Arak (former Sultan-Abad) is one of the most important rug producing centers in Persia. The rug weaving in this area dates back to the time when Abbas the Great of Persia (16th century), gave his consent for the settling of a group of Armenians in that area.

Among them, there were many skilled weavers, but the main progress occurred during the reign of the Qajar dynasty. The basic reasons for the development of the rug weaving industry were due to the fact that many merchants from Azerbaijan invested conspicuous sums of money for supplying and exporting rugs to the German markets. Moreover, many foreign companies opened branches in Arak, for business enterprises and exportation purposes.

The most famous of them was an English firm, Ziegler, which established workshops and installed looms (in 1883 in Sultan-Abad), for producing rugs according to the demand of the European market.

Most of the rugs woven in Arak are of medium quality but there are some valuable Sarough and Farahan rugs that are highly regarded by buyers and collectors. The colors used for these rugs are mostly herbaceous. Except for Farahan rugs, all the others woven in the area of Arak have Senneh knots. In this locality, it is almost rare to find fraudulent knots. The wool of the Arak rugs is of the best quality. The design of the rugs, which by the way are very limited in this region, differs from region to region; the rug weavers in Arak always used cartoons in the weaving process. Their sketches were usually composed of branches and leaves with blue borders and a rose-colored background.