Erami: the silk carpet workshop of Qom (Ghom)

Erami of Qom: workshop practice, designers and weavers, signature and certificate of origin, plus disclosed manufacturer’s statements from the trade.

Erami Ghom silk carpet “Mosaic Golfarang”, 101 × 151 cm

Teppichbazar · Luxonaria GmbH

By Last reviewed:

Updated November 2026 · sources linked

At a glance

  • The Erami family (Persian ارمی) has been weaving in Qom (Ghom) for three generations; today the brand is called “Hossein Erami”.
  • According to a company portrait, the founder built up a network of village workshops around Qom; his son placed commissions for all-silk carpets as far afield as Tabriz.
  • Because of forgeries, the firm issues its own certificate of origin (shenasnameh). It recognises as its own only pieces that come with this document.
  • 23 dealer records name designer, weavers, raj and working hours. The hours have evidently been calculated from the knot count.
  • Independent auction evidence is rare: one Drouot lot “signed (Erami)” was found, without a result.

Erami is a family workshop in Qom whose name is used as a brand in the trade in Qom silk carpets (Ghom, Qum; Persian قم). Who stands behind it is explained, together with the family history, in the register of Qom workshops. This article goes one step further. It asks how the workshop works, who is involved in the pieces and how a genuine Erami signature can be recognised. It is based on a company portrait, a company notice, an auction lot and the manufacturer’s statements published by the trade. Each piece of information is labelled according to its origin.

Name and family in brief

In Persian the name is written ارمی. The firm uses the name “Hossein Erami”, as shown in the logo of its portrait on the carpet portal Carpetour (carpetour.net, no. 1228, information from the firm).

According to the portrait, Haj Mahmoud Erami, born in 1292 (1913/14) in Kashan, came to Qom at the age of ten. After his mother’s death he moved there with his maternal uncle, Haj Mohammad Kashani. His son Haj Hossein Erami, born in 1325 (1946/47), continued the business. Today Hossein’s sons Mohammad and Mehdi run the brand (carpetour.net, no. 1171). A photograph in the portrait also shows their brother Mahmoud. Beytoote confirms the family’s origin in Kashan, without dates (Beytoote).

Examples in the trade: Qom silk rugs at BazarPort (our own shop)

Video from Hassan Farahani’s YouTube channel (Teppichbazar) Playing loads the video from YouTube (Google), which transfers data to Google.

How the workshop works

From warp setter to putter-out

According to the portrait, Haj Mahmoud began as a chelleh-davan, the man who mounts the warp on the loom. He spent three to four years learning this craft. By the age of twenty he was counted among the best warp setters in the city. He then took weaving out to villages around Qom. The portrait names, among others, Khalajestan with its centre Dastjerd, Vashareh, Sarkhordeh, Giv, Tanavij, Fujerd and Sanavand (carpetour.net, no. 1228).

How such networks functioned is described by Willem Floor in the Encyclopaedia Iranica. In the countryside, middlemen such as the ostad-e kar (master of works) organised the weaving and supplied the materials. Weaving was done within families and paid by the piece (Iranica, Carpets xii). For the Qom region Floor names only eleven weaving villages in 1948. By 1966 there were some 5,000 people employed, mostly women and girls. He does not name individual entrepreneurs.

All-silk and large formats

Haj Hossein spent ten years learning from his father. From the age of about 25 he had all-silk carpets woven, which, going by his year of birth, means around 1971/72. Because of demand he placed commissions in Saveh, Hamadan, Zanjan, Tabriz and Bostanabad. According to the portrait he was among the first in Qom to produce all-silk carpets of 24 and 40 m² (carpetour.net, no. 1228). The portrait also cites fine weaving of over 100 raj as an achievement of the brand.

Division of labour in the third generation

Mehdi Erami, born in 1361 (1982/83), has worked in the business since 1379 (2000/01). According to the portrait he is responsible for design and colouring. After his father’s death, it says, he combined traditional and modern designs and so created a new style. Mohammad Erami, born in 1360 (1981/82), studied industrial engineering (mohandesi-ye sanaye). Since 1383 (2004/05) he has been in charge of sales and customer service and represents the brand at trade fairs (carpetour.net, no. 1228).

The workshop is also known through a state gift. During Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe’s visit to Tehran in June 2019, Iran presented him with a silk carpet of 205 × 205 cm (Wikipedia: Qom rug; Dawn). Wikipedia names the Hossein Erami workshop as its maker.

Erami pieces in the trade: what the manufacturer’s statements say

The following information consists of manufacturer’s statements via Teppichbazar. Teppichbazar, like this journal, belongs to Luxonaria GmbH, and the Erami workshop is a trading partner of the company. The figures were collected from the product descriptions on 1 November 2026. They have not been independently verified.

In all, 23 records were counted. One pair is also offered as single pieces, and two “Fiery Sky” listings probably describe the same carpet. Without these duplicates, 21 listings remain, including two pairs. One piece bears the woven signature “Reza Erami” and is attributed to his manufactory. The others name the brand Hossein Erami or Erami Carpet. Contradictory fields, such as differing material or dating attributes, have not been evaluated here.

FeatureRange according to the manufacturer’s statements
Size132 × 82 cm to 398 × 395 cm (1.08 to 15.72 m²)
PileSilk in all listings
Knot density65.9 to 73.45 raj; ten listings with exactly 70 raj, about 1 million knots/m²
Colour shades17 to 37 per design, where stated
Weavers per piecetwo to five
Production time5–6 to 43 months
Working hoursabout 1,700 to 26,634

Source: manufacturer’s statements via Teppichbazar, records 654652 to 763898 (see Sources).

With a measuring length of 7 cm, 70 raj corresponds to exactly one million knots per m² (calculation in Raj, gereh, KPSI). None of the recorded pieces reaches the more than 100 raj mentioned in the company portrait.

What the figures for hours mean

Dividing the knot count by the stated working hours gives exactly 625 knots per hour in seven records. Examples are “Simrokh” (12,505,000 knots, 20,008 hours) and “Golfarang – Brown” (6,553,600 knots, 10,486 hours). The hours have therefore evidently been calculated from the knot count, not measured. They are useful as an order of magnitude, but not as a record of time worked.

The people behind the pieces

The manufacturer’s statements also give names. Designers named are Mahdi Erami (four listings), Amir Garoosi (five listings) and Ali Fard (one pair). “Mahdi Erami” is very probably Mehdi Erami, who according to the portrait is responsible for design and colour. No source was found that expressly assigns “Mahdi” and “Mehdi” to the same person.

The following are named as master weavers:

Name according to the manufacturer’s statementDesignSize
Hossein Haghighi“Fiery Sky”; one of five weavers of “Seven Heavens”200 × 301 cm; 398 × 395 cm
Reza Sirati“Golfarang – Brown”242 × 246 cm
Mrs Esmkhani“Golfarang – Tak Gardeh”212 × 210 cm; 207 × 134 cm
Mr Asadi“Gobelin – Black”286 × 196 cm
Moosa Ranjbar Alanagh“Versace – Green & Black”257 × 251 cm
Ali Kavoosi“Versace – Black” (pair)208 × 142 cm each

These names appear in the description, not in the carpet. The woven signature names the house, not the weaver (see Reading a Qom signature).

Alongside classic schemes such as gol-farang (rose pattern after European models) and lachak-toranj (corner pieces and medallion) there are collection names such as “Seven Heavens”, “Gobelin” or “Fiery Sky”. This fits the combination of tradition and modernity that the portrait attributes to Mehdi Erami.

Erami outside its own trade

On the Drouot platform a silk Qom “signed (Erami)” was found, approx. 200 × 133 cm, about one million knots per m², dated “late 20th century”. Its condition is given as “discoloured”. The page shows neither auction house, date nor result (Drouot). In the searched catalogues of the Dorotheum, Nagel, Chiswick and Bonhams no lot with this name was found.

One dealer, Galerie Buter, offers via Proantic a silk Qom of 415 × 297 cm with the signature “Mtre Erami” in a cartouche. The dealer dates it to 1960–70 and calls Erami a master of an imperial workshop (Proantic, trade claim). The listing gives no evidence for either claim.

For a state honour, by contrast, there is primary evidence. On 18 Ordibehesht 1401 (8 May 2022), Iran’s National Carpet Center and the Ministry of Industry in Tehran honoured, alongside eleven outstanding figures, 100 further actors in the art of carpet weaving. Their list begins with “Reza Erami, Qom” (Iran Carpet Company). The first entries evidently follow the Persian alphabet. First place is therefore not a ranking. The list does not say how Reza Erami is related to Hossein Erami’s line.

The sources disagree

Who was first? The Carpetour portrait calls Haj Mahmoud Erami the first to promote weaving in the villages around Qom (carpetour.net, no. 1228). In the 2022 oral-history session, by contrast, Mohammad Rezvani called Ous Gholamhossein Arsalani the “father of the Qom carpet” (Hawzah News). Both are tradition. Who gave Abe the carpet? Wikipedia and Beytoote name President Rouhani; the same Carpetour portrait names the president in one place and the Iranian Chamber of Commerce in another. How old can signed pieces be? Galerie Buter dates an “Erami” to 1960–70. The company portrait places Hossein Erami’s all-silk production only around 1971/72; for the period before that it names no silk carpets by the family. A dating to the 1960s therefore remains an unsupported trade claim.

How to recognise the signature

Position and script. The title image of the Carpetour portrait shows the end of a carpet with fringes. Immediately beside them is an inscription in white Persian script on a blue ground. As read by the editors, it begins with “ایران قم” (Iran, Qom), followed by the family name (carpetour.net, no. 1228).

Latin script. Catalogues and dealers, such as Drouot and Galerie Buter, render the signature as “Erami”. The company logo reads “Hossein Erami”. The Persian form ارمی remains the reliable point of comparison.

What the dealer data do not say. The manufacturer’s statements evaluated above do not describe the wording or position of the signature. You should therefore always ask for a photograph of the cartouche, from the front and from the back.

Checking the certificate of origin

The Hossein Erami firm published a warning to buyers on Carpetour. Some sellers, it said, were putting its name and brand on other makers’ carpets. The firm would therefore now issue its own certificate for its pieces, the shenasnameh (literally: identity card). It would recognise as genuine only purchases accompanied by this document, and only these would be covered by its customer service. It announced legal action against misuse (carpetour.net, no. 1230, company notice).

The manufacturer’s statements via Teppichbazar refer to an Iranian certificate of authenticity and ownership with serial number, production code and “RugTrust ID”. They do not give specific numbers. What “RugTrust” is could not be verified for this article.

A short checklist:

  • Compare document and carpet. Dimensions, raj and design name on the certificate must match the piece.
  • Ask the maker. According to the company notice, the firm itself confirms whether a shenasnameh is genuine.
  • Look at signature and document together. A woven signature alone does not prove origin; the firm itself warns of imitations.
  • Check the figures. Raj, size and knot count must be consistent with one another.

A second Qom family with its own tradition is presented in the article on Jamshidi.

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