Moud

The Khorasan cities Dorokhsh and Mashad - the capital of this large Persian province - are two of the principal weaving cities of east Persia along with Moud and Birjand. Mashad is the principal marketing centre for all Khorasan tribal and village weavings, including those of the Baluch, the Quchan Kurds, Afshars, Turkomans and other smaller groups. Baluchi rugs in particular are divided into different groups depending on where they were woven, including Mashad itself, Zabol, Firdaus and, in the far south of the province, Sistan. The city of Mashad was particularly famed in the years before the Second World War for being the home of the leading ustad of the 1920s and 1930s, Amoghli (also spelled Amo Oghli or Emoghli) who was much patronised by the new Reza Shah Pahlavi and several of whose large and extremely fine carpets, mainly intended for various officers' messes, are still in the Iranian national collection. For the last fifty years, Mashad has been well known for being one of the most productive weaving centres, as well as being one of the principal marketing centres. Like all city carpets except those of Tabriz, Mashad carpets, as well as those of the other major Khorasan weaving cities, are asymmetrically knotted on cotton foundations; the majority have central medallions on a red floral field. Dorokhsh carpets tend to have very tight all-over patterns of tiny stylised flower heads in a predominant brownish-red and ivory palette.