Zabihi Collection Early 20th Century Qashqai Rare Small Room Size Rug

Measures: 7′ x 10’1”

Weavers of highly desired Persian tribal rugs, the Qashqai people possess a history and culture rich in both struggle and inspiration. It is the combination of these two elements which give their rugs their unusual sense of spontaneity and aliveness.
Although the Qashqai have never recorded their history in writing, they have passed it down through story and song for nearly a thousand years. In their legends they claim to have come from Chinese Turkestan, sweeping across Afghanistan into Persia on the vanguard of the armies of Ghengis Kahn. Once in Persia, the Qashqai chose to live in the mountainous region of Azerbaijan, in the Caucasus, far to the north of their present southern Persian location. Early in the 16th century, the Qashqai relocated to the Fars province, their habitat over the past 400 years, probably under the subjugation of Shah Isma’il, who wanted to create a human buffer against the Portuguese, who threatened his Persian Gulf shore.