Oriental Rugs Glossary

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Nain 4-la

Nain is located in Central Iran and is the main town of the Nain district. The city is amongst other things proud of a mosque called "Madjed Djomeh" from the 10th century. Nain rugs are of remarkable fineness and therefore have sharply distinguished and clear patterns, you might call them luxury editions of the Persian rugs. The beautiful combinations of white and light blue are characteristic for Nain carpets. They are often traded in Isfahan. The Persian knot is used making them as opposed to the more spread Turkish knot which is more often used with Persian rugs. The fineness of Nain rugs (and only Nain rugs) is indicated by the Persian term "la" meaning "thread" and the number before that determining the number of thread used to twine the yarn. The less threads used for twining the yarn, the finer the yarn and therefore the finer the Nain rug. Nain 4-la rugs usually have a fineness between 645 and 840 knots per square inch or between 1,000,000 to 1,300,000 knots per square meter.