A Torkaman rug (or Turkman carpet) is a type of handmade floor-covering textile traditionally originating in Central Asia. It is useful to distinguish between the original Turkmen tribal rugs and the rugs produced in large numbers for export mainly in Torkaman County in Golestan Province of Iran today.
The Turkman tribesmen, whose ancestor were the Mongol Turks, years ago, settled between Bojnurd and Gonband-e-Kavus (towns located to the south-east of the Caspian Sea). Some of the tribal weavers of “Tekke”, who after the October Revolution, fled from Turkmenistan and took refuge in Iran, continued to weave their famous rugs.
Torkaman rugs are mostly made of synthetic colors, with cotton warps and wefts and wool pile. They have little in common with the original Turkman tribal rugs. In these export rugs, various patterns and colors are used, but the most typical is that of the Bukhara design, which derives from the Tekke main carpet, often with a red or tan background.