The finest and most valuable of handmade Oriental carpets that are mostly known are the pure silk rugs and the Qom carpets also known as Qum or Ghom. The holy city of Qom is located to the south of the capital city Tehran in the center of Iran. The city is rich in history and monuments and a source of high end quality silk rugs for the past hundred years, earning itself a high reputation of the finest Persian rugs. Qom rugs vary in design and colors often have different patterns that are not very traditional. Typically their designs have center medallion and tend to be vivid and bright, and come in light or red colors but weavers also incorporate other Persian rug styles into the Qom rugs resulting in dramatic and unique styles.
The fine and shiny natural silk material of the Qom rugs make them shine and vibrant and are an excellent choice for not only laying on the floor but also framing and hanging on walls. Standard Qom rugs have 600 KPSI (knots per square inch), and those that are more high end can have up to 600-750 KPSI. To see and determine how many KPSI a carpet is made up of, it is always advised to check the KPSI from three different areas in the carpet. In addition, to know whether the carpet is hand made, is can be seen from when folding the carpet, no tension on the corners is needed and the carpet can be easily folded into any direction without much effort.

Kilims are famous for their rich colors, warm tones, and beautiful ethnic motifs. They are flat tapestry-woven carpets or rugs that can function as purely decorative or even prayer rugs. Kilims are produced by tightly interweaving the warp and weft strands of the weave to produce a flat surface with no pile. The horizontal weft strands are pulled tightly downwards so that they hide the vertical warp strands. Being one of the world’s most coveted household items, these flats-oven rugs embody a mixture of culture such as the Greeks, Americans, Kurds, Assyrian and Turkic. The carpets material is usually of natural wool, cotton and silk fibers together with quality dyes.
A great advantage with a Kilim is that some varieties are double sided and can be turned if they get dirty, which increase their lifespan. Each piece of Kilim is a unique work of ethnic art showcasing age-old traditions and many people like to hang up their Kilims on the wall instead of a picture or even use them as bedspreads to create an oriental atmosphere.
Kilim patchworks are hand-woven carpets that are formed by joining new and older kilims, saddle bags, and sections from nomadic tents. A common theme for the carpets is that the colors and patterns of the patches match and have been specially selected, and the beautiful designs also have a smooth back sewn on.

Soumak rugs are double-sided flat-weave designs with a herringbone texture on both sides. Hand crafted with the finest quality imported wool; patterns and motifs display a mélange of classic Sultan Abad, Mahal and Nomadic design inspirations. These carpets are usually thick, strong and exceptionally durable because of looping the yarn horizontally around successive pairs f warps in between passes of over-under wefting.
Soumak carpets are woven in various carpet-producing regions and thus their designs are diverse; and although fairly rare compared to pile carpets and kilims, Soumak carpets feature grand medallions, repeated patterns, Persian garden deigns and tribal motifs which are surrounded by multiple sets of richly detailed borders.

Isfahan, historically was a weaving and cultural center of great importance. Isfahan has long produced carpets of great technical skill and sophisticated aesthetics. Today, Isfahan is an important industrial city and one of the main attractions in Iran due to the city’s Imam square where there are two mosques with the palaces, the parks and the old bridge. During the 16th century, the royal city’s carpet designers introduced distinctively curvilinear, delicate floral forms and the refined classical designs such as the arabesque, flowers, scroll, vine interlacement, vase, and hunting motifs, all which can still be seen in today designs.
Carpets from Isfahan have high class patterns, materials and designs. They are characterized by thin and high knot density, and the material is mostly wool with colors made of highest quality. The base colors are mostly beige, red or light blue, whereas the pattern can be multicolored.
The quality of Isfahan carpets can be seen from the backside of the carpet at the fringes where there are threads called ‘kheft’ which mark the quality of the carpet. The more the number of threads in one meter, the higher the quality.

The city of Tabriz is located 600km west of Tehran and is one of the largest cities in Iran. For centuries, Tabriz was an important trading center along the silk route connecting the Orient with Europe and thus has been under a lot of influence from different countries and cultures. The people of Tabriz as a result have learned to adjust and incorporate other ideas into their way of life, this is even reflected on their carpets as there is no consistent or particular pattern in their carpets. The manufacturing of Tabriz carpets today is extensive and the quality and designs vary from excellent handicrafts to simple and cheap bazaar qualities.
You can find unique designs and shapes in Tabriz rugs than in any other high end Persian rug type. The quality of the Tabriz is seen from the Raj. The term Raj is used for the number of knots that are there in a 7cm span range of the carpet. The denomination of 50 Raj refers to carpets with approximately 500,000 to 600,000 knots per square meter (m2).

The city of Nain, located 200 kilometers east of Isfahan, is where one can see clay buildings and one of the oldest mosques in Ian with remains from the 10thcentury. The city is relatively new to the carpet business as it started of producing Isfahan carpets but in 1930’s began developing its own designs. The city’s high reputation and very popular carpets are known for their material which is silk and wool pile woven on cotton foundations, and also workmanship which are of highest class and have a high knot density (couple hundred thousand knots to more than a million knots per square meter or 200 to 900 KPSI).
Fathollah Habibian (1903-1995) is regarded as the ‘father of Nain rugs’ and ran one of the most famous Nain workshops. His level of workmanship and his pioneering vision practically created the high end Nain rugs that we see today.
The Nain rugs are commonly known for their patterns with a medallion in the middle together with arabesques and floral motifs. Isfahan rugs had a huge influence on the design and styles of Nain rugs and so similarity in the rugs can be seen.
The Isfahan rugs tend to have lots of reds and blues, whereas the Nain rugs are typically centered around beige color. Quality in Nain rugs is measured not only by the KPSI but also by ‘La’. ‘La’ in Farsi means layers and it is the term for the number of threads that make up one fringe. The lower the number of threads (La-number), the finer and higher density of knots the carpet has, and more expensive the carpet is. A Nain rug with La9 is considered good quality, while La4 is the best and extremely rare. Most commonly found is the La6, also called the Sheeshla.