My Story

Intro

Oriental carpets were originally produced by families to provide warmth to their home as floor and wall coverings, but soon the carpets began to move east and west with the camel caravans. In an Oriental carpet each strand is hand-knotted, sometimes more than 1,000 knots to the square inch. The finest in strength and color are silk on silk--silk threads on a silk base. Yasir is connecting the carpet makers of the remote areas of his country with his company Al Rug, Pakistan’s largest online retailer for hand-knotted oriental rugs.

About Me

I grew up in Islamabad and did my studies in computer sciences there. Then I moved to Lahore in the late 2004 and started Al Rug. The idea was with me for some time, not specifically what Al Rug is now, but more or less the same. On a lighter note, nothing ticks me more off than telling me what to do with my work, so naturally I was always more inclined to be an entrepreneur than anything else.

I am basically a laid back person, but the thing that motivates me on is the thought of make a positive contribution to me surrounding. I like reading, chess, squash and politics. In music, I love reggae, our classical ghazals and Jazz. In my free time I blog about politics in my region and its impact on the rest of the world.

My Venture

Al Rug is the largest online retailer from Pakistan engaged in manufacturing, and selling and promoting hand-knotted Oriental Rugs to all around the world.  I started Al Rug as an initiative that aims to provide direct access to Pakistans and Afghanistans hand-knotted rugs and to make them accessible to customers worldwide. People associated with rug trade for generations have been involved in the hand-knotted rugs and carpets industry for generations, they were content to traditional means which left room for me to explore my business model.

With our roots firmly planted in the Oriental region and dealing in rug merchandise, Al Rug is one of the leading online retailers and wholesalers of hand-knotted rugs today with its manufacturing facilities located in Lahore and Faisalabad, and contracted looms in many other locations throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan (very difficult region to approach for outside world). Our commitment to provide our customers with fine-quality product, service and experience is reflected in our collection of hundreds of well-categorized hand-picked rugs, comprehensive and easy-to-use web site and 24/7 customer service.

Today, we have over 1500 unique hand-knotted rugs online well categorized in different online galleries. By using an effective gate Internet - pillar of our promotion - our business philosophy is geared towards making hand-knotted rugs accessible to as many people as possible. As such, our prices are the lowest around. You’ll find that our prices are often 1/2 to 1/4 for western standards (or, indeed, other wholesalers and manufacturers) – more often than not, we offer these prices for higher quality rugs. In addition, we also offer our services for custom orders, and for that we do not need more than an idea or a photo to begin with and weaved dozens of rugs of our customers’ choice over the years.