Gabbeh figures set symmetrically, 100% wool, red into burgundy
200×300 cm
Products
-
200×300 cm
-
Green, red and blue placed by eye on yellow, wool right through
230×330 cm
-
Gabbeh figures on a night blue, and the fringes are dyed too
230×330 cm
-
Sand beige, Gabbeh figures in four colors, colored fringes
230×330 cm
-
Crimson running into burgundy, a wool circle 180 cm across
180×180 cm
-
Warm yellow, round, and unwilling to share a room: all wool
180×180 cm
-
Night sky on the floor: 180 cm of wool, figures in yellow
180×180 cm
-
Beige by day, red and blue by lamplight, 180 cm of wool
180×180 cm
-
Sixty by ninety centimeters of navy, on an Indian loom
60×90 cm
-
Gabbeh figures loose on green, the fringes dyed color by color
60×90 cm
The Urkum Series is a loom-woven rug line made for Halıcızade and carried by no other dealer in Türkiye: a wool pile on a cotton foundation, woven in India with hand and machine work together, patterned with Gabbeh nomadic motifs, and made in four colorways across eight rectangular sizes and a 180 cm round.
What follows is what the rugs are made of, how loom-weaving differs from hand-knotting, why a single Urkum red is not one red, and which size belongs in which room.
Who makes the Urkum Series, and who sells it?
The rugs are woven in India to the weaver's own drawings, produced for Halıcızade, and carried by no other dealer in Türkiye.
Twelve months separated the first sample images from the first rug laid on a floor: selection of the drawings, weaving in India, a sea passage to Türkiye, then photography and cataloging. A year is a long lead time for a group of ten designs, and it is the reason the series arrived as a finished set of colorways and sizes rather than as a trickle of one-offs.
How an Urkum rug is built
Wool pile on a cotton foundation, built row by row on a loom rather than tied knot by knot.
The warp runs the length of the loom under tension and emerges at either end as the fringe, which on these rugs is knotted by hand, strand by strand, rather than machine-stitched to the edge. The weft crosses after each row and locks the pile down. The pile is wool, cut level and left deliberately thick, which is why an Urkum rug sits heavy and firm underfoot rather than thin and yielding. The weaving is hand work on a hand-operated loom, with machine power applied only to compact and secure the rows — tezgâh dokuma in Turkish, loom-woven in English.
Loom-weaving occupies the middle ground. It will not draw a curve as finely as a hand-knotted rug from Hereke or Kayseri, and it does not set out to; what it buys is a dense wool surface, consistent sizing and a price well under a hand-knotted piece of the same dimensions. Compare the alternative in hand-knotted rugs, or read how a loom-woven rug differs from a handwoven one.
One red, and several reds
Look closely at an Urkum field and you will count three or four tones of what reads from the doorway as a single color.
The red ground is red, brick and a low burgundy at once, laid down as the weaver moves through dye lots of the same shade. From across a room the effect is depth rather than variation; from a meter away it is the clearest evidence on the rug that the yarn was dyed in batches rather than extruded to one reference number. Rug people call this abrash. In an antique rug it is often the best thing on the piece, and here it is designed in rather than apologized for.
The motifs are Gabbeh, and Gabbeh is nomadic
The drawing on an Urkum rug comes out of the Gabbeh tradition, not out of an Anatolian court workshop.
Gabbeh is the coarse, thick nomadic pile weaving best known from the Zagros mountains of southwest Iran: few motifs, large open fields, animals and standing figures drawn from memory at whatever scale the weaver chose. Urkum takes that vocabulary and sets it out symmetrically on a cleared ground — small pastel figures scattered across a strong field — then finishes the ends with fringes in mixed colors. The result is an ethnic-pattern rug rather than a regional Anatolian one, and the difference is worth stating plainly. For rugs woven to Anatolian village patterns instead, see Anatolian rugs.
Colorways and sizes
Four colorways cover the whole size range, and two more exist in a single mat size.
Red, yellow, blue and beige are each made in eight rectangular sizes and as a 180 cm round. Green and navy are currently woven in 60 x 90 cm only. The palettes divide about the way you would expect: red and yellow put a warm center in a room and carry pastel and neutral furniture well, while blue and beige sit back and let the furniture do the talking.
| Size (cm) | Approx. | Area | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 x 90 | 2' x 3' | 0.5 m² | Entry mat, bedside, kitchen door |
| 90 x 150 | 3' x 4'11" | 1.4 m² | Bedside pair, small entry, reading chair |
| 120 x 180 | 3'11" x 5'11" | 2.2 m² | Coffee-table island, child's room |
| 90 x 300 | 3' x 9'10" | 2.7 m² | Runner for a corridor or a long kitchen |
| 90 x 400 | 3' x 13'1" | 3.6 m² | Runner for a long hall or a stair landing |
| 160 x 230 | 5'3" x 7'7" | 3.7 m² | Small living room, foot of a double bed |
| 200 x 300 | 6'7" x 9'10" | 6.0 m² | Standard living room, front sofa legs on the rug |
| 230 x 330 | 7'7" x 10'10" | 7.6 m² | Large living room, all furniture legs on the rug |
| 180 round | 5'11" across | 2.5 m² | Under a round dining table, a bay window, a bed corner |
The runner lengths are the ones most often underestimated; see hallway runners for how a 90 cm width behaves in a corridor, and round rugs for the 180 cm circle under a dining table.
Living with an Urkum rug
Treat it as the wool rug it is.
Vacuum with the beater bar switched off and in the direction of the pile. Rotate the rug twice a year so that light and traffic land somewhere new. Blot a spill at once and never rub it, since rubbing drives the liquid down to the base of the pile where it sets. When it needs more than a vacuum, send it to a professional rug washer — this is not a machine-washable rug, and a new wool pile releases a little loose fiber over its first months in the house, which vacuuming clears. More on the fiber and its upkeep sits with the wool rugs.
Frequently asked questions
Where are Urkum Series rugs made?
The Urkum Series is woven in India on hand-operated looms, with machine power used only to compact and secure the rows. It is produced for Halıcızade, which is the only dealer carrying the series in Türkiye.
What are Urkum Series rugs made of?
Wool pile on a cotton foundation. The cotton warp and weft carry the structure while the wool carries the color and the wear, and the fringes at either end are knotted by hand rather than sewn on.
Is a loom-woven rug the same as a hand-knotted rug?
No. A hand-knotted rug is tied knot by knot on a vertical loom; a loom-woven rug such as Urkum is built row by row on a hand-operated loom, which is faster and costs less. The pile is still dense wool, but the back reads more regular than a hand-knotted back.
What colors and sizes does the Urkum Series come in?
Four colorways run the full size range: red, yellow, blue and beige, in eight rectangular sizes from 60 x 90 cm to 230 x 330 cm, plus a 180 cm round. Green and navy are currently woven in the 60 x 90 cm mat size only.
Why does the color shift slightly across an Urkum rug?
Because the yarn is dyed in lots and several tones of one shade are used across a single rug. A red field carries brick and low burgundy alongside it. Weavers call this abrash, and it is a mark of dyed-yarn weaving rather than a fault.
How should an Urkum rug be cleaned?
Vacuum with the beater bar off, in the direction of the pile, and blot spills rather than rubbing them. The pile is wool, so send the rug to a professional rug washer instead of washing it at home or putting it in a machine.
Who sells the Urkum Series?
Halıcızade Halı Kilim, in Çayyolu, Ankara. The series is produced for Halıcızade and is carried by no other dealer in Türkiye; orders from outside Türkiye ship from the same stock, with shipping and duties calculated at checkout.
Halıcızade Halı Kilim in Çayyolu, Ankara is the only dealer carrying the Urkum Series in Türkiye.
Last updated: 10 September 2026
Related collections: wool rugs · round rugs · hallway runners