what kind of underlay works best?

A solid felt underlay is standard for these. The loose weave means they slip easily on hard floors without something gripping the back. Make sure the pad is slightly smaller than the rug itself. You do not want the edges of the underlay showing.

how to clean an oushak?

Vacuum them without using the beater bar. The heavy brush can catch the loose pile and pull the knots right out of the foundation. Take it to a specialist rug cleaner every few years. They wash them flat in cold water to stop the dyes running.

I have inherited an older rug from my grandmother and there are these strange diagonal lines on the back in some of the solid colour areas, is that normal?

Those diagonal breaks are called lazy lines. They happen when a single weaver works on one section of the rug at a time, building up a wedge of knots before moving across the loom. Finding them is a good sign. It shows the piece was woven by hand on a traditional loom rather than machine-made in a factory. You will often see them in large areas of plain colour where the weaver had room to work in segments.

When looking at the fringe on the end of my carpet it seems to be made of cotton but the actual fuzzy part is wool, why would they use two different things?

The fringe is just the end of the warp threads that run the entire length of the carpet. Cotton provides a strong, rigid skeleton for the foundation, keeping the rug square and flat on the floor. The wool pile is tied onto these cotton strings. Wool takes dye well and resists wear, making it the practical choice for the surface you walk on. Mixing the two materials gives you the structural benefits of both.

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Antique Oushak Rugs

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Woven in Western Anatolia, antique Oushak rugs feature large-scale geometric or floral motifs rendered in faded palettes, originally produced as substantial floor coverings for wealthy households and the European export market.