What does mina khani mean on these rugs?

It refers to a repeating floral trellis pattern. You often see it covering the entire main field, made up of four round blossoms arranged around a central diamond. The design spreads outwards in an endless repeat. Weavers used it heavily in the Senneh and Saujbulagh areas.

My grandmother left us a large rug and I noticed one end is noticeably wider than the other side, is this a defect or normal?

Irregular shapes are standard for village and nomadic weaving. A wonky shape usually means the weaver used a horizontal ground loom on uneven terrain. When tension on the warp threads changes during the weaving process, the sides naturally pull in or bow out. Sometimes they packed the wefts tighter on one side than the other. Dealers expect a bit of curvature. It adds character to the piece and shows it was made by hand rather than pinned to a rigid factory frame.

Do they need a rug pad underneath?

Yes, a good pad prevents the rug from slipping on hard floors. It also reduces friction between the knots and the ground. A proper cushion takes the daily impact of footsteps, helping the wool pile last much longer.

I was wondering why the blue background colour suddenly changes to a slightly lighter blue halfway up the rug and then goes back to dark again?

That colour shift is called abrash. It happens when the weaver runs out of a specific batch of dyed wool and starts using a new batch dyed on a different day. Natural dyes like indigo take differently depending on the water temperature and the mineral content of the dye bath. Even wool from the same flock absorbs pigment unevenly. Collectors look for these horizontal bands of colour. They break up large blocks of field colour and give the textile a visually layered surface.

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Antique Kurdish Rugs from the 19th Century

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Hand-knotted from stout mountain wool with bold geometric designs and deep natural dyes, antique Kurdish rugs were made by nomadic weavers across rugged borderlands for heavy domestic use.