Hamadan Rugs

Hamadan Rugs

Overlooked and under appreciated during the Neo-Classical Era of 1875-1941, arguably extending from 1851-1979, by their exactingly orchestrated counterparts from the great Persian city rug workshops, Hamadan rugs were a cottage industry enterprise woven by women villagers in their homes for supplementary income, mostly off-season and timed for sale when the market was right, often before No Ruz, the Persian New Year.

However, rugs have been woven in the vicinity for centuries for local use and trade as an indigenous craft. J.P. Willborg, renowned rug scholar, mentions the often told tale that early Hamadan weaving may trace back to the 16th century. Commissioned by the second Safavid Shah Tahmasp and woven in the Hamadan village/town of Dergazine, a rug was presented to the Ottoman Sultan Soleiyman the Magnificent as a propitiatory gift following the Peace of Amasya. Realized after an exhausting 23 years of war, the treaty between the Safavid and Ottoman gunpowder empires recognized divisions of the coveted territories of Georgia, Armenia, and Kurdistan and guaranteed safe passage of Persians to Mecca.

Modern organized production in the city of Hamadan began  in 1911 with Oriental Carpet Manufacturers (OCM) establishing operations there under the guidance of renowned expert Cecil Edwards, before interruption, (i.e., devastation) of the "Great War" (World War I). Despite declared neutrality, Persia agonized through extensive suffering and destruction during the war and then a horrific post-war famine that claimed 2 million lives. In particular, Russia and Turko-German engagements devastated Hamadan, the effects of which were documented in OCM correspondence from Edwards.

After the war and restoration of infrastructure, rug production was resumed. OCM’s Hamadan production was in large format, double wefted carpets designated "Alvand" quality with the idea of using Sarouk style designs on a foundation similar to Bijar. Named in homage to nearby Mt Alvand (11,750), the main watershed that provides for the large agriculture output of the area maintained at peril by over 1500 labor-intensive qanats (underground irrigation channels). The move by OCM to Hamadan proved successful and offered reliable income for many Hamadani people.

Alert to opportunity, the ever astute and legendarily industrious local Persians began their own home production in surrounding Hamadan communities creating their own  rugs with characteristic attributes of design, colors, and weave. Some experts assert that at peak production there were over 1500 different villages and surrounding communities producing rugs in multiple designs. The vast majority of Hamadan village rugs from the era were single wefted, on a cotton foundation, often all vegetal dyed, with Herati design elements in the field/border, and in small format ranging from little 2 x 3 (pushti) to about 5 x 7 (dozar). Of course, there were exceptions; some were double wefted like Hamadan shahrbafs (i.e., independently woven city weave rugs, eg., Yousef Zenjani rugs), some were palace size like Bibikabad, and some had wool warps and/or wefts like those woven before the 20th century before the introduction of cotton. 

Thank you.