We study proper holomorphic maps between type-I irreducible bounded symmetric domains. In particular, we obtain rigidity results for such maps under certain assumptions. More precisely, let f : D I p,q → D I p ′ ,q ′ be a proper holomorphic map, where p ≥ q ≥ 2 and q ′ < min{2q − 1, p}. Then, we show that p ′ ≥ p and q ′ ≥ q. Moreover, we prove that there exist automorphisms ψ and Φ of D I p,q and D I p ′ ,q ′ respectively, such thatwhere h : D I p,q → D I p ′ −p,q ′ −q is a holomorphic map.