Style: Gabbeh Rugs, Persian Gabbeh Rugs

Gabbeh Rugs, Persian Gabbeh Rugs (also known as Gaba, Gabeh, or Khersak) rugs are made in the northwest region of Iran in the Zagros Mountain area. The term Gabbeh means coarse, and the rugs woven can be imperfect or irregular in their designs because they are woven on a smaller, portable, horizontal handloom that was until recently mostly made for domestic use and only recently for the market.

Some Gabbeh rugs are made to serve as sleeping rugs, so they are quite thick in-depth, up to one inch. Others have a pile on both sides, and they are used as blankets. Gabbeh rugs are regarded as tribal rugs: shared specific design and structural features reflect a common ancestral lineage of the weaver’s family and tribal identity. Each family may use or be known for distinct variations of a common tribal design, which they repeat and perhaps vary for generation after generation of weavers.

Gabbeh rugs feature bright colors with simple designs, stylized plants, animals, and rectilinear geometric forms; a few offer patterns and imagery that are asymmetrical, which makes them unique. Some weavers freely exercise their imagination to create such rugs which appeal to the modern consumer.

As a result, Gaba rugs have become popular, so much so that production of this rug style has become widespread in major rug-making regions, notably in India. Some Gabbeh rugs are vegetally dyed in southern Iran with handspun wool with simple design and color. Beautiful Rug offers a selection of contemporary Gabbeh rugs from Iran, India and Pakistan that have simpler designs that use several colors.

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