian rugs) often have kork pile and silk foundations. So if they sell you an Isfahan rug which does not come with silk foundation, they are  cheating you.

Silk foundation makes the carpet to stand together much better (being stronger) but silk pile is not necessary a good thing. It is easier to get high knot density with silk. What makes some silk carpets (silk piles) expensive is the material not the art or skill of the weaver.

What makes a rug more expensive is:

1. Knot density
2. Quality of knots
3. Quality of foundation
4. The variety of colours used
5. Natural dye
6. Pattern and design
7. Material used (quality of wool, silk etc)
8. The style (which city has produced it)
9. The workshop has produced it (works like a brand)

So do not buy a carpet simply because it has high knot density. 

To compute knot density in Iran they often (not in all cities) count the number of knots in 7 cm (in a row not in an area). They call it Raj. But you can convert it to any other measure (like knots per square inch). 

For wool or kork rugs:

• Raj of 90 is museum quality
• Raj of 70-80 is excellent (very expensive)
• Raj of 60 is very good
• Raj of 50 is good
• Raj 30-40 is reasonable
• bellow 30 is very course (but might be beautiful). Only nomadic rugs might fall into this category but some nomadic rugs might be very fine. 

Silk rugs needs to be much more dense to be considered excellent as I said it is much easier to have high density with silk pile due to its fine nature. Silk carpets also could be slippery so do not buy them if you have elderly people! But they are very nice to hang on the wall.

• City of Qum produces best silk rugs in the world
• City of Isfahan produces best Kork (baby lamb wool) rugs in the world. They have silk foundation. They come in a massive variety of designs. Some workshops sell their products are sold up to 1 million dolors or more. I will write a seperate post on Isfahan rugs. They often have a knot density of 70-80 Raj. It is not a rule!
• City of Kashan has very nice wool rugs. They have some similar motifs to Isfahan rugs. They often have a knot density of 50-60 Raj. It is not a rule. 
• City of Naien produces nice wool or kork rugs. They are often priced at about 60% of an Isfahan rug. Habibian is the best. They come in many different qualities. The knot density might be something between 40 to 70 Raj. 
• City of Tabriz produces very nice and fine wool/kork/silk Persian rugs. They are very expensive (generally not as expensive as a Qum or Isfahan but it might be). The drawback of Tabriz rugs is that they often use Turkish knots which are not that robust as Persian rugs.  But many other factors are involved in robustness of a carpet. So it is not like it is end of the world for Tabriz rugs. They come in many different qualities but you can easily find many fine ones (even 70-80) .
• Yalameh rugs are one of the nicest nomadic rugs. They look gorgeous and have a knot density of about 40 usually (not always). 

Ok tired now. But first lesson finished.

PS:

Watch out for fake machine made rugs sold as hand made overseas. It is very easy to distinguish them. I tell you more about it later! Poor my friend bought a machine made chinese rug as a hand made Persian.