6'7 x 9'10" Persian Tabriz Mahi Rug | Wool & Silk Fish Design | 50 Raj

This is a classic Persian Tabriz Mahi, 6'7 x 9'10", woven at a fine 50 Raj in wool and silk on a cotton foundation. Mahi means fish, the name Tabriz weavers give to the tiny allover pattern that fills the field, and it is the design that made the city famous. It is in excellent condition and never used, and at roughly 360 knots per square inch it reaches a level of fineness that is genuinely hard to find on the US market. Every rug we ship includes a certificate of authenticity. Sitting in the range of our 7x10 Persian rugs, it works as a main-room size while still reading as a true collector piece.

Design and Motifs

The field carries the Mahi, or fish, design: a fine diamond lattice where each small cell holds a rosette flanked by two curved leaves, a motif said to look like fish gathered around a pool. It repeats endlessly across the ground and only reads clearly because the knot count is so high. At the center sits a lobed diamond medallion with a smaller flowering core and slender pendants reaching top and bottom, and the same shape is echoed in the large corner spandrels that frame the field. Around all of it runs a layered border, one wide main band of palmettes and rosettes on a dark ground, set between several narrow floral guard stripes. Everything is drawn small and precise, which is exactly what Tabriz is known for.

Color and Palette

The field reads as a deep navy, almost black in the densest areas, so the tiny fish pattern seems to glow in rust, gold, ivory and soft green against it. The central medallion breaks that darkness with warm terracotta and rust, lit from the middle by a gold and cream flowering core with fine green tracery. The corner spandrels and the framing around the medallion turn to camel and old gold, giving the whole field a lantern-lit warmth. The main border returns to a dark ground carrying polychrome florals in gold, green, ivory and red, edged by rust and salmon guard stripes. It is a rich, formal palette, the kind that anchors a room without ever feeling loud.

Origin and Weave

Tabriz sits in northwest Persia and has been one of the country's great weaving centers for centuries, prized above all for precision of drawing. Weavers there measure fineness in Raj, the number of knots across a set width, and at 50 Raj this rug counts as a fine Tabriz, roughly 360 knots per square inch. The silk blended into the wool pile is what makes the pattern so crisp, catching the light along the outlines and lifting the fish design off the ground. Combined with the cotton foundation, it produces a rug that is both delicate to look at and built to last for generations.