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The production of rugs from the towns and villages surrounding Arak (formerly Sultanabad) represent an important group in the historical development of Persia€™s rugs and carpets. Arak is located in west Iran, south east of Hamadan.
As an area, rugs and carpets from the Arak region can be quite variable with the coarsest from the town of Mahal and the finest from Sarouk. Also within this section, rugs from Jozan and Malayir are included though geographically closer to Hamadan; technically and stylistically they are more akin to Sarouk rugs.
The first carpets woven especially for export were made in Sultanabad from the 1880s to 1920s under the direction of a British firm (of Swiss origins: Ziegler & Co of Manchester) along with other European companies. The Ziegler carpets were designed specifically for the western market, and cartoons, samplers, specification and ready dyed wool was sent out to the local weavers.
This tradition of export continued after the collapse of the western European economies after the First World War with the so-called €œAmerican Sarouk€ rugs. The American Sarouk rugs were another example of rugs and carpets made especially for export from this region. American Sarouk rugs were designed for the American market from the 1920s onwards to the 1950s. Indeed the New York dealers chemically washed the colour out of these rugs and then painstakingly painted the backgrounds of these rugs to make the colours more saleable!
Rugs from Sarouk are invariably curvilinear in design, with a woollen pile woven on a cotton warp with a double weft construction. Traditionally these rugs were quite thick, however in recent decades they have been woven with a shorter pile.
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