Frequently Asked Questions
- Original name: قالی جوزان
Alternative name(s): Mosul Rug, Malayer Carpet
- What is a Jozan Rug?
Jozan carpets are made in the city of Malayer in the town of Jozan (Iran). Jozan carpets are high-end hand knotted rugs with designs reminiscent of early twentieth-century Sarouks. Despite this, these Persian rugs are frequently referred to as "Malayer" carpets.
- Origin: Iran (Markazi)
The Jozan carpet or rug is a village/city rug woven in the Arak (Markazi) Province of Iran, in the west-central part of the country.
- Common Designs: Semigeometric, Medallion, Mihrab, Tree, Vase, Herati
Semigeometric Jozan rug designs usually have a pendant shaped medallion in the centre and a stylised quarter medallion in each of the background's four corners. The field features vines with flowering blossoms, flower sprays and leaves.
- Common colours: Red, Blue, Navy Blue, Yellow, Pink, Ivory, Green, Gold
The rugs generally feature dark blue fields with crimson borders. Different shades of blue, green, ivory, gold, cinnamon, and brown are used for design components and small edges in addition to these colours.
- Material: Wool, Cotton
With a cotton foundation and a wool pile, these rugs use symmetrical and asymmetrical knots.
- Jozan Rug Characteristics
Jozan is notable because of its placement on trade routes and its ability to manufacture many rugs, despite its tiny size. Jozan carpets are often made with a cotton basis and feature authentic Herati motifs. The size of the rugs varies, but most are small to medium in size and have migratory patterns with shades of red as the dominating colour. Jozan rugs can range in quality depending on the design, wool quality, age and knot count.
Each Jozan carpet is unique, as the weavers drew from a broad pool of designs and invested a great deal of ingenuity in their production. The tribal rug weavers used flower head and vinery lattice Persian carpet patterns and the well-known Herati design (diamonds bordered by flower heads and leaves). The “botteh,” or sprouting seed (a symbol of rebirth and expansion in nature), was a popular pattern among antique rug weavers, with small rugs and runners sometimes covering the entire field. Another popular style was stylised birds. The elegant carpets of the Ferahan plain to the east also served as inspiration.
- The History Of Antique Persian Jozan Rugs
Tiny antique carpets and runners manufactured by individual weavers were almost solely produced in Malayer and the small towns in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In some larger communities, a small number of larger Persian carpets up to 10ft by 13ft were created on a family basis. Oversize antique rugs, which were woven on contract, are pretty unusual.
Antique rugs from the Malayer region are a unique and valuable type of Persian weaving. They are technically between those created in adjacent Senneh and those made in Hamadan. They were made in various medallion and all over motifs that, while drawing inspiration from classical Persian sources, tend to be abstract or geometric in pattern.