Particularly sought after by collectors are the ancient and antique carpets of the Mahal and Malayer types, which were knotted between 1880 and 1930. As a special case of carpet weaving in Iran, the so-called "American Sarouk", which were knotted in the period from 1900 to 1940 especially for the American market. Reduced in the colors of rust, red, dark blue and some brown / beige tones, these floral-patterned carpets without a central medal have been increasingly exported from the USA to Europe since the 1970s and are referred to here as "re-imports".

Typical of this type of carpet is a very good wool quality from the highlands. The warp and weft are usually made of cotton. With old and antique carpets one often finds a blue weft thread. The Persian knot is usually used for knotting. Knot density varies between 90,000 knots per square meter on coarse Mahal carpets and 640,000 knots per square meter on high-quality Sarough Ghiasabad rugs.