6'6 x 9'10 Persian Bijar Rug | Stepped Diamond Medallion on Ivory Herati Field | Navy Floral Border | 350 KPSI

A 6'6 by 9'10 Persian Bijar at 340 to 360 KPSI is the dressier, finer-knotted version of the Bijar tradition, the kind of piece a Bijar weaver builds when they want to push the format toward town production rather than village. The classic Bijar is woven at 100 to 200 KPSI on the heavy side; this rug is more than double that, which means the herati lattice that fills most of the field is rendered in tiny, crisp repeat units rather than the chunky village version. The composition centers on a stepped diamond medallion floating on an ivory herati ground, framed by deep brick-red corner spandrels and bound by a wide midnight navy main border. To understand why the Kurdish town of Bijar earned its reputation as the source of the toughest hand-knotted rugs ever made, see our complete guide to Bijar rugs.

Design and Motifs

The composition is a textbook Bijar mahi-to-hoz layout (literally "fish in the pond") executed in three nested layers. At the geometric heart of the rug sits a small hexagonal inner medallion drawn against a midnight navy ground, packed edge to edge with a herati lattice of red, salmon, gold, and ivory rosettes flanked by curved fish leaves, and outlined in a fine gold-tan band. Surrounding this inner core is a much larger stepped diamond medallion, drawn against the ivory ground that defines the entire field, outlined in the same gold-tan band, and tipped at top and bottom with two small salmon-pink pendant finials that anchor the medallion's vertical axis. The four corner spandrels of the field are filled with the same herati lattice as the rest of the rug but laid against a deep brick-red ground, which creates a visual frame for the ivory diamond and gives the medallion the appearance of floating on light while the corners ground it in warmth. Across the entire ivory field, the herati pattern repeats in a tightly packed grid: each repeat unit is a small rosette flanked by four lanceolate fish leaves curling around it, with the leaves drawn in red, salmon, sage, sky blue, and gold. The main border is the dressy element of the rug, woven on a deep midnight navy ground and carrying a continuous procession of large palmettes, rosettes, and serrated leaves drawn in salmon, ivory, and gold. The main border is flanked on both sides by paired narrow guard borders carrying ivory floral meanders on red and navy grounds.

Colors and Placement

The palette inverts the typical Bijar formula in a way that buyers actively look for. Instead of the dominant terracotta or rust field that defines most Bijar production, this rug puts the ivory ground front and center as the dominant color, with the brick-red and the midnight navy operating as supporting framework rather than the main event. The result is a rug that brightens a room rather than warming it, which is unusual for a Bijar and makes this piece a strong fit for spaces that already have warm wood tones and don't need a heavy red anchor. Inside the herati lattice, small accents of salmon pink, sky blue, sage green, gold, dusty rose, and soft coral appear inside the rosettes and along the curved fish leaves, giving the field a multi-color shimmer when viewed up close while still reading as a unified ivory and red from across a room. The midnight navy main border provides the dressy frame that separates this rug from a typical village Bijar and makes it work in formal rooms where a more rustic Bijar would feel too casual. The rug suits dining rooms (it sits beautifully under an eight-seat table), formal living rooms with cream or ivory upholstery, libraries with mahogany or walnut shelving, master bedrooms placed at the foot of a queen or king bed, and traditional foyers. Like all Bijars, it performs especially well in high-traffic zones because the wet-loomed foundation barely compresses under furniture and recovers from foot traffic faster than almost any other Persian weaving.

Origin and Construction

Bijar is a small Kurdish town in the Kurdistan province of northwestern Iran, perched at high altitude and tucked into a region with cold winters and a weaving tradition that predates most other named Persian centers. The defining technical feature of a true Bijar is the wet-loom technique: the warps are kept damp throughout weaving and the wefts are beaten down with extreme force using a heavy iron comb, which is what compresses the foundation into the dense, board-like structure that earned these rugs their iron nickname. This particular piece shows the finer end of Bijar production, with a knot density between 340 and 360 per square inch, which is roughly double the density of a typical village Bijar and substantially finer than most market Bijars you encounter. That extra density is what allows the herati lattice to be drawn in such tight, crisp repeat units across the field, and what allows the medallion outlines to read as clean geometric edges rather than jagged steps. The foundation is 100% cotton, both warp and weft, woven double-wefted in the classical Bijar manner so that one weft sits taut and one weft sits loose between every row of knots, locking the structure together. The pile is 100% hand-spun wool from the Kurdish highlands, which is naturally lustrous and high in lanolin, making it both more colorfast and more dirt-repellent than industrial wools. The knot is the Persian asymmetric (senneh) knot. The condition is as it left the loom, with full pile, full cotton fringes, and no wear, sun fade, or repair anywhere on the piece. To understand exactly why a Bijar's wet-loom construction means it will outlive most of the furniture in your house, see our deep dive on why Bijar rugs last a lifetime.