Medallion Rugs

A medallion rug is a rug built around a single ornament at the center of the field — the göbek in Turkish — usually answered by quarter-medallions in the corners, an open field between them, and a border that closes the composition. Anatolian weavers have used the layout since the fourteenth century, in hand-knotted wool and silk and, later, on the loom.

The Turkish name for this collection is göbekli halı, a rug with a göbek. Weavers also call the center ornament a sandık, a chest, when it is drawn as a stepped rectangle rather than a lozenge. What follows is how the layout is put together, which Anatolian districts draw a medallion and how each draws it differently, how the three constructions on this page differ, and where a medallion rug can be laid without covering the thing it was woven for.

What is a göbek, and how does the layout work?

Four parts in a fixed relationship, and the relationship is the design. The medallion sits at the exact center of the field, usually a lozenge, a stepped octagon or a rounded cartouche with pendants hanging from its top and bottom points. The corner spandrels — köşebent — are a quarter or an eighth of that same medallion, cut by the corners of the field, so that the eye completes the shape it cannot see. The field is the ground the medallion floats on, plain or scattered with small motifs. The border frames all of it, usually a wide main band with narrow guard stripes on either side.

The proportions are the tell. On a well-drawn rug the corner pieces read as fragments of the center ornament rather than as separate ornaments, and the distance from the edge of the medallion to the inner guard stripe is the same on all four sides. Weavers set that spacing at the start, on the warp, before the first row of knots; it cannot be corrected later without cutting the rug.

Which Anatolian districts weave a medallion, and how do they differ?

The layout is shared. The drawing is not.

• Oushak (Uşak, western Anatolia) — the district that made the medallion famous in Europe. Fifteenth- to seventeenth-century Oushak rugs come in two families: star medallions on a madder ground, and large wide-set round medallions with a field big enough that the pattern reads as endless rather than centered. The palette runs apricot, madder red and a soft indigo. See Oushak rugs.
• Hereke — the workshop founded on the Marmara coast in 1843 to weave for the Ottoman court. Hereke medallions are drawn at knot densities no village loom attempts, usually in silk, with curved outlines and floral pendants that a coarse knot cannot hold. See Hereke rugs.
• Kayseri — central Anatolia, historically the place where court medallions were rewoven for a wider market, in wool, in mercerized cotton and in silk. Kayseri drawing is classical rather than tribal: symmetrical, floral, resolved at the corners. See Kayseri rugs.
• Milas (Muğla, southwestern Anatolia) — a narrow field, a small lozenge medallion, and a mustard-yellow and brick-red palette that belongs to no other district. Milas borders are unusually wide relative to the field. See Milas rugs.
• Yahyalı (a district of Kayseri province) — village weaving in wool on a madder-red ground, with a stepped medallion, hooked edges and dark indigo outlines. Bolder and heavier than the Kayseri town rugs made an hour away. See Yahyalı rugs.
• Taşpınar (Aksaray, central Anatolia) — geometric medallions in vivid red and dark blue, tied with the symmetrical Gördes knot, dense wool pile. See Taşpınar rugs.

Two pattern families on this page come from outside Anatolia and are worth naming for what they are. Mamluk drawing, from fifteenth-century Cairo, builds a star at the center and radiates octagons and papyrus fans outward from it. Persian medallion drawing is curvilinear where the Anatolian version is angular, because the asymmetrical Senneh knot loops around one warp thread instead of two.

How are the rugs on this page actually made?

Three constructions, counted rather than described. Of the 56 medallion rugs Halıcızade currently lists, 31 are hand-knotted, 23 are loom-woven and 2 are machine-woven. That split decides more than price: it decides what sizes exist at all.

Most of the hand-knotted medallions here are single objects at a single size, the size they were when they came off the loom: 76 × 122 cm (2'6" × 4'0"), 118 × 164 cm, 167 × 241 cm, 204 × 349 cm — not one of them a catalog size, because the weaver set the warp for that rug and no other. A few workshop pieces are woven to order and do come in the standard grid. The loom-woven and machine-woven medallions are all on that grid: 130 × 190, 160 × 230, 200 × 290, 200 × 300, 250 × 350 and 300 × 400 cm, plus round sizes at 160 × 160 and 200 × 200 cm.

The fibers follow the construction. Hand-knotted pieces here are wool, silk, silk-blend or viscose, several of them dyed with madder and indigo; the oldest is a Uşak rug of about 130 years, and there is a Konya Derbent rug of 65 to 70 years in the group. Loom-woven medallions are wool or Tencel® lyocell and cotton. The two machine-woven pieces are bamboo viscose and a silk-blend.

Hand-knotted, loom-woven or machine-woven?

	Hand-knotted	Loom-woven	Machine-woven
Pieces here	31	23	2
How it is made	Knot by knot on a vertical loom, months per rug	Structure built on the loom, fringes and finishing by hand	Power loom, pattern reproduced at scale
Sizes	Mostly one size per rug, irregular: 76 × 122 to 204 × 349 cm	Standard grid, 130 × 190 to 300 × 400 cm	Standard grid
Fibers on this page	Wool, silk, silk-blend, viscose	Wool, Tencel® lyocell, cotton	Bamboo viscose, silk-blend
Medallion outline	Curves possible at high knot density; slight asymmetry is normal	Even and repeatable	Exact, and identical on every copy
Suits	A room the rug is meant to outlast	A large floor at a lower price than knotting	Corridors, rented rooms, first apartments

Browse hand-knotted rugs, loom-woven rugs or machine-woven rugs if construction is what you are deciding between.

Where does a medallion rug go, and where should the furniture sit?

In a room where the middle of the floor can be seen. Turkish houses put medallion rugs in the entry, in the hall and in the salon, and the reason is the same in all three: the layout announces a center, so it works where people arrive and stand rather than where they sit crowded around a table.

Furniture placement is not a detail here. A coffee table set squarely on the göbek removes the one thing the rug was drawn around. Two arrangements survive it. Float the seating so that the medallion shows in the gap between sofa and chairs, or push the table off-center and let the medallion sit clear on the open side. In a dining room the medallion disappears under the table by definition, which is why a repeating or all-over pattern is the better choice for that floor.

Size follows from the same logic. A medallion needs field around it to read, so the layout opens out above roughly 6 m² — 200 × 300 cm. Below about 2 m² the border and the medallion crowd each other and the field almost vanishes. Color does specific work: a blue medallion cools an entry and forgives daily dirt, a red one makes a hall a focal point, and a cream or white ground keeps a salon looking open. See entrance hall rugs and living room rugs.

How do you judge one?

Turn it over before anything else, because the back tells you the construction and the construction sets what else is worth asking.

• The back. On a hand-knotted rug the medallion is legible on the reverse in slightly uneven rows of knots, and the fringe is the warp itself. A machine-woven back is a regular mesh with the pattern muffled and a fringe stitched or glued on.
• The corners. The spandrel is the hardest part of the layout to draw, because the weaver has to cut the medallion at an angle and still land the border square. Blurred or improvised corners are the first sign of a copy.
• Symmetry. Measure from the edge of the medallion to the inner guard stripe on all four sides. Small differences are hand work. A medallion sitting visibly off-center means the warp was set wrong.
• Fiber. Wool is springy and recovers after pressure; silk is cold at first touch and changes value with the angle of light; viscose and lyocell are cellulose yarns that take a high sheen and want a lighter-traffic floor. Compare wool rugs and silk rugs.
• Dye. Fold a tuft back on itself. Madder red and indigo shade gradually down the length of the fiber; a flat identical color root to tip is a chemical dye, which is a different thing rather than a fault.
• Abrash. A band of slightly different color running across the field means the weaver moved from one dye lot to the next. It is evidence of hand work, and on an old medallion it is often the most interesting thing in the rug.

How is a medallion rug cleaned?

Vacuum, and leave the deep cleaning to a washer. Run the machine in the direction of the pile with the beater bar off, and on a hand-knotted rug keep the suction low so it lifts dust instead of dragging fiber out of the knot collar. Washing a knotted rug at home is not worth attempting: the pile holds far more water than it looks capable of, the backing dries last, and a rug dried folded takes a crease that does not come out. Send it to a professional wash once or twice a year if it is in daily use, and rotate it end to end twice a year so light and traffic land on different parts of the medallion.

Frequently asked questions

What is a medallion rug?

A medallion rug is a rug designed around one large ornament at the center of the field, usually with quarter-medallions repeated in the corners and a border framing the whole composition. In Turkish the center ornament is called the göbek, and the rug is called göbekli halı.

What does göbek mean on a Turkish rug?

Göbek is the Turkish word for the central medallion of a rug. When the ornament is drawn as a stepped rectangle rather than a lozenge, weavers also call it a sandık, meaning chest. Both names describe the same position at the center of the field.

Which Turkish rugs have a central medallion?

Oushak, Hereke, Kayseri, Milas, Yahyalı and Taşpınar all weave medallion layouts, each with its own drawing and palette. Oushak uses wide-set star and round medallions, Hereke the tightest curved outlines, and Yahyalı and Taşpınar bolder geometric medallions in madder red.

Should furniture sit on top of the medallion?

No. A table set on the center ornament covers the part of the rug the whole layout is built around. Float the seating so the medallion shows between the pieces, or move the table off-center. For a dining room floor, an all-over pattern is the more sensible choice.

What size medallion rug should I buy?

Large enough that the field around the medallion still reads. The layout opens out above roughly 6 square meters, which is 200 by 300 cm. Below about 2 square meters the border and the medallion crowd one another and the open field almost disappears.

Are medallion rugs hand-knotted or machine-made?

Both are made. Of the 56 rugs in this collection, 31 are hand-knotted, 23 are loom-woven and 2 are machine-woven. Hand-knotted pieces exist in one size each, the size they left the loom at; loom-woven and machine-woven pieces come in standard sizes.

How is a medallion rug cleaned?

Vacuum in the direction of the pile with the beater bar off, using low suction on hand-knotted pieces. Washing a knotted rug at home is not recommended, because the pile holds water and dries unevenly. Use a professional rug wash once or twice a year for daily-use rugs.

Related collections: Turkish rugs · Oushak rugs · hand-knotted rugs · vintage rugs

Halıcızade Halı Kilim, Ankara Çankaya. Last updated: September 6, 2026.