The Arak Rug and Carpet Region - Local Geography and History

Located west of Tehran in the west-central area of Iran, Arak is considered a historic country as well as a popular export for knotted oriental rugs.  This district used to be known as Sultanabad, which in the olds days was the Iraq of Iran.  There are a large number of small settlements and villages surrounding Arak that produce rugs and carpets to market in Arak.  Some of the Persian rugs created by the small villages have a Kurdish and Turkish influence that makes them unique to the rugs hand made in Arak.

 The carpet industry in this area started to develop when the merchants from Azarbaijan started to invest a lot of money from German markets, exporting and supplying.  When the demand for exporting rugs and carpets grew to a high level, there were companies foreign to Arak that started to establish looms and workshops.  The increase in production of these beautiful oriental rugs helped to satisfy the European market.

During the First World War with the defeat of Germany and al their allies, Arak soon started to loose a high portion of their best consumers.  With the decline in the Persian carpet market started, it kept on decreasing when America experienced its economic crises.  This crisis affected all of ties that America had to the rest of the world, and unfortunately that included the market for exporting Arak ethnic area rugs.  With a great amount of support and effort, the business in Arak started to pick up, and continues to grow.