Sultanabad rugs are the decorator's Persian carpet. Large in scale, soft in colour and generous in their all-over floral and vine designs, they were woven in the Sultanabad (Arak) region from the late nineteenth century — many for the European firm Ziegler & Co., which is why the finest are known as Ziegler Sultanabads.
Their open, roomy patterns in gentle red, blue, gold and ivory make them one of the easiest antique rugs to live with, and they sit as happily in a grand traditional room as in a pared-back modern one.
These names overlap. Sultanabad is the region; Mahal usually describes the more village-level, decorative pieces from the same area; and Ziegler denotes the finer rugs woven for that company, with especially elegant, open designs.
