The colours used in Yalameh Persian carpets are very limited and don’t exceed more than 10 shades. Deep and light reds, cedilla blues, yellow and gold, are the colours found in most Yalameh carpets.
Wool is used in the warp and weft of these rugs as well as the pile.
Until recent days most Yalameh rugs were woven on horizontal looms, but these days you see many upright looms in Yalameh homes as these take up less space in the room.

Knot count in Yalameh rugs is between 25-35 Raj (Raj: knot counts in a row of 7.5 cm) and the finest pieces are woven in a village called Aliabad. The distinctive motifs and colours used in Yalameh carpets make them easy to distinguish.

These rugs are sold at the most affordable prices possible and they can transform your room to a beautiful and warm living environment.

Check our website for more pictures and info.

Antique Yazd, 300x200cm, Circa 1900.

The city of Yazd has a long history of fine textile weaving, in particular hand-loom silk fabrics. Due to the arrival of machine-made fabrics, weavers in Yazd started to learn and practice carpet weaving instead.  The use of fine weave, soft wool and designs in Yazd’s Persian carpets is very similar to Kerman carpets. Kerman is the closest large city to Yazd and most famous for its fine Persian carpets. Similar to Kerman rugs, the warps and wefts are cotton in Yazd carpet productions.

In the early years of production (late 19th Century), designs were inspired by Kerman and Kashan carpets (another famous town in central Persia with long history of fine Persian carpet production). However, after the Second World War and the increased demand for Persian carpets in Europe and United States, Yazd weavers with the help of Kermani merchants developed new designs to build a new market for their own goods. Nevertheless even after this transition, Yazd Persian carpets were still inspired by Kerman motifs with better colours, finer weave and increased pile density. Persian rug designers and weavers in Kerman were enticed by higher wages by merchants in Yazd to move there to produce better quality rugs than their southern rival city of Kerman.

Yazd Persian carpets are mostly woven with wool imported from Kerman and occasionally seen with silk inter-touch. Carpets from Yazd are cottage industry weaves (use of home looms) and mostly in larger sizes

pictorial nomadic Balouch, Circa 1930

Pictorial Nomadic Balouch, circa 1930

The Balouch tribes, renowned for their carpets, are ancient.

They are referred to throughout early Persian literature.

In Cyrus katibehs (an engraved clay cylinder which is 3000 years

old) there is mention of the Balouch clans and their migration to the

north eastern part of Persia.

Balouch Prayer rug, Circa 1950

These people lived as nomads then, and still do in some areas.
They make and produce some of the finest, most beautiful and durable nomadic Persian rugs. Balouchi people today mostly live in Sistan and Balouchistan province as well as north and south of Khorrassan in Iran.

Balouch prayer rug, Circa 1950

There are also some Balouch nomads living near Kerman and Varamin. Many Balouchi women have a loom at home, and spend their free time weaving for enjoyment and self-expression. Most Balouchi Persian rugs are woven in a small size, some in prayer designs, and this group is also famous for producing saddle bags.

Persian Balouch Khorrassan, Circa 1930.

Persian Balouch, Khorassan, circa 1930
We have a vast selection of old and new Balouch Persian rugs available for sale. For more information visit our store at

The Majid Collection
219 Canterbury Rd
Canterbury , Vic 3126
Ph: 613-98307755

Small world-great asylum

small world- great asylum
His modern masterpiece, “small world- great asylum”, drew the attention of modern art appreciators and he soon becomes internationally famous. Ostad (Master) Rassam always encoded philosophical messages into his art, and critics were stunned by his ability.

Birds in Captivity

Birds In Captivity

“Morghane- Darband” (Birds In Captivity)  is one of his most famous pieces of political art -  it represents a cry for freedom in the restrictive country in which he lives.

Mysteries of Existence

Mysteries Of Existence

His masterpiece “Mysteries Of Existence” is one of my favourites. It is woven on a background of intertwined webs of animals and human motifs, with a man drinking wine lying over the wine drum with a large question mark over him. The traditional Eslimi (Islamic art) motif in the question mark is perhaps representing the deep questions of life.

A student weaving a hunting design rug using 40 different colours of wool and silk for  her work.
Lost Child, woven by a student using reflective thread and lit from behind.

Lost child

My sister, Azar, weaving her Lady and the Unicorn carpet

My Sister Azar Mirmohamadi, working on her carpet, The Lady and The Unicorn pattern.

Following Ostad Arabzadeh’s death in 1996 his sons and daughter are continuing his legacy, and today there are more than thirty women (one of them is my sister) at his workshop in Tehran, weaving their own creations and following in the Ostad’s footsteps.

Afshar nomads are related to Kurdish nomads who used to live near the border between the two provinces of Kurdistan and Eastern Azerbaijan, north western region of Persia.
During the war between the Ottoman and Safavi Empires (Turks & Persians) in the 15th century, many clans were forced to flee their homeland near the border and moved deep into safer provinces in Persia. Nomadic Afshar people were one of these tribes who made a mass migration deep into the south (Kerman province) and settled around the towns of Shahr-Babak, Sirjan and the village of Pardsir.

Persian carpets woven by Afshar nomads in this region use geometric designs and are easily recognisable as they are the only rugs in the region (Kerman) woven by nomads. Some of the Afshar rug designs are similar to their Qashqai nomadic counterparts.  Over the past five centuries, the influence of the neighbouring Fars province’s way of life and culture have transformed the designs of their rugs. Despite this influence, Afshar nomads were able to preserve some of their own Kurdish/Turkish culture which is noticeable in the way they weave and design motifs in their rugs.

Persian rugs woven in the villages of Marj and Paghaleh use pine tree designs (sometimes in mirror effect) and animal figures such as stylised peacocks, dogs and goats. Most animals are coloured in red, blue, green and black. However when a weaver puts a black goat in the design, it is usually in memory of a lost person in the family.

Some of the finer Afshar carpets from Share-babak, have repeated hexagonal panels with stylised trees in the middle of panels and in between. Moreover Peacocks or bird symbols that are seen on the trees, represent Tree of Life design.

The majority of Afshar population settled in the city of Sirjan and almost every house in the city has one or two looms actively making bold and strong coloured rugs with thick weft and thus stiffer body. There is no workshop production from Sirjan nor any village or town in which Afshar people live, therefore there is vast and interesting design. Rugs are produced by this tribe for centuries and some of them are highly recommended by dealers arrond the world as potential collector’s items.

Qashqai rug, tree of life design( Majid's collection)

There is a measure of anxiety, in this era of globalization that traditional cultures, like the nomadic groups of Iran, are endangered, and will soon be ‘lost’. This anxiety, though understandable, fails to recognise how vibrant and adaptable such cultures are. When I visited the nomads of Iran, I saw that these people had adapted their traditional lifestyles to fit the demands and conditions of contemporary urban society. Animals had in some cases been replaced by trucks, woven saddle bags had given way to sewn together pieces of fabric, crops were being cultivated in rented plots, and children were attending schools in towns and cities. At the same time, these innovations were often carried out in tandem with traditional cultural expression of the nomads – the daily walk with the herd to higher land, the spinning of wool and weaving of kilims and carpets, the long peaceful afternoons spent in the tent, spinning wool, chatting and smoking.

Here are some of the stories of the Ashayer (nomads), the nomadic people of Iran:

Miri Qashqai, collectable piece

Post-settlement Nomadic Rug Production in Iran
For the past few decades, nomads have had less access to natural plants from which to make vegetable dyes, so merchants have tended to buy natural dyes from the market to give to nomads who have settled in houses in the villages so that they can weave specifically ordered carpets. Nomadic women now weave as contractors, and their products are for sale rather than for their own use. They still carry their own traditional designs, though these are sometimes varied according to merchants’ specifications. Merchants like Zolanvari asked the nomads to create landscape designs featuring animal figures, which were woven with vibrantly coloured vegetable dyed wool to achieve a bold and modern effect. These rugs became known as Gabbeh rugs, and quickly became very popular in the western market. In pre-settlement nomadic cultures, Gabbeh rugs were entirely functional, being produced for use as mattresses. They were made with uncoloured wool and they had very coarse knots, unshaved pile, and minimal designs. Today those rugs are made predominantly for use in western homes as decorative works of art and floor coverings.

The role of the merchants in retaining the traditional method of dyeing has been very helpful for the Iranian carpet industry. It has compelled other weaving countries to adopt the same method, and has resulted in the continued production of carpets of tribal and traditional designs, made with natural dyes and hand-spun wool.

Qashqai tent

1. Sadat Khanoom
The woman who I will call ‘Sadat khanoom’ (which means a woman deserving of great respect) is a refugee from Afghanistan who has made a life for herself and her family amongst the Turkish-speaking Qashqai people near Shiraz. She wears less traditional clothing than the Qashqai women around her, and the method she uses for spinning wool differs slightly from theirs. Her spinning ball is more spherical, and she doesn’t have a stick protruding from it. In Sadat khanoom, Afghani culture and textile techniques negotiate with Persian nomadic surroundings.  This combination of tradition and adaptation was something I encountered again and again in my time with the nomads.

Nomadic women spining wool

2. Children
The twelve-year-old boy, Shahin, leans on his bike, holding a stick on his back. His job is to care for the livestock as they roam the area looking for pasture. He goes with them to higher ground in the morning and brings them back before nightfall. It is a responsibility he shoulders easily, with maturity beyond his years, though this is tempered by a child’s readiness to laugh. He already has developed a sense of gender roles in the nomadic lifestyle – when I asked him if he was involved with carpet making he dismissed the suggestion with the answer that such work was women’s work, and was the domain of his sister. He told me of the effect of the drought on his daily routine; mentioning that the livestock must make increasingly lengthy journeys up the mountain to find green fodder.
3. Washing Dishes
The Children of the Ghermezi family of the Qashqai tribe are on their way to the nearest Cheshmeh (stream) to wash dishes, which are left dirty from the funeral ceremony of a family member. Now, cars are used for journeying, as the traditional means of horses and camels have given way to this more convenient mode of transport. For these children, the idea of traveling with horses and camels has become the stuff of stories from the past. This group stays fifty kilometers outside of Shiraz for their Ye-laagh ( summer camp).  Hussein (the boy holding grapes) offered me his share of fruit while he was on the back of the Ute waiting for his uncle to drive him and others to the stream.

Fatimeh and her sister weaving in a summer camp

4. Fatimeh’s kilim
Under the shade of the trees next to the tent, Fatimeh and her younger sister are weaving a colorful kilim. There are only two months left of their summer camp, and they are trying to finish it so they can take it down from the loom before the migration to warmer areas for the winter. Fatimeh has spun and dyed the wool, which was gathered from the spring shearing. She told me that now most dyes are purchased from the bazaar, because of lack of availability of natural dyes from the fields. Madder and Jasheer (a fennel-like plant) are rarely seen in the mountains these days. Fatimeh is creating the design as she weaves it, and her younger sister is sitting on the other side of the loom mirroring her sister’s work.
5. Market gardening
Driving on the edge of a dried lake, we approached a group of black tents and saw a group of Khamseh nomads (Arabic speaking nomads in Fars) farming for their winter needs on rented land. Sunflowers are in full bloom at the edge of the farm, and green beans to be sent to market, are being picked by members of the Khamseh family. The money raised from them will fund the winter migration. Here, non-traditional modes of production, such as the cultivation of crops, are being incorporated into the nomadic lifestyle. This is another example of the adaptability and flexibility of these cultures. The women seemed to relish being photographed, while the men were less pleased by our presence.
6. Yasaman
Nine-year-old Yasaman came to live in the city when she was two years old. She does not remember anything from those days before they settled but she has always been told stories about it. Her father now works at building sites and her mother weaves carpets in their front yard.  Yasaman spends some time each day during the summer vacation learning weaving from her grandmother, and she loves visiting relatives who still live in tents in the mountains. Yet she also enjoys being in the city and going to school. Her sister Maryam who is thirteen loves weaving carpets and wants to weave her own design one day. Maryam remembers her nomadic life more clearly than does Yasaman, and claims she would have been happy in either way of life. Maman bozorg (their grand mother) is unhappy in the city and worries about the young boys who are torn between two lifestyles; she is anxious about them getting involved in drugs and crime. She is happy that the girls are staying at home and weaving carpets in their leisure time. The women seem to maintain links with their nomadic lifestyle even in the city, through their clothing and carpet weaving, but the boys have no connection with nomadic lifestyles while they live in the city.
7. Spinning Wool
Spinning wool is an afternoon activity for the nomadic women. Almost every woman is sitting in the black tent, leaning against their bedding bags and chatting away with other women while they all are spinning wool. Smoking Gheiloon (hubble bubble) also happens in the relaxed afternoon atmosphere.
8- Saddlebags
The girls carrying goods to the tent on donkeys are wearing Western style clothes and hats, which have replaced their colorful traditional dress, and instead of hand-made khorjeens (saddle-bags) they have sewn up fabrics to use as saddlebags for horses. They live in Shiraz during the school term and only come to the tents for the summer. For them sewing up fabric takes far less time than weaving a khorjeen, which can take months to complete. ‘We have no time to make one, this bag does the same job anyway’ one told me.

I found a beautiful documentary on Qashqai tribe done by David Attenborough from 1975 and I thought I could share it. to view go to:

http://indigodye.blogspot.com/2008/08/tribal-eye-woven-gardens.html

Majid Mirmohamadi September 2005

This rug is measured 133 x 41 meters ( 5,453 square meters or 60,468 square feet) larger than a football pitch and it was made on nine different looms in nine-piece sections and joined together after delivery.
There are over thousand stylised flowers woven in the field of this Persian rug with many other motifs surrounding them in 25 different colours as can be seen in the picture.
The motifs in this Persian rug are designed to reflect the sculptured work in the ceiling of the mosque, giving it a colourful reflection of life under the prayer’s feet.

Four shades of green, five blues, four reds, six shades of cream and six other colours are combined to create this beautiful and vibrant enormous Persian rug masterpiece.

The design of the rug took over six months to research in order to make sure that the colours are in harmony with its surrounding whilst keeping with the traditional Persian rug design.

This carpet was woven in nine different workshops using ten master weavers in each workshop in the city of Neishabour in the province of Khorasan (north east of Iran).

As with most Persian rugs, the pile is 100% wool woven on cotton warp and weft. The wool was of the finest quality and sourced from province of Kerman and New Zealand. There is no accurate information about how long it took to produce this rug. However we can estimate that at a rate of three hundred square meters per year per section using over one hundred weavers, it would take two years using about one thousand weavers to weave this rug.
Majid Mirmohamad

Very fine Drokhsh (c.1900 ) 528x364 cm, 600,000 knots per SQ/Metre

Iran’s most famous Persian Carpet Museum is situated in the Middle of Tehran city next to the Laleh Hotel ( formerly the Intercontinental).

Built in 1974, this museum exhibits most rare and beautiful examples of 17th to early 20th Century antique carpets which HAVE been collected since 1970 by the museum.
In the foyer of this museum there are 7 extra large carpets hanging, each a beautiful example of their specific type.

Foyer of Tehran carpet museum

On entering the foyer, you immediately experience a peaceful environment with the sound of fountains in the middle pond.
Inside, there are rugs hanging under low lit spot lights, AND large carpets lying flat on dark floors with spotlights highlighting their beautiful motifs.
There are many urban weave master pieces of the early 20th Century as well as my beloved

17th Century Tabriz rug - Garden design

19th Century tribal and naive carpets.
The rich colours of these rugs still look bright and beautiful even in the iPhone shots I took of them in the poorly lit surrounds.

There were two 17th Century rugs on display during this visit. A Tabriz Garden design carpet in which the panels of trees and stylized flowers are divided by irrigating water channels. Intricate ripples in the water are cleverly designed by repeated arches in black and white.

 
It seems to me that the artist may have had a roof top view of a large rectangular garden while drawing the pattern and the beauty of it is that the pattern was drawn on plain paper and it is rather naive and full of mistakes. Repeated stylised shrubs in the border lines have also been seen in some other nomadic pieces.
In the design you can see: a 6 branch shrub with a head of A bird on each branch, a nomadic version of a tree of life motif. Simple art but yet artistic in presentation. The design shows wide water channels running in to a central pond with a large flower in the middle. I presume this large flower represents the fountain.
The rug SHOWS a walkway along one side which is lined with pine trees and flower bushes. It seems that the artist was capturing a palace’s garden. Beautiful madder red and various natural dye blues and greens complete the beauty of this carpet.

17th Century Isfahan rug

The second 17th Century carpet at this Exhibition is a Royal Isfahan Gallery rug with all over stylized Shah-abassi guls (flowers) . THE naturally oxidized charcoal GREY field and beautiful madder orange border GIVE this over 350 year old piece a glow. At the same time it is a very peaceful piece to admire.
This rug is one of 7 Isfehan pieces that were part of the Royal Collection. They were woven in the Royal workshops in Isfehan between 1630-1670. This piece and six other Isfehan pieces (which are in the storage of the museum) were taken from Shahabbass palaces in Isfehan to be maintained and exhibited in this museum.

There are also a few 19th Century silk rugs from Kashan and Tabriz with

highlight of an Early 20th Century Bidjar

different forms of Mehrab and tree of life designs.
Also on display I saw some of the best examples of late 19th and early 20th Century very fine wool pile Kerman master weaves with busy and yet beautiful floral motifs.

There are also many beautiful 19th Century prayer rugs from north western Persia and

tribal pieces from Kurdistan and the Sarouk region .

The display is changed every 3 months, and I look forward to coming again to see another collection. Museum opening hours are 10 am – 5 pm Saturday to Thursday.
You are permitted to photograph the carpets as long as you do not use a flash.

Majid Mirmohamadi 27.04.2011