Sarouk Rugs & Carpets

Now called 'Markazi' Province, this western area of Persia is the home of various types of popular room size Persian rugs. Among them is the Sarouk. Markazi Province has been historically fortunate in that it has not attracted the often-destructive attention of various invaders. Agriculturally, it is a prime source of grain. As to arts and crafts, carpet making is the major, if not sole, activity. Sarouk village lies to the north of the town of Arak and has been known since the 12th century. It is probably the most well-known Persian carpet weaving area.

Before the Sarouk rug was the Sarouk-Fereghan, and before that was the Fereghan. Weaving seems to go back to the mid-19th century, but not much before. The earliest carpets were the gallery (kellegi) format Fereghan rugs with medium weaves, cotton foundations, asymmetric knots, navy fields with dense Herati allover patterns and corrosive celadon green borders in the reversing turtle palmette pattern. These carpets were especially popular in Britain and were termed "Gentleman�s Carpets.� [...]

Now called 'Markazi' Province, this western area of Persia is the home of various types of popular room size Persian rugs. Among them is the Sarouk. Markazi Province has been historically fortunate in that it has not attracted the often-destructive attention of various invaders. Agriculturally, it is a prime source of grain. As to arts and crafts, carpet making is the major, if not sole, activity. Sarouk village lies to the north of the town of Arak and has been known since the 12th century. It is probably the most well-known Persian carpet weaving area.

Before the Sarouk rug was the Sarouk-Fereghan, and before that was the Fereghan. Weaving seems to go back to the mid-19th century, but not much before. The earliest carpets were the gallery (kellegi) format Fereghan rugs with medium weaves, cotton foundations, asymmetric knots, navy fields with dense Herati allover patterns and corrosive celadon green borders in the reversing turtle palmette pattern. These carpets were especially popular in Britain and were termed "Gentleman�s Carpets.� They were not, however, suited to most Western rooms and were too light in weight for proper floor use. In the 1890-1910 period Fereghan rugs were superseded by the Fereghan-Sarouk; denser with a depressed warp, low pile, dense weave and in medallion patterns which were rapidly becoming the Western taste. The color palette enlarged, and we find red ground, navy medallion, blue border pieces with details in ivory, yellow, and rose. Rose and ivory fields are also common. The drawing on these carpets is slightly angular and not flowing. They are finer than a Persian Heriz rug, but not so fine as a Persian Kashan rug. The First World War closed the American and European markets for these carpets. When it ended, an entirely new rug type arose, the Sarouk, aimed squarely at the United States.

The rose-red ground and dark blue border "American" style Sarouk rug with its detached floral motives is not a native Persian innovation. Rather the impetus comes from the West via the interwar carpet import firm of Tavshanjian in New York. Their Persian representative, Mr. Tyriakian, designed the first examples around 1923, and they became wildly popular immediately as a totally new approach to carpet design. They remained the leading carpet type in the American market at least until the 1960s, and are still esteemed here and in Europe, especially Germany and Italy. This type of Sarouk is probably the most popular carpet genre ever, anywhere. Most of the rugs from the area are or were Sarouks. The Sarouks for the domestic and greater Middle Eastern trade are in more traditional palmette and arabesque patterns, with or without medallions, and with ivory or blue fields. The Sarouk pattern spread to other rug weaving areas in Persia such as Lilihan, Hamadan, Kashan, Kerman, and Mashad. The dark red Manchester wool Kashan rugs of the 1920s with their similar patterns can be considered as a finer grade of Sarouks. Persian rugs from Kerman during the 1930s did the detached floral motif style on cream grounds.

The Sarouk is a cotton foundation, double wefted, depressed warp weave carpet with a woolen pile height just under half an inch. The handspun wool is local and of excellent quality. The knot count is 9 x 10 to 11 x 12 knots per square inch. The texture is very firm and solid, leathery and tough. Persian Sarouk carpets don't wear out and there are plenty of antique rugs with at least another century of good service in them.

The Sarouk carpet is a town (Arak) and village production with many of the better-quality carpets woven in the rich agricultural area of Mahallat. The Mohajeran Sarouk is woven in this district in its eponymous village. The dark blue ground, spaciously drawn, large motif pieces from this center from the 1920s are considered the most desirable of all Persian Sarouk rug types. They are rare, and the supply is quite limited. Most are in large carpet sizes up to 13 x 20 feet. The somewhat chunky drawing betrays the rustic origin of Sarouks. There were no factories with quality control and close supervision. Work was done by the women in their houses with one or two looms each. The weavers work from memory rather than Samplers or large drawings. There were perhaps 10,000 looms in the area, but not all wove Sarouks.

The dyes on Sarouks are natural with indigo for the blue and madder for the reds and rose. To make the rose, the undyed yarn is bathed in whey or yogurt and madder. This color is not fast, however, to color treatment. Almost all "American" style Sarouks have been washed to tone down the strong madder red to a more neutral tone that is the paragon of our current contemporary society. This process slightly shortens the pile, but the general wearing characteristics are not significantly affected. This type of Sarouk is the product of Persian weavers and American washers.

The detached floral spray design is not the only Persian Sarouk pattern and carpets with complex medallions on open fields are found. But even here, there is often an inner field surrounded in the floral spray style and the medallion may have a scalloped edging of more sprays. Ivory ground "American" style Sarouk rugs became popular in the 1930s, but the patterns remain the same and the borders are densely patterned. The designs of both field and border are more open early on and generally become progressively complex later. A few Sarouks combine medallions with the detached floral motives and rose grounds of the standard type.

The Persian Sarouk carpet is one of the eternal verities of antique Persian carpet weaving. They never wear out, and it is easy to find them in top condition at reasonable prices. There has never really been a period where Sarouks went out of style and they always seem to work well, decoratively, in many settings.