Although it is relatively unknown when the very first rug was made, many historians believe that this art of hand knotting rugs with pile was the innovation of nomadic or tribal people as a way of imitating the texture and warmth qualities of plants and animals.

This is the reason why many older rugs have geometric shapes and images of animals.  For the nomadic people, rugs were used as floor coverings, wall hangings, curtains and even saddlebags. 

There is no doubt that the weaving art, in general, started in Central Asia. A popular explosion caused the inhabitants of that area to migrate to the western parts of Asia in order to find more prosperous land.

These migrating tribes were called yoruks or nomadic tribes. During their migrations, these nomads, who were exposed to severe weather conditions, learned to use goat hair in the making of their tents. Goat hair is longer and much stiffer than sheep's wool. The flatweave technique was used in the making of nomadic tents.

Just as with a little girl's braided pony-tail where strands of the shorter and stiffer hair stick out, the goat hair sticks out of the woven fabric, gets wet, drops and partially covers the holes in the flatweave, thus making tent almost waterproof.

Later on, these nomadic people felt the need to isolate themselves from the humidity present in the earthen floors of their tents. They then applied the very same techniques of flatweave to the making of  floor coverings and called them "Kilims".

Most flatweave designs reflected stylised depictions of the worshipped symbols.

Over a period of time, the art of weaving improved and many items useful in everyday life were woven - for example saddle bags for horses and camels that could be used in the transportation of many types of items. The Yoruks also wove kilims with goat hair and used them as warm blankets since the fibres were so long, as in today's Siirt blankets. It is thought that these early blanket were woven in imitation of actual animal felts.

Kilims were also woven as room dividers in the tents, as well as for cradles, with the corners tied to the overhead tent poles so that the cradle could be swung back and forth to rock the babies to sleep.

These many types of woven products improved over time with additional uses developed on an evolutionary basis. At first the nomads, who strictly lived in tents, stacked dried leaves and lay them in the corners of their tents and used the soft stacks as beds.

Under the weight of the sleepers, the beds rapidly turned into dust and provided little comfort, thus causing frequent replacement.

Then in a further inspiration of using animal pelts as a model, the nomads started to add pile to the basic flatweaves. These first pile rugs were very supple, the nomads would simply fold and throw them on a horse's back to be used as a sleeping bag during their long voyages.

The Pazyryk Carpet

The oldest "surviving" pile carpets was discovered in the grave of a Sycthian prince in the Pazyryk valley of the Altai mountains in Siberia near the northeastern border of Mongolia by Russian archeologist (Rudenko) in 1947 and is presently displayed in the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad.

The carpet was woven with the Turkish symmetric double knot and contains 347,000 knots per square meter (255 per square inch).  It is 3.62 square meters (6 x 6.5 feet) and has been carbon dated to have been from the 5th. century B.C.  The Pazyryk, or Altai carpet, is rather sophisticated, thereby showing that it is the product of a long history and tradition of weaving. It is uncertain what the origin of Pazyryk is; however, it has Persian Achaemenian (a Persian dynasty who ruled from 550 to 331 BC.) motifs.

Some scholars believe that because of its Achaemenian motifs, it was made in Persia and was imported. Others disagree and believe it was made near the area where it was found. Until the discovery of Pazyryk carpet, the scholars relied on literary accounts about the existence of certain rugs in history that did not specify the technique by which the rugs were woven.  

There are very few rugs that last over 500 years and many of them are in display in museums around the world.  It is not uncommon, however, to find rugs that are over 100 years old that are still in great condition and have been handed down from generation to generation.

Spring of Khosrau

In Persian manuscripts of 6th century A.D. there is mention of a rug called the 'Spring of Khosrau' which some scholars say belonged to the Persian king, Khosrau I of the Sassanid Dynasty, who ruled from 531-579; others say that it belonged to Khosrau II (590-628), grandson of Khosrau I.

The rug was kept at the Sassanian palace at Ctesiphon in modern day Iraq. 'Spring of Khosrau' was woven with wool, silk, gold, silver, precious and semi-precious stones. It was possibly a garden design. Experts believe that it was a flat-weave and was not woven in one piece. This rug has never been discovered.

Ardabil Carpets

A famous pair of rugs woven during the reign of Shah Tahmasp (1524-1576) of Safavid Dynasty are the two almost identical Ardabil Carpets. The date, 1539-1540, and the name of the designer, Maqsud of Kashan, have been woven into both rugs.

The dimensions of both rugs are the same, 17' 6" by 36' 6". Their foundation is silk, and they have been woven with 300 asymmetric (Persian) knots per square inch. 
One rug is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England and the other is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The former has been repaired with fragments of the latter. Therefore, the one in Victoria and Albert museum is in whole and the one in Los Angles is missing its borders. The origin of the rugs has been linked to Ardabil, Kashan, Mashad and Tabriz, as well as other places.

Many carpets now have no record of date or place of origin. Early scholars devised one dating system based on carpets that appeared in Italian and Flemish paintings, and some rugs are now known by the name of the artist in whose paintings they appear, such as Lotto and Holbein.

More recent studies focus on the technical aspects of carpet production, such as material, dyes, and weaving structure, finding these to be important clues in determining where a particular carpet was made.

While patterns were popular over wide geographical areas or were sent from court workshops to provincial production centers, each region had a characteristic style of weaving that remained the same over time. In Persia, for instance, an asymmetrical knot was most often used, and in Turkey a symmetrical one. Egyptian carpets are always fully wool, and Indian ones are recognized by their distinctive red hue.

The most famous rug producing countries in the world include Iran (Persia), Turkey, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, China and Pakistan.

By the 16th century, Europeans had become involved in trade for rugs. The Venetians were amongst the first Europeans to engage in trade; they used rugs to put on narrow streets, hang them from windows and some of them even used rugs to decorate their gondolas.