Herati Design Rugs

Mahi (fish), fish in pond, mahi darham (twisted fishes) and Herati. These are names for a widely used Persian pattern attributed to the city of Herat (nowadays in Afghanistan) which has spread westwards across Persia, Anatolia and Caucasia with lots of interpretations applied to different types of design, in both rectilinear and curvilinear renderings.
Serving mainly as a repeating pattern, the general form consists of a flower framed in a diamond with curving leaves out of it parallel to each side. Recalling tiny fishes, these curving leaves have been called ‘mahi’ most probably by weavers and merchants.
But interestingly fishes were actually included in the ancient predecessors of the general form. Being remained from Mithraism iconography in the Iranian visual traditions, these predecessors show two fishes holding a lotus or embracing a round face, symbolizing the birth of Mithras in the water. Such a design were still painted in books’ illustration during Timurid rule in Herat, when its more abstract renderings were widely used in royal carpet designs.




Some scholars believe such patterns originated in Qaen and Birjand, in the old land of Kohestan, southwestern parts of Khorasan the great. Nevertheless in the era the pattern form Herat was the Iranian capital under the rule of Timurid kings located at rather northwestern wing of the Great Khorasan, and it makes sense if the western Iranian lands knows an eastern pattern as Herati.
Actually, the renaissance of the Persian arts kindled in Herat. Tabriz and Isfahan, the next Iranian capitals, where deeply under the Influence of Herat Library in which great masters such Behzad had been trained who established the first Safavid royal library, and the style called the Second School of Tabriz.
The royal painters and book illustrators are also considered as rug designers of the Safavid royal workshops. Accordingly, the style has come directly from the royal library into the best of court rugs.
During the next centuries Herati pattern found its way to almost all rug weaving centers of the orient! Nowadays it is a universal pattern with far too many interpretations.










