What is the oldest Persian carpet?

The Pazyryk carpet, woven in the 5th century BCE and preserved by permafrost in a Scythian burial in the Altai Mountains. It is now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg.

How is knot density measured?

In knots per square inch (KPSI). City workshops range from 200–700 KPSI; the finest Qom silks exceed 1,000 KPSI. Tribal Gabbehs are intentionally coarse at 30–80 KPSI.

What's the difference between Persian and Turkish knots?

The Persian (Senneh) knot is asymmetric and wraps around a single warp, allowing finer detail. The Turkish (Ghiordes) knot is symmetric and wraps around two warps, producing a more durable but less detailed pile.

Why are Persian carpets so expensive?

A 3×4 m Isfahan at 500 KPSI contains roughly 6 million knots, each tied by hand. A weaver ties about 8,000 knots a day, meaning two weavers need roughly a year of full-time work before any dyeing, washing or finishing.

Decorative Arts

Persian Carpets

For 2,500 years the loom has been Iran's parallel literature — knotted poems of garden, paradise and pattern. From the Pazyryk carpet (5th c. BCE) to the Ardabil masterpiece, this is the world's most enduring textile tradition.

Image: Ardabil Carpet, V&A Museum — Wikimedia Commons

By the Numbers

A 2,500-year tradition in figures

2,500+

Years of weaving

5,300

Knots/in² (Tabriz fine)

26M

Knots in Ardabil carpet

$33.7M

Record auction (Sotheby's 2013)

The oldest surviving knotted-pile carpet — the Pazyryk, recovered from a Scythian tomb in the Altai mountains — was woven in the 5th century BCE in the Achaemenid orbit. Already it shows the central medallion and animal-procession border that remained canonical for two and a half millennia.

Anatomy

What is a Persian carpet?

A Persian carpet is a hand-knotted pile rug whose density is measured in knots per square inch (KPSI). Two knot types dominate. The asymmetric Senneh (Persian) knot allows higher detail and is used in fine city workshops; the symmetric Ghiordes (Turkish) knot is favoured by tribal weavers for its durability. Warps are usually cotton, weft cotton or wool, pile wool or silk. A fine Qom silk on silk can exceed 800 KPSI.

Knot density by school
School	Typical KPSI	Materials	Signature
Tabriz	200–500	Wool on cotton	Mahi (fish) field, Herati border
Kashan	200–400	Wool / silk on cotton	Central medallion, deep madder red
Isfahan	300–700	Kork wool & silk on silk	Shah Abbasi palmettes
Nain	300–600	Wool & silk on cotton	Ivory ground, blue & beige
Qom	400–1,000+	Silk on silk	Garden & tree-of-life designs
Kerman	120–300	Wool on cotton	Pictorial and vase carpets
Bijar	120–200	Wool, very compact	'Iron rug' — extreme durability
Heriz	60–120	Wool, geometric	Bold cruciform medallion
Gabbeh (Qashqai)	30–80	Hand-spun wool, tribal	Minimal, naive figures

Symbolism

Motif glossary

Boteh (بته)

Almond / cypress-bud motif — the origin of the European paisley. Symbol of life and eternity.

Herati

Diamond enclosing a rosette flanked by four curved 'fish' leaves. Border filler par excellence.

Gol Farang

'Frankish flower' — naturalistic rose cluster introduced from European textiles in the 18th c.

Shah Abbasi

Compound palmette named for Shah Abbas; the signature of Isfahan and Nain.

Tree of Life

Vertical cypress or rose bush — pre-Islamic Mesopotamian symbol of immortality.

Mihrab

Pointed arch of the prayer niche; defines a sajjadeh (prayer rug).

Hunting Scene

Royal Safavid theme — mounted archers and quarry in a paradise garden.

Toranj

Central medallion echoing a dome plan, often quartered in the corners as lachak.

Mina Khani

All-over lattice of four-petalled flowers — favoured by Veramin and Kurdish weavers.

Apex

The Ardabil Carpet

One of a pair commissioned for the shrine of Sheikh Safi al-Din at Ardabil, the carpet is signed by the slave Maqsud Kashani, dated 946 AH (1539–40 CE), and carries an inscription from Hafez:

"I have no refuge in the world other than thy threshold, my head has no resting-place but this doorway."
— Inscription, Ardabil Carpet

William Morris campaigned for the V&A to buy it in 1893; he called it "of singular perfection… logically and consistently beautiful." The companion carpet, badly worn, was sold and survives in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Buying

How to read a Persian carpet

FAQ

Persian carpet FAQ

Sources & Further Reading

References

All imagery is sourced from Wikimedia Commons, public-domain museum collections (British Museum, Louvre, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Museum of Iran), or UNESCO World Heritage records. No AI-generated images are used. Scholarly text is synthesized from Encyclopædia Iranica, the Cambridge History of Iran, and peer-reviewed publications.

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