Kurds of Khorasan regions live in its northern regions and are called kurmanj. During the rule of the Safavid dynasty, Kurds of Turkey, Syria and Caucasus in west Azerbaijan were moved to Khorasan to evade invasions of the Ottomans and were settled there. This movement of Kurds from Western Iran to northern Khorasan and their adjacency with Balooch and Turkmen people influenced their carpet weaving traditions. The present paper attempts to investigate the structure of designs and motifs and diversity of genuine Kurdish rugs in Khorasan region. This descriptive analytical study takes a qualitative approach to study the elements like Medalion, corners, field and border motifs in designs and motifs of Kurdish rugs of both Northern and Razavi Khorasan provinces. The statistical population of the study was both Northern and Razavi Khorasan provinces and its main concentration is on Kurdish provinces. As a result, our towns and 13 villages in Razavi Khorasan province were investigated along with 6 towns and 21 villages in northern Khorasan. The data for the study were collected through library studies on the history of this ethnic group and rug samples were collected via field studies conducted by the authors. it was concluded that designs and motifs in Kurdish rugs of Khorasan are highly varied; yet, the structure of designs and motifs are similar. Motifs used in these rugs are taken from everyday objects, plants, flowers and, in some cases, even abstract concepts of human nature. The study also revealed that some of the designs and motifs in Kurdish rugs of Khorasan region are genuinely unique products attributed to specific individuals and their motifs are geometrical and mental shapes modeled after nature and beliefs. However, these motifs have changed compared to Kurdish rugs from northwestern regions of Iran.
