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Mehriban Rugs

Guide to Mehriban / Mehraban Rugs & Carpets

Overview
Mehriban is an important production center for all size rugs, carpets and runners. Situated in between Sarouk and Hamadan they are like a merger of the two. The style tends towards the floral spray American Sarouk but the weave is single wefted like the Hamadan district. Mehriban rugs are generally sturdy hard wearing rugs with good wool and traditional designs.

Mehraban (Mehriban) The northern most outpost of the American Sarouk “Bulge” is Mehraban, an administrative district north of Hamadan incorporating a large number of villages whose individual names are never used in the carpet trade.

Characteristics
There are two distinct types of Mehraban, both single wefted: the older style, which is more geometric. Best known for long, narrow runners and carpets. Hamadan Mehraban is based on the American Sarouk style and seems to have begun as a king of superior Darjezine. Many other designs also exist in the new-style production, some of them being further developments of the American style, others quite different, including for example geometric, slightly Caucasian- looking patterns. The quality is Good: Fine thick yarn with great natural luster, combined with a fine weave, the Yarn has a high twist, which gives the back of the rug a knobby effect. The most common ground color is dark blue, but a whole range of other shades is readily available red, cream, gold and light blue in particular but in the main the overall color effects are better than in most new Hamadans.

Mehriban Rugs use the Hamadan Rug Weave

Single weft is called “Sennah Baft” or Hamadan weave. Here the wefts are rigid and the warps are sinuous. As you can see in the sketch the wefts are heavier than the warps. It is woven with symmetrical knots. Since there is only one shot of weft between each row of knots this shows every other warp which makes these rugs easy to spot.