Glossary of Rug Terms #7

Every month or so, we will post a few interesting rug-related terms and their definitions in this glossary for your knowledge and enjoyment.

Always educate yourself on a topic before you make a purchase, especially with something like Persian Rugs!

This month we will be focusing on rug terms starting with the letter ‘M’.

Maadid tribe- a tribe of Algeria. Rugs of this tribe were influenced by Turkish models. Later rugs are coarsely woven with seven to eight wefts between each row of knots.

Maghmal- an ikat of silk velvet.

Mahi- A term used in Hamadan, Iran, for the Herati pattern, referring to the shape of a stylized leaf.

Malatya- A town of central Anatolia. Malatya is a rug marketing center for village rugs and kilims woven in the region. Many of these are coarsely knotted rugs with geometric designs woven by Kurds.

Mamluk Carpets- The Mamluks were soldiers and administrators of the sultanate of Egypt and Syria.

Arts and crafts reflected their propserity and cosmopolitanism, and aalso the continued contact of the Mamluks with the Persian Islamic culture of Iran and Turkestan. The earliest of the Mamluk carpets have complex geometric designs. The early rugs tend to be in a long format with large geometric medallions. The dominant color of these carpets is a red dye, the dye source being lac. Many so-called ‘Mamluk’ rugs are of problematic origin. One group of such rugs is attributed to the Maghred, and area that now includes Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.

Marker Knots- In Yomut weavings, knots of contrasting color may be tied at irregular intervals down the centerline of the piece.

A theory proposes that these knots mark the completion of either 10,000, 20,000, or 30,000 knots in the piece as a measure of work performed.

Glossary Source: The Oriental Rug Lexicon (Paperback) By (author) Peter F. Stone