Style: Qashqai Rugs, Persian Qashqai Rugs
Qashqai Rugs, Persian Qashqai Rugs
Qashqai (Qashqu’i, Kashgai) rugs are made by the Qashqai, who form a confederation of tribes of Turkmen origin established in the 18th century.
They started to settle in Iran in the 11th century, and they primarily reside in Fars Province in southwest Iran. These people were once nomadic, but most of them have recently settled down in villages and towns. The major tribes are the following: Amaleh, Darashur, Farsi Madan, Kashkuli Bozorg, Kashkuli Kuchek, and Shish Boluki. The deep and rich red fields in Qashqai rugs feature distinct dark blue and bright ivory geometric patterns with a diamond or hexagon medallion or several medallions, which may include the diamond four projecting hooks.
The diamond shape is often repeated in the main field of the rug. Some rugs feature stylized, geometrically formed human figures or animals; one distinctive scene shows the ancient Persian ruler Darius fighting a lion in Persepolis, the ancient capital of the Persian empire. Some rugs feature a field that is filled with random motifs and objects, such as human figures, animals, and plants. The borders of Qashqai tend toward featuring simpler patterns and may have only one row or two rows. Bold and distinct designs using intense, vivid colors that provide a strong contrast are characteristic of Qashqai rugs and make them readily identifiable, along with rug ends that are finished with a plain weave with a brocade. These rugs are also typically all wool, coarse woven, and tend to have a lower knot count of under two hundred knots per square inch.
Beautiful Rugs has a fine Persian Qashqai rug (386) with a very unique design: an allover pattern of large diamond geometric and abstract medallions with projecting hooks outwards and inwards, and only eight of these medallions with a white field that contrasts sharply with the rest of the rug form two vertical rows in the rug’s center. Dark green, light green, and deep blue medallions are repeated along a diagonal axis, so the interplay of the most prominent color patterns is asymmetrical, quite striking, and unique in this rug.
