Hamadan - View Our Persian Hamadan Rug Collection

Hamadan is the capital city of the northwestern province of Hamadan in Iran. This city is more of a marketplace for rugs made in villages and towns in the vicinity than a rug production center. Sometimes the rugs are marketed under their village name, but often they are sold as Hamadans.

All-over Boteh

All-over Herati with Octagon Shape Field

All-over Herati

Although each village or group of villages has its own distinctive designs, they all have certain characteristics in common. The majority of Hamadan rugs have a geometric pattern. The most common designs consist of medallion-and-corner, and all-over boteh or herati. Diamond and hexagon medallions are common. Often the all-over herati designs have a narrow field in the shape of a large octagon creating corners. The areas near the village of Saruk, which is located in the neighboring province of Markazi, have the all-over floral spray design seen in American Saruks. Designs similar to Mashad and modern Kerman rugs are also woven in this area. The last three mentioned designs tend to be more curvilinear.

Hexagon Medallion & Corner

Floral Spray Design Similar to Saruk

Hamadan Similar to Kerman

The common background colors used in Hamadan rugs are red, blue, dark brown and camel. White, black, green, gold and ocher are used to create motifs and outlines.

Hamadan rugs come in a variety of sizes including runners; however, very large rugs are uncommon. Hamadan rugs are woven with the symmetrical (Turkish) knot on cotton foundation with the exception of some older rugs which have wool foundation. The pile is wool; sometimes camel hair is used in combination with wool. Hamadan rugs usually have long pile and their weave is very compact because they are single-wefted. Single-wefted refers to rugs that are constructed by passing one strand of weft through the warp strands after each row of knots as opposed to passing two or more weft strands. In such a construction, since there are fewer strands of weft used, there are more rows of knots, creating a more compact weave.

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