Oriental Rugs and Carpeting

Most of the people used fabrics as floor coverings. They add exquisiteness, comfort and warmth to a room, and help absorb sound. Rugs and carpets also help protect floors and provide a safeguard against falling. Most rugs and carpets are used in homes and other buildings, but some cover outdoors surfaces. Some rugs are used as decorative wall hangings.

The words carpeting pads and carpet are sometimes used interchangeable, but they intend to different types of floor coverings. Carpeting covers only part of the floor of a room and is not fast down. A carpet covers an entire floor as is nailed or tucked down.

Authentic oriental carpeting is a handmade carpet that is either knotted with money or woven without pile. Oriental – design rugs made by machine, made through hand-tufting or some method other than hand-knotting or hand-weaving are not considered authentic oriental rugs.

Oriental carpets served many uses besides covering floors. They made handsome curtains, served as tribute money, and were frequently gifts of one state to another. They were used as blankets, canopies, coverings for shelter openings, and spot covers. They have also made excellent saddle covers and storage bags for use in tents. Such modest rugs were always close to the life of the people, who lavished care on them and into them wove life-protecting symbols. Other, more bizarre, uses have included assisting in the demise of al-Mustaʿṣim, Baghdad’s last caliph—who in 1258 was wrapped in a carpet and beaten to death—and dramatically enhancing Cleopatra’s introduction to Julius Cesar, when she stepped out of an unrolled rug. In less well-documented instances, they have acknowledged magical properties and taken flight.

These area rugs normally come from a broad geographical location extending from China and Vietnam in the east to Turkey, Maghreb countries and Iran in the west and the Caucasus in the north to India in the south. People from different cultures, countries, interracial groups and religious faiths are involved in the production of oriental rugs.