Vintage Persian Bakhtiari Rug

2026-04-15T13:55:55+10:00

Price: 3900.00

This rug comes from Iran's Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, where the Bakhtiari tribes have been weaving for generations. Once nomadic herders moving through the Zagros Mountains with their flocks, the Bakhtiari settled into villages across the region but kept their weaving traditions entirely intact.

The signature Bakhtiari design is the Khesti, a garden panel pattern where the field is divided into compartments, each containing its own motif. Cypress trees, flowering plants, birds, the tree of life. It is like looking at a Persian garden from above, sectioned into individual plots, each one a complete world.

The tree of life motif that runs through many Bakhtiari rugs has a story behind it. According to bazaar legend, a mother created the design roughly 700 years ago while weaving a bridal gift for her daughter, combining willow trees representing love and fertility with pomegranate fruits symbolising virtue and good health. The pattern stuck, and it has been passed down through generations of Bakhtiari weavers ever since.

Hand-knotted with wool pile on a cotton foundation. The wool comes from the tribes' own herds, and the quality varies between Bakhtiari groups depending on where their sheep grazed and how the wool was prepared, which is exactly why no two Bakhtiari rugs look or feel quite the same. As a vintage piece, the colours have already settled and the pile has only improved with age.