Tafresh

Mere om Tafresh

 Tafrish, Tafresh

The town of Tafrish is located north-east of Arak, towards Tehran. Carpets from here are often comparable in quality with a good carpet from the Hamadan area. They are however more finely knotted and the pattern is easy to recognise on the rather special, scalloped medallion. The colours are nicely matched and provide a rich contrast. The wool is usually good, but can vary somewhat in quality. The warp and weft threads are cotton, the Ghiordes knot (the Turkish knot) is used and the knot density is between 14,000-28,000 knots per ft2. Most carpets from the Arak area are made for daily use – they are usually durable and made from high quality wool.

Read more about the Arak area here:

The Markazi-province
The Arak area

The Arak area near the town of Arak is a rich agricultural zone where the population speaks Farsi (Persian). Arak was founded in the 19th century under the name Sultanabad. The carpet producing zones include Saroug, Ghiassabad, Djozan, Malayer, Saroug-Mir, Mahal, Wiss, Bordjalo and Lilihan. For over 200 years carpets have been knotted in the Arak areas. It was the merchants from Tabriz who, in the mid-1800s, noticed the skilled Arak knotters. Thanks to the wool, colours and harmoniously designed patterns, the carpets quickly became a popular export product to the West. The wool quality in Arak is generally quite good. They remained popular carpets, and natural dyes were predominantly used. Today, good wool and natural dyes are no longer a given, but there are still carpet makers around who struggle to honour the good old carpet traditions.

Source:
You are reading an extract from the book ‘Oriental Carpets, Knottet with Love’ by Martin Munkholm.
This extensive book about all that is carpets can be borrowed in Danish libraries or be bought following this link: https://belle-rugs.dk/en/expertise/bookfilmlecture/

The book is published by Muusmann Forlag.
For more info: http://muusmann-forlag.dk/

You can find our selection of Tafresh carpets underneath.