Razavi Khorasan province

Mashhad

مشهد

A major Khorasan craft and trading centre with a long carpet-weaving tradition and active bazaars.

Geography

An urban centre in north-eastern Iran, situated along historic routes across Khorasan.

Historical background

Workshops and bazaars have connected regional weaving and other craft traditions with pilgrims and long-distance trade.

Major crafts

Turquoise inlay (Firuzeh-kubi)MetalworkAt risk

Cultural tourism

Markets and craft destinations documented here can be visited. Workshop access usually depends on the artisan; where a workshop receives visitors, that is noted on their profile.

Province: Razavi Khorasan
Signature crafts: Carpets, turquoise and stone work
Nearby: Neyshabur turquoise mines
Pilgrimage: Imam Reza shrine

Khorasan crafts

Mashhad is the largest city of north-eastern Iran and a major pilgrimage centre, which supports a large trade in carpets, prayer items and souvenirs. Khorasan carpets use both symmetric and asymmetric knots depending on the workshop.

Turquoise from the Neyshabur area has been traded for centuries and is set in jewellery and inlaid into metal objects (firouzeh-kubi).

Khorasan carpets
Turquoise setting
Firouzeh-kubi (turquoise inlay)
Stone carving
Baluch weaving (traded)
Prayer rugs

Crafts of Mashhad in photographs

Representative photographs, not of any specific catalogued object. Sources on the credits page.

Craft presence in Mashhad

Carpets5 /5

Turquoise4 /5

Stone3 /5

Craft presence is a qualitative editorial rating (1–5) of how visible each tradition is in the region today, not a measured statistic.

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