Guide to Kashan Rugs & Carpets
Kashan
rugs fit into my "Persian Rugs the O'Connell
Guides" section as a group of related rugs of rugs
centering around the city of Kashan and that part of
Isfahan province. These rug are predominantly woven by
weavers who speak Persian and who are Shia Moslems.
Smaller workshops and home production are the rule
following a fairly narrow range of design
s.

Mohtashem
Kashan Carpet Late 19th century
15 feet 11 inch by 12 foot 1 inch. |
This is a classic 19th century Mohtashem
Kashan. I have always suspected as do many others
that Mohtashem was the Mullah Hassan. The Hajji
Mullah Hassan started the carpet production in
Kashan in about 1890. As Cecil Edwards
told us in The
Persian Carpet Hajji Mullah Hassan was a
merchant who was left with Manchester wool and no
clothing business so his wife wove a rug. His
wife was from Arak and the rug was successful. There
is a certain ring of truth to the Arak origin of
the wife since Mohtashem Kashan rugs have a back
like an old Feraghan Sarouk. Another attribution
clue is that rugs and carpets from the Mohtashem
workshop had lavender silk selvages when new.
I explore traditional Mohtashem
Kashan borders in Persian Rugs: Guide to
Mohtashem Kashan Rugs and Carpets. The
traditional Mohtashem Kashan border is derived
from the indigenous Mahali Luri border. The
Mahali Luri live in Southern Arak near Vist/Viss
Golpayegan and Khomeine. This lends credence to
the Cecil Edwards story.
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Wool
Kashan is surrounded by desert and marginal land that
does not provide a source of good wool. From roughly 1890
to 1930 the main source of wool was Manchester UK. That
wool was fine soft garment wool that was processed in
Manchester from Merino sheep. After 1930 the primary
source of wool has been Sabzavar.
17 by 10 Kashan Carpet
Circa 1910
This wonderful piece showed up as lot 165 in
Sotheby's Fine Oriental and European Rugs and
carpets sale in London in October of 1999.
Sotheby's did not date the rug in the catalogue
but this is very much what we see from Kashan
circa 1910.
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Kashan
Kurk Carpet
Possibly Mohtashem Circa 1910
17 feet 1 inch by 10 foot 1 inch |

Kashan
'Mohtashem' rug, C. 1880 Sotheby's
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Who was Mohtashem
Mohtashem is a much cited workshop that dated
to the late 19th century in Kashan. Don Wilbur
was able to identify several signed rugs by
Mohtashem 2.
There was a historical figure Mohtashem
Kashani or more properly was Shams-osh-Shoara
Kamal-ed-Din Mohtashem Kashani is a poet of the
10th century AH. He was famous for his
religious poems and much revered in Persia.
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Style and Quality in
Kashan Rugs.
Kashan rugs are the most conservative of all Persian Carpet.
They are not nearly as adventurous as Qum or as fine as
Isfahan rugs but Kashan maintains a consistent look. Not
all the same but confined to certain bounds.
Quality is a different matter. Often good sometimes
great Kashan rugs are home production not workshop rugs.
You can expect to find three distinct grades of Kashan
from the high-end ultra fine examples to the Bazaar
quality.
Silk Kashan Rugs
Silk is grown in the area and is used in rugs
from Kashan. John Chardin traveling in Persia
from 1673 to 1677 noted Kashan as the second city
behind Yezd in a discussion of metal and silk
rugs.
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