Persian Rugs the O'Connell Notes

Persian Rugs: Guide to the Rugs of the Hamadan Region and Related Areas

Looking for Quality Persian Rugs and Carpets?

Over the years I have come to know many of the carpet dealers in the world and I recommend many of them in my Trusted Resource List.

For Good New Persian Rugs at very good prices see my friends at www.RugMan.com.
Best wishes,
Barry O'Connell

Persian Rugs: Guide to the Rugs of the Hamadan Region and Related Areas

The rugs of the Hamadan Region are only now being recognised for their rightful place in the pantheon of Persian rugs. They tend to be commercial but at the same time less driven by western design influences that many areas of Iran.

When it comes to Hamadan it is more like a country than a region. Trying to deal with Hamadan rugs as a whole is very similar to dealing with Turkish rugs and certainly more complex than the rugs of Afghanistan. Leslie Stroh of Rug News once told me that there were 1500 distinct rug weaving villages in Hamadan each of which produced at least two styles of rug. One of the reasons for the variety is the history of the people of the region. When Hamadan history comes up everyone seems to want to start back in the days of Ectabana and Queen Esther (Hadassah) and her uncle Mordechai. I want to start a little more recently. In the 1720s (1138 AH) Nadir Shah pushed the Turks out of the Hamadan region. With the Persian victory many of the Sunni tribes and villagers retreated to Turkish controlled lands.

Guide To Borchelu Rugs and Carpets

Originally the Borcalu were part of the Mongol Horde. They settled in the area where present day Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan come together in the 13th century. Later in the face of the Czarist Russian expansion into what is today the Republic of Georgia they migrated to the Hamadan area.

Enjelas Rugs Guide

Enjilas RugsGuide

I have come to suspect that the Ingilois of the Sultanate of Ilisu in Chartalah (Chechnya) migrated to the Hamadan area in the mid eighteenth century.

Kabutar Ahangh Rugs Guide

Khamseh Rugs Guide

Guide To Kolyai/Sonqur Rugs

Guide To Lylyan Rugs

Guide To Maslaghan Rugs

Guide to Mazlaghan Rugs

Guide to Mehriban Rugs

Guide to Nahavend Rugs

Guide To Nehavend Rugs

Guide To Tafresh Rugs

Guide to Touserkan Rugs

Guide To Zanjan Rugs

Karagos Long Rug Hamadan Province ca. 1890

Hamadan Rug Camel Skirt Hamadan Province early 20th C Lot 235

Antique Everu Rug

Tehran: 19:47 , 2006/12/11

Women account for 90% of Hamedan Province’s rug weavers
TEHRAN, Dec. 11 (MNA) – Women account for 95 percent of the 70,000 traditional rug weavers working in Iran’s northwestern province of Hamedan, an expert said.
In addition to 10 major rug weaving complexes in Hamedan Province, there are around 30,000 in-house workshops currently operational in the region, the Persian service of ILNA news agency quoted Mahmud Khazandi as saying on Monday.

Also, about 14,000 people of the region are working in the rug and carpet weaving related sectors including, dyeing, wool spinning, darning and rugs and carpet washing, he explained commenting on the situation of the industry in the region.

Unfortunately, the herbal dyes traditionally used in the industry have given way to chemical dyes he complained adding that currently only two workshops employ vegetable dyes. The use of the natural plant dyes in the production of the Persian rugs enhance their durability, restore their dazzling shine and peculiar color, he said. The plant dyes increase the quality and as a result the prices of the product sometimes by up to 25 percent, he explained

Low labor wages, unfavorable work conditions, long working hours are among the major problems threatening the quality and quantity of the Persian carpet as a whole and the rug weaving industry in Hamedan region in particular, he maintained.
seen on www.mehrnews.ir

Similar Rugs

The distinctive identifying feature to these rugs is that they are single wefted. Hamadan rugs and Malayer Rugs also use a single weft but they all use symmetrical knots. So if it looks like a Persian rug and uses a single weft then think Hamadan or Borchelu. Then use the knot type to tell you which it is.