Location of Manufacture: The Quasghai are a large confederation of tribes, nomadic or seasonally migrant, whose territory extends over a large area of the Fars highlands in Persia.

General Description: They are in many respects similar to the rugs and carpets of Shiraz but are of a much higher quality. The designs have a number of similarities to the Caucasian, a fact which the Quasghai themselves attribute to their having settled in Azerbaijan on the journey south from their ancestral homelands in Central Asia. The Quasghai today consist of a confederacy of tribes, mainly turkish in origin, but with some Arab, Fars and Kurd blood. Their name is thought to have come from Quasghai the Turkish word for ‘horse with white blaze’ a sign which was considered lucky.

The rugs of the Quasghai have traditionally been woven by women, as have many of the rugs of the nomadic tribes. The first rugs were made by the Keshkuli and Shesh Baluki tribes. Quasghai rugs can easily be distinguished from those of Shiraz and of the ‘ copies’ made by the neighbouring Khasmseh confederation, by their designs and weave.

The weave is fine and relatively neat; the weft is distinctive, being normally coloured a shade of red. Designs often consist of a diamond shaped centre with the ground covered with small geometrically stylised figures of birds, dogs and other animals, with the addition of rosettes, stars, crosses and petals. The normal colours are reddish-brown, red, cream and blue. The warp and weft is wool, sometimes mixed with cattle hair, while the pile is high quality wool. Knots are predominantly Persian, though Turkish knots are sometimes found.

Specification: Loom - horizontal. Warp - wool. Weft - wool. Pile - wool. Knot - Persian and Turkish. Motifs - Nomad, preference of diamond-shaped central lozenge with geometric animals and flowers.