Persian Empire
Q & A 6 min read

How are Persian Carpets Made?

A single room-sized Persian carpet may contain several million knots and require the work of a skilled weaver for months or even years. The techniques are a product of more than two thousand years of accumulated skill, and the regional traditions of Tabriz, Isfahan, Kashan, Kerman, and Heris each have their own characteristic methods. The short answer: a vertical or horizontal loom, a cotton or silk warp and weft, a wool or silk pile tied in either Persian (asymmetrical) or Turkish (symmetrical) knots, and a design either memorised by the master weaver or transferred from a full-scale cartoon. The cluster on Persian carpets and rugs gives the historical and regional context; the long-tail here is the workshop.

The design

The weaving of a Persian carpet begins with the design, which is transferred to a cartoon (a full-scale drawing) that is used as a guide by the weaver. In the traditional village and tribal workshops, the design is often in the mind of the master weaver, who works from memory and improvisation. In the urban workshops, particularly those of Isfahan and Tabriz, the design is typically a formalised pattern from a large library of historical models, and the cartoon is carefully prepared and scaled to the size of the carpet. The cartoon is hung behind the loom, and the weaver works from the cartoon by counting the knots against the design.

The design of a Persian carpet traditionally consists of a field (the main central area), a border (or series of borders framing the field), and a corner (a quarter of the border design placed in each corner of the field). Within these principal elements, the carpet is divided into a hierarchy of motifs: a central medallion, pendant motifs, an all-over design, a prayer-niche (mihrab) design, or a pictorial design. The Persian vocabulary of motifs is extremely rich and includes geometric shapes, floral arabesques, animal figures, hunting scenes, garden imagery, and calligraphy.

The loom

The Persian carpet loom is a simple but effective device. The two principal types are the vertical loom, in which the warp threads are stretched between two horizontal beams, with the weaver sitting on a board in front of the warp, and the horizontal loom, in which the warp is stretched between two beams laid on the ground, with the weaver squatting above the warp. The vertical loom is used in the city workshops of Tabriz, Isfahan, Kashan, and Kerman, while the horizontal loom is typical of the village and tribal weavers of the Caucasus, the Zagros, and Baluchistan.

The loom is prepared by stretching the warp threads, the longitudinal threads that form the foundation of the carpet. The warp is typically of cotton, although silk and wool are also used. The weft threads, the transverse threads that are woven between the rows of knots, are inserted after each row of knots is tied. The weft threads, like the warp, are typically of cotton, although silk and wool are also used.

The knot

The knot is the central operation of carpet weaving. The weaver ties a small piece of yarn, the pile, around two adjacent warp threads and cuts it with a knife to form a tuft. The knot is then packed down with a comb to make the pile dense and even, and the process is repeated across the warp. When a complete row of knots has been tied, the weaver inserts one or two weft threads, packs them down with the comb, and begins the next row.

There are two principal types of knot used in Persian carpet weaving. The Persian (asymmetrical, or Senneh) knot is tied by passing the yarn around one warp thread and under the next, with the yarn passing diagonally across the warp. The Turkish (symmetrical, or Ghiordes) knot is tied by wrapping the yarn symmetrically around two adjacent warp threads. The Persian knot is the more common of the two and produces a finer, more detailed pile. The Turkish knot is faster to tie but produces a coarser pile. The Pazyryk carpet, the oldest surviving pile carpet, uses the Turkish knot.

A third technique, the jufti knot, is faster but less durable. In the jufti knot, the yarn is wrapped around four warp threads rather than two, producing a coarser and less detailed pile. The jufti knot is typically used in cheaper carpets and in the coarser areas of more elaborate pieces.

The density of knots, the raj, is a measure of the fineness of the carpet. A coarse village carpet may have 50–100 knots per square inch, a medium carpet 200–300, and a fine court carpet 500 or more. The Ardabil Carpet, the most famous of all Safavid carpets, has a knot density of about 300–530 knots per square inch in different areas of the field.

The materials

The principal materials of Persian carpet weaving are wool, silk, and cotton. Wool is the most common pile material, particularly in the village and tribal carpets, where it is shorn from the local sheep. The wool is typically of a high quality, with a long staple and a natural lanolin content that gives the carpet its characteristic sheen. Silk is used in the finest court carpets, where its natural lustre and ability to take fine detail make it the preferred material. Silk carpets are typically more expensive than wool, and they are usually reserved for special occasions.

The warp and weft of the carpet are typically of cotton, which is strong and stable, although silk is used in the most expensive court carpets. The foundation of the carpet, the warp and weft together, is critical to the durability of the piece, and a well-woven carpet is one in which the foundation is dense, even, and free of knots and tangles.

The dyes

The colours of a traditional Persian carpet are obtained from natural dyes, primarily of vegetable and mineral origin. The principal dye materials include:

  • Indigo (from the Indigofera tinctoria plant) for blue, ranging from a pale sky blue to a deep navy.
  • Madder (from the Rubia tinctorum root) for red, ranging from a soft rose to a deep crimson.
  • Weld (from the Reseda luteola plant) for yellow, ranging from a pale lemon to a deep gold.
  • Pomegranate rind for a soft yellow, often used in conjunction with madder.
  • Walnut hulls for brown, ranging from a pale tan to a deep chocolate.
  • Oak galls for black, often used in conjunction with iron mordants.
  • Cochineal (from the dried bodies of the Dactylopius coccus insect) for a brilliant scarlet, used in some Persian carpets.
  • Saffron for a pale gold-yellow, used in the finest court carpets.

The dyes are prepared by boiling the dye material in water, often with a mordant, a chemical that fixes the dye to the fibre. The principal mordants are alum (for bright colours), iron (for darker colours), and tannin (for browns and blacks). The dyer, the rang-resan, is a master craftsperson in his own right, and the quality of the dye work is one of the principal determinants of the value of a Persian carpet.

In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the development of synthetic dyes, in particular aniline dyes, transformed the carpet industry. Synthetic dyes are cheaper, more consistent, and faster to use than natural dyes, but they produce colours that are, to the trained eye, less subtle and less durable than natural dyes. The use of natural dyes is now a mark of quality, and many of the best contemporary Persian carpets are dyed with traditional materials.

The finishing

After the weaving is complete, the carpet is finished in a series of operations. The selvage, the edge of the carpet that runs parallel to the warp, is bound with a special thread to prevent fraying. The kilim ends, the unwoven warp threads at each end of the carpet, are knotted together to form the fringe. The pile is sheared to an even height with a large pair of scissors or a special knife, and the carpet is washed and dried in the sun. The final operations, the polishing and stretching, give the carpet its final appearance and prepare it for the market.