Tabriz

An exceptional, all-over Afghan Tabriz rug, knotted by hand with hand-carded, hand-spun, vegetable-dyed wool, woven by master weavers in northern Afghanistan. Extremely fine weave: 196 knots per square inch.

Inspired by the distinguished 16th and 17th century Safavid carpet-weaving tradition of Tabriz in northwestern Persia, where weavers created highly refined compositions of palmettes, scrolling vines, leaves and arabesques. As the first capital of the Safavid dynasty, Tabriz became a major artistic center, where the refined designs of the royal manuscript arts strongly influenced carpet design. Today, master women weavers in northern Afghanistan carry this historic design forward through cultural survival weaving projects that preserve traditional skills, natural dyeing practices and the living heritage of hand-knotted carpet weaving.