Iranian handicrafts: Ihrami

This fabric which features simple geometric patterns is made of cotton or wool yarn using textile machinery. In the past, a kind of Ihram fabric was produced without any pattern as a special outfit of Ihram during the Hajj pilgrimage. However, nowadays Ihrami fabrics are weaved in different sizes and the forms of prayer rugs, doormats, bed covers, bags, and similar products. In Yazd province, a fabric named “Harami” and in Ilam province, another kind named “Ihram” are weaved that, in terms of material, design, pattern, size, and color are different from Ihrami of Khuzestan. The motifs, color, and design of Ihrami fabrics are created from the memory of the weaver. There is no premade design involved and they are usually created based on a general form. Due to the technique of making Ihrami, no cursive pattern can be applied to it, but they are geometric and symmetrical. According to Visit Iran, the most common motifs of Khuzestan Ihrami are diamonds, pines, double diamonds, simple strips, “Tikhorusi” strips, “Ajorkari” (brick), butterfly, “Kheshti” (Adobe), “Arusaki” (doll), and “Busehye Do Mahi” (two fishes kissing). The motifs of Ihrami are somehow representative of motifs of potteries from the Susa civilization from hundreds of years ago. Bright and shiny colors such as red, yellow, blue, green, and white are common in Ihram. Today most of these products are seventy in one hundred and ten centimeters or one hundred and fifty in one hundred centimeters. Lying at the head of the Persian Gulf and bordering Iraq on the west, Khuzestan was settled about 6000 BC by a people with affinities to the Sumerians, who came from the Zagros Mountains region.