6'4" x 10'5" Persian Bijar Rug | Red Field, Ivory Diamond Medallion | Iron Rug of Persia

Here is a Persian Bijar in a long, gallery-friendly 6'4" x 10'5", the weave that collectors nicknamed the iron rug of Persia. What sets this one apart is its center: a large ivory diamond medallion floating on a warm red ground, a brighter and more open reading than the darker Bijar you often see. It is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, in excellent condition, and packed to roughly 360 to 380 knots per square inch, which is very fine for the village. Every rug we ship includes a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is built around one commanding shape: a tall ivory diamond medallion set at the heart of the rug, stepping inward through crisp nested diamond outlines to a dark navy core and a small flowering center. Both the medallion and the surrounding field are filled with the herati, the fine rosette-and-leaf lattice that Bijar weavers repeat with almost mechanical evenness, so the pattern flows without a break from the red field into the cream medallion and back out to the red corner spandrels. The frame around it is pure Bijar confidence: a wide red main border carrying big scrolling palmettes and turtle rosettes in cream, gold and navy, held between slender guard stripes. It is a balanced, formal layout that still feels alive because no two square inches of the herati sit exactly alike.

Color and Palette

Red and cream carry this rug. The field and border are a clean, warm tomato red, deeper and cooler in the shadows, and against it the central diamond opens up in soft cream and ivory that pulls the eye straight to the middle. Inside the medallion a dark navy panel gives the composition its anchor, while the herati across the whole rug is picked out in rose, green, gold, rust and small touches of sky blue. The big palmettes of the border glow in cream and old gold on the red ground. It is a fresher, higher-contrast palette than the typical dark Bijar, easy to place in a room that wants warmth and a little brightness rather than deep, moody color.

Origin and Weave

Bijar lies in the Kurdish highlands of northwest Persia, and its rugs earned the iron name from a weaving technique that beats the wefts down so hard the finished fabric is thick, stiff and famously long-lived. This example pairs that legendary structure with a high knot count of 360 to 380 per square inch and a fresh red and cream color scheme, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation. If you want to weigh it against similar sizes, we carry more Bijar rugs in the 6x9 and 7x10 range.