A History of Tufted Rugs

Prototype. Chapter text drafted from the research notes and not yet checked at the archives. Images awaiting permission are marked.

Oriental Weavers

Oriental Weavers

Company · not yet checked at the source · Image permission pending

Made by
Mohamed Farid Khamis
Date
founded 1979; tufted arm MAC from 1981
Place
10th of Ramadan City, near Cairo
Held by
Oriental Weavers
Themes
Woven carpet, Global diffusion of tufting, Machine tufting & Dalton

Cite this source

Mohamed Farid Khamis. “Oriental Weavers,” founded 1979; tufted arm MAC from 1981. Oriental Weavers. orientalweavers.com/history.

Research notes

Khamis returned to Egypt in 1978 at the invitation of Sadat's privatising government and started with a single loom in 1979. Mainly machine-woven rugs; its tufted arm is MAC Carpet (Misr American Carpets), established 1981. US arm in Dalton from 1993; listed on the Egyptian Exchange 1997; China unit 2006. Khamis died in 2020. Why it matters: described as the Middle East's largest machine-made rug producer; mostly woven, with tufting as a separate line. Dates: 1979 (company, Forbes ME) vs 1980 (Domotex). "Largest producer of machine-woven and tufted rugs" and "global leader in tufted" are company claims. Other pages with images: https://orientalweavers.com/en/about/founder Independent sources: https://www.fcnews.net/2020/09/obituary-mohamed-farid-khamis-oriental-weavers-founder/ · https://www.forbesmiddleeast.com/lists/top-100-arab-family-businesses-2023/oriental-weavers-group/ Research note (Oct 2026): facts taken from search-result summaries; the pages themselves weren't opened. Check the cited pages before quoting.