From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

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From the Horses MouthTalking 'Baluch' with Jerry Anderson

Original text & photos appeared in HALI 76, 1994

The study of so-called Baluch tribal weaving has reached a watershed. While on the one hand Baluch rugs have cast aside their misleading stereotyped image as derivative Turkoman bastard cousins, on the other we still find in the marketplace the promiscuous use of little understood attributions and terminology founded upon scholarship that too often fails to rise above the level of dogma. Loosely based on the sometimes unreliable accounts written by European travellers in the region during previous centuries, or drawing on subjective interpretations of Asian myth and ethnohistory, such popular ascriptions are seldom grounded in properly conducted research or first-hand experience of eastern Iran and Afghanistan.

During the past two decades a number of well-known tribal rug writers, dealers and collectors, both American and European, have sought, if not always heeded, the views of a man who has become something of a legend in his own lifetime. Now 62 and living in Karachi, Pakistan, Jeremy (Jerry) Wood-Anderson is, in his own words, second generation old India born and bred, the grandson of a Scottish officer who served in the last Afghan campaign. Fluent in several local languages, since the 1950s Anderson has travelled widely throughout the region, on occasion as a zoological surveyor and collector for Western museums, and has lived among the tribes in fixed settlements and nomadic camps in Baluchistan, Sistan, Khorasan and Afghanistan.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

Jerry Anderson

Andersons avowed passionate interest lies in the ethnography behind tribal rugs, the ancient ethnogenesis of those great Steppeland nomads who gave rise to the piled rug concept, and particularly the cosmic symbology of motifs and designs. His views of the Baluch pile-weaving tradition, as yet unpublished, include some ideas which are simple, others extremely complex, with far-reaching implications. His exposure to the conventional wisdom of rug scholarship has been limited, but together with his field experience, this very isolation has afforded him a fresh and, at times, thought-provoking perspective. Ultimately it is on this extensive field experience that his knowledge of Baluch rugs is based. He has had the opportunity to see certain specific design types associated with specific tribes, and of purchasing rugs from the families whose women had woven them. During his travels Anderson observed old rugs being used (or, in the case of treasured heirloom pieces, stored in wooden chests) by the tribal people who offered

him hospitality in their tents and houses as a 'maiman' or honoured guest. While such observations in the second half of the 20th century do not necessarily reveal what was being woven in a particular place at an earlier time, or by whom, they should not be discounted. We therefore commissioned contributing editor Tom Cole to interview Jerry Anderson during a recent trip to Pakistan. What follows is an abridgement of a wide ranging two-day discussion that took place in April 1994 at Andersons house on the shore of the Arabian Sea, during the course of which he offered his attributions, based mainly on aspects of design, for a number of Baluch rugs published in HALI, as well as in familiar sources such as David Black and Clive Lovelesss Rugs of the Wandering Baluchi (1976), Michael Craycrafts Belouch Prayer Rugs (1982), and Murray L. Eilands Oriental Rugs from Pacific Collections (1990).

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

HALI: What are the origins of the Baluch people of Baluchistan? JERRY ANDERSON: They are Assyrian, of Assyro-Arabic ethnic origin. Their own legends and ballads claim Aleppo in present day Syria as their original home. There were two waves of migration, one with the Arab invasion a millennium ago and another about five to six hundred years ago. Those who came in the second wave settled near Zahedan in Persian Baluchistan, and their tribal names are derived from the names of the mountains nearby. Some of them came through into Sind Province of what is now Pakistan. Most of this second wave speak Rakshani Baluch, totally different to Makrani Baluch, the original pure Baluch language. But these people have nothing to do with weaving rugs. HALI: Who then are the carpet weavers of Khorasan and Sistan? JA: They are of Indo-European origin, all of them. Most of the indigenous peoples of this area do not weave pile rugs, as the

Baluchis of Baluchistan do not. There was a Baluch confederation based upon language, which stretched across Khorasan, through Sistan and into trans-Indus Baluchistan. So in a sense the name Baluch is not a generic misnomer. The political and cultural centre of this confederacy is located in Sistan, originally referred to as Sakastan, the land of the Sakas or Scythians. It was these people, the descendants of the weavers of the Pazyryk, who populated the area of Sistan. At the time of the Arab invasions, the name was changed to Sijistan (sand country), and from that it eventually evolved, over about a thousand years, into the name we know today. The weavers of these pile rugs are ethnically a Scythian people. They are not the Baluch. The word Baluch is only about 300 years old and refers only to a linguistic confederation. The Sistan empire, stretching from Kerman to Karachi, from Sabzevar to the Makran Plateau, was a political federation, under the rule of a long line of kings.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

1. Taimuri prayer rug, Ghurian area, west Afghanistan, early 20th century. 1.18 x 1.37m (3'10" x 4'6"). Warp: Z2S, ivory or mixed ivory and brown wool, on one level; weft: 2Z, brown wool, 2 shoots; knot: 2Z, wool, with small amounts of silk and mercerised cotton, AS open right; sides: goat hair selvedge wrapped around paired 4ZS cables; ends: missing; colours: 7. Rugs of the Wandering Baluchi, pl.10. Courtesy David Black & Clive Loveless, London.

HALI: Did your father collect rugs? JA: Not purposely, they were just used in the house. My father was born in Quetta, his father served in the British Army in the last Afghan campaign. My grandfather settled in Quetta when he left the army. So I am very familiar with the territory. I am literally blood brother with the brother of the Brahui chieftain Zaggar Mengal. Mengal is the original name of the Brahui Sistanis. HALI: Doesnt Konieczny mention the Mengal in his Textiles of Baluchistan? JA: Mustapha Konieczny was a colleague of mine, a very nice fellow, a doctor of literature whose brother was a rug dealer in Berlin. Like me he was a herpetologist, and we were in constant competition. He used to travel through the desert on camel and by bus, and I used to pass him in my Land Rover. A lovely man. HALI: But you called his book useless. JA: It is full of nonsensical things, giving functions for some weavings like nose cover and Quran bag! No self respecting Brahui would put his Quran in such a bag. He would use a nice

silk bag with embroidery. Not something like this shepherds bag. He would put his rations in this and go into the hills while his goats and sheep grazed. These people are loath to tell the truth to outsiders. They are masters of disinformation! Poor Konieczny only spoke Farsi, but the people he was studying spoke Brahui, Baluch and some Urdu. He believed them! I tried to tell him. He was so often wrong, but he only repeated what he was told. And they lied to him. Constantly! HALI: Are you familiar with current books on Baluch rugs, such as Jeff Bouchers Baluchi Woven Treasures? JA: I corresponded with Boucher, but I havent seen the book. I gave him many of the tribal names he used. I was also in touch with McCoy Jones before he died. I was a member of the International Hajji Babas and they used to send me copies of what they were working on. And also Schuyler Cammann. He had interesting ideas on design sources, on cosmic symbology, but he made far too many mistakes, attributing too much to Chinese sources when it was the Indo-European steppe people who were the inspiration for much of the Chinese design pool.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

The Khan of Kalat, with his sons. Baluchistan, 1919 Photo Courtesy of Baloch Circle

HALI: You know Black and Lovelesss Rugs of the Wandering Baluchi. Would you comment on some of the pieces. For example what type is plate 10, sometimes referred to as Dokhtare-Ghazi? JA: Its Taimuri, from Ghurian near the Irano-Afghan border (1), but the name is commonly misspelt Timuri. And its Dokhtar-e-Qazi, not Ghazi, meaning daughter of the judge. There is a beautiful legend, part of the oral tradition, from the times of Queen Bilkish of Sabzevar, known as the Bahluli-e-Dana. As the story goes, about 150 years ago the daughter of a Taimuri qazi was wooed by a dervish shaman of the Bahluli tribe. Her father disapproved and attempted to chase him off with threats of death. So he performed all sorts of miracles to impress the qazi and was allowed to marry her. But the Bahluli had their own rug designs, and those woven by the judges daughter are the only true Dokhtar-e-Qazi rugs, twenty-three in all. Her daughters also wove rugs which may be included in thisgroup, perhaps seventy altogether. But in the true sense of the word, there are no others aside from these original pieces which we may call by that name. The rest are merely Taimuri of Ghurian.

I once had a chance to buy an original Dokhtar-e-Qazi rug. There was a guy named Gordon Tiger with the American Consulate in Karachi in about 1971. He took it out from under my nose in Quetta. It was being repaired. I had reserved it, offered to pay in advance. The rafurgari in the Suraj Gunj bazaar assured me I had nothing to worry about, the work would be done and I could pick it up in the morning. In the meantime, the owner leaves and his servant is there and in walks Tiger, asks how much, and purchases it from the boy. I was so upset. Since then Ive seen two cushions (balisht) and a saddlebag that I thought were also woven by the daughter of the judge . The principal motif on the rugs is the mirah boteh design. It looks like a Christmas tree with a bent over paisley design. It has a flat bottom to it. So many of the boteh designs on these rugs have a bottom which resembles an arrow head. That is not the design on the original rugs. Those with the arrow head bottoms I associate more closely with the Taimuri of Ghurian rugs, a group which predates the Dokhtar-e-Qazi rugs.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

2. Salar Khani rug, north Sistan, early 20th century. 1.12 x 1.85m (3'8" x 6'1"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool, on one level; weft: 2Z, green-brown and brown wool, 2 shoots; knot: 2Z, wool with traces of magenta silk and blue, white and yellow cotton, AS open left; sides: 6 cables (Z2S)2Z overcast with goat hair; ends: traces of plain tapestry; colours: 7. Rugs of the Wandering Baluchi, pl.25. Courtesy David Black & Clive Loveless, London.

HALI: Who are the Bahluli? JA: The Bahluli have an interesting history. They are descended from the Afsar, not Afshar as we mistakenly refer to them. Around the 11th to 12th century, the Afsar and the Arsari (Ersari) split and the Afsar came into Afghanistan. Soon after, the bulk of the Afsar moved into the Kerman region of Iran. One group, the Istajlu, remained in Afghanistan, and it is from them that the Bahluli are descended. They are part of the Baluch confederation and adherents to Sistani culture. They always weave using the symmetric knot. They are the ones who weave the true, small burial rugs, called kaffani. These are more elongated than the average prayer rug, and usually not as wide, with opposing niches that resemble those on prayer rugs.

HALI: And the Mushwani? JA: They are the Sarabani Mushwani, a huge group who came from Caucasia after the fall of Khazar, a Turkic state which converted to Judaism. The Sarabani left after the Swedish Vikings ransacked that area. They escaped into what is known today as Afghanistan. Now the Mushwani are just one subgroup of the Sarabani. They are located in various places. There are some near Quetta and some in southeast Afghanistan. There are even some in the vicinity of Islamabad here in Pakistan. Depending on where they are located they speak different languages, including Farsi, Pushto, Brahui and Rakshani Baluchi. But the rug weaving groups called Mushwani are located near Adraskand in western Afghanistan and in Sistan.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

3. Shahraki Sarbandi rug, Sistan, late 19th century. 1.07 x 2.18m (3'6" x 7'2"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool, alternate warps slightly depressed; weft: 2Z, brown wool, 2 shoots; knot: 2Z, wool, AS open left; sides: missing; ends: traces of plain and weft-float tapestry weave; colours: 8. Rugs of the Wandering Baluchi, pl.37. Courtesy David Black & Clive Loveless, London.

HALI: What about plate 37 in Rugs of the Wandering Baluchi? Some people call this type Mushwani. JA: This is a Sharakhi, one of the twin tribes of the Sarbandi from Sistan (3). Today all the cloth weavers in Zabol are Sharakhis. HALI: It has been suggested that this group of rugs was woven by Hazaras near Bala Murghab in northwest Afghanistan. JA: How can anyone say that? Did the person ever go to Afghanistan? HALI: Did the tribes copy designs from one another? JA: Not until recently, never. Copy artists in the Baluch confederation began to work after about 1945. Up until 1940 or so, the traditional system of tribal identity among the Baluch tribes in Sistan, Khorasan and Afghanistan remained intact. Of course intertribal marriages did occur, and a blend of design and styles naturally ensued. The woman would weave her tribes or clans border design around her husbands tribes

field design. Among adherents, defeated clans or tribes who adhered to a dominant tribe, weavers would put their border around the field design of the dominant tribe. The Shia Hazaras were copy artists, or they wove rugs for sale on a commission basis, principally in the Mashad area, including those red prayer rugs with the hands in the hand panels. But in Afghanistan they do not weave pile rugs. Some Hazaras were employed around Herat as copy artists in workshops. The same is true of the Jamshidi and Firozkohi, who were only copy artists in workshops and did not traditionally weave pile rugs. Now the Hazaras also inhabit other parts of Afghanistan, including central Afghanistan, ranging all the way down almost to Kandahar, and also the mountains near Ghor. There they do weave beautiful jagged kilims, blankets with lightning-like designs, but not piled rugs. The Hazara are a beautiful people, whose social groups are dominated by their womenfolk. It is very difficult to get into these areas. In 1968 or 69 I tried to get in there, about sixty miles southwest of Kabul, in my Land Rover, but I was stopped by Amazons with rifles.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

Huts composed of reeds, a common material used throughout Seistan in SE Persia. The reeds are taken from local lakes.

HALI: Who are the Taimani and do they weave piled rugs? JA: The Taimani are a totally different people. Taimani is a very old name and they are a proud ancient nomadic tribe. I think they move all the way down to Farah and Chakhansur. I dont think of them as an integral element of the Chahar Aimaq confederation. They weave those very large pushtis (chuval-like bags for storage and transport) with large-scale designs that one sees in Afghanistan. Woven in pairs, many of them are cut and separated, then they are mistaken for rugs. Ive seen them published as rugs in some of these magazines. HALI: Some people call this type of rug, from an American collection, Taimani? JA: I think this is Sarbandi (20). Some of these tribal people live in fixed settlements, others of the same tribe are nomadic. There is a fixed settlement of these people in Zabol itself and they make beautiful rugs which are very different to these other ones. This rug probably comes from Afghan Sistan, from the Chakhansur region, Nimruz.

HALI: What kind of rug is Black & Lovelesss plate 30? Michael Craycraft calls the type Karai. Certainly they are a specific group, defined by depressed warps and four cord selvedges in addition to the frequent use of the mina khani design. JA: Wasnt this one of Ian Bennetts rugs? It is Jehan Begi, one hundred per cent Jehan Begi (6). HALI: And Black & Lovelesss plate 25? JA: Salar Khani from northern Sistan (2). HALI: To what extent have you been concerned with structure in the years you have been interested in rugs? JA: Ive tried to be. Ive at least noticed structure, but have never thought of it as the only criterion as to who made a rug. You have to understand, I have been all over the tribal areas in Khorasan, Sistan, Baluchistan, Afghanistan. I speak some of these languages, including Brahui, Baluch and Urdu. I dont speak Farsi.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

5. Salar Khani/Jehan Begi carpet, Torbat-e-Heydariyeh area, Khorasan, first half 19th century. 1.09 x 2.18m (3'7" x 7'2"). Warp: Z2S, white wool, on one level; weft: 2Z, brown wool, 2 shoots; knot: 2Z, wool, AS open left; sides & ends: missing; colours: 8. Black & Loveless, Rugs of the Wandering Baluchi, pl.39. Private collection, UK.

HALI: What about Black & Lovelesss plate 3? JA: Another Jehan Begi (7). I believe it might have had a funerary function, to be placed over the bier a kaffani. HALI: And plate 39? JA: Again, wasnt this Ian Bennetts rug? It is a hybrid Salar Khani/Jehan Begi from the Torbat-e-Heydariyeh area (5). It was woven by a Salar Khani woman married to a Jehan Begi man. Its a wonderful rug, and very old. Notice the cocks comb, Heratistyle, border; this is a Salar Khani motif, the Jehan Begi never do this on their own. HALI: What of this opposing niche prayer rug which was illustrated in HALI 54, attributed to the Quchan Kurds, and later sold as an Aimaq at auction? JA: I think it may have been made by a Bahluli woman who married a Mushwani (9). It is a burial rug. I believe all piled rugs owe their origins to their sacred function as a burial shroud with star map designs to guide the departed soul to heaven. Gradually, over centuries, the by-products of this tradition began

HALI: Who are the Aimaq tribe, as opposed to the tribes of the Chahar Aimaq? JA: They are a division of the Hazaras, or at least a people related to the Hazara groups. They are called Chengezi Mongols and still speak a Mongol language. There are deposits of them in northern Afghanistan as well as near Haripur on the east bank of the Indus River. Those in the Indus Valley are Sunni as far as I know. They only make flatweaves. HALI: What function do prayer rugs serve in the context of Baluch weaving? Are they a traditional art form? JA: The mihrab form is Zoroastrian, not Islamic. The word literally means sun-water in other words the life-giving rays of the sun. The so-called tree-of-life we see on so many Baluch prayer rugs is not a tree at all. It is a representation of the rays of the sun, a central part of the Zoroastrian tradition. Fire temples used to have splayed bulls horns mounted on their spires, and this symbol appears in some prayer rugs, particularly those from Sabzevar and Adraskand, as well as Turkestan. The Sistanis

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

being produced in every imaginable and functional form to which, these days, there is virtually no end! Witness bicycle seat covers and the like.

were the last to be fully converted to Islam and the Baluch and Brahui tribal structure is so strong that these latter groups remain less religious than others such as the Turkoman and Pashtuns.

6. Jehan Begi rug, Khorasan, late 19th century. 1.00 x 2.20m (3'3" x 7'3"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool, alternate warps deeply depressed; weft: 2Z and 4Z, brown wool, 2 shoots; knot: 2Z, wool and goat hair,AS open left, some SY knots at edges; sides: 4 6ZS cables wrapped with goat hair; ends: plain, interlocked and weft-float tapestry and brocade; colours: 8. Rugs of the Wandering Baluchi, pl.30. Courtesy David Black & Clive Loveless, London

HALI: What is plate 28 in Michael Craycrafts Belouch Prayer Rugs? JA: Perhaps Bahluli, and also in the burial format (11). Im looking for loops or tufts in the corners, which they used to fasten the rug to the bier, which had four legs, something like a charpoy. A very interesting rug, very beautiful.

HALI: What do you make of no.4 in the Baluch poll, published in HALI 59? Jeff Boucher has referred to this type as Baizidi, Michael Craycraft tentatively calls it a Kizil Bash Turkoman. JA: It appears to have been made by a Jehan Begi woman married to a Salar Khani man (10). This central field is classical Salar Khani. There is nothing Baizidi about it at all the Baizidi are only copy artists.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

7. Jehan Begi funerary (?) rug, Khorasan, 20th century. 0.80 x 1.55m (2'7" x 5'1"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool, alternate warps deeply depressed; weft: 2Z, natural brown wool, 2 shoots; knot: 2Z, wool and camel (?) hair, some faded violet silk, AS open left; sides: 4 cables (Z2S)4Z individually wrapped with goat hair; ends: plain and slit-tapestry, weft float brocade; colours: 6. Rugs of the Wandering Baluchi, pl.3. Courtesy David Black & Clive Loveless, London.

HALI: Look at these Anne Halley Collection rugs in the Baluch section of Murray Eilands 1990 catalogue Oriental Rugs from Pacific Collections, which includes some very specific attributions, labelled challenging by the editors of HALI. JA: Plate 93 (Torbat-e-Haidari, possibly Karai) looks like a Jehan Begi (21). Plate 95 (Arab, probably Qainat, Iran) is Arab Baluch (15) Miri Arabs who settled in Sistan at the time of the Arab invasions. There is no question of Arabs in Firdows weaving rugs of this type. Those Arabs, and those in the Tun area, do not weave Baluch type rugs. They are copy artists who weave Persian type rugs. The Arabs in Qain are Miris and weave these Baluch style rugs. Plate 96 (Mahlavat or possibly Turshiz) is Salar Khani, I think (14). It could be from Turshiz. This design type is rare; one weaver in a hundred will make such a rug in a lifetime. Plate 99 (Baluchi type, Turkic tribes) is very strange (13).

These piled ends are very peculiar. It might also be a kaffani. As it is symmetrically knotted it must be Bahluli, possibly from the Adraskand Valley. A very rare rug. Plate 98 is a Taimuri from Khorasan (22). What has he written here, possibly Jamshidi? Traditionally the Jamshidi dont weave knotted rugs in their tents. They weave Baluch rugs and Turkoman rugs commercially in workshops in Herat. Both the Jamshidi and the Firozkohi originally came from the Elburz Mountains in Iran, but they were forced to leave Persia due to their different religious beliefs. They believe that their messiah fled into the mountains long ago and will return. They are classiffied as Sunnis but they are actually Shiite. They needed a place to go where they would be free to worship. The word Firozkohi means blue mountains, Firoz is the word for turquoise and kohi is mountain.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

Baluch nomad caravan in Baluchistan (SW Pakistan)

HALI: Have you visited their camps? JA: Yes. Its a dead end road to get there, you have to turn back once you reach them, they are at the end of the line. There were no pile weavings in their tents. Some of them lived in yurts like the Turkoman, most of them lived in huts like the Hazaras of the area. Some of the tribe tended flocks and moved with their herds, but they were essentially an extension of a fixed settlement, some of whom also engaged in sparse agriculture like the Jamshidi.

HALI: What do you think of Eilands plate 97 (Aimaq or Baluch)? JA: This is a very interesting rug (25). Its a Rukshan Baluchistan carpet, from the area of Nushki. It was made by the Baddini. They are an ancient tribe, mentioned by Herodotus in the 6th century BC as being a Scythian royal tribe. These people make salt bags and saddle bags, flatweaves. They do not weave many knotted rugs. Its a very rare thing.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

9. Bahluli/Mushwani (?) funerary (?) rug, Afghan Sistan, mid 19th century. 0.95 x 1.68m (3'1" x 5'6"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool; weft: 2Z, natural brown wool, 3 shoots; knot: 2Z, wool, SY, 6H x 7V = 42/in2 (650/dm2); sides: 3 cords wrapped with natural brown wool; ends: missing; colours: 12. Private collection USA, courtesy Skinner, Bolton, Massachusetts.

HALI: But we thought that no piled weavings were made in Baluchistan. JA: Rukshan, which is today referred to as the Chagai District of Baluchistan, was the easternmost part of Sistan and was only annexed by the British in the late 19th century. HALI: How do you account for the use in this region of a design which most of us would associate with the Turkomans or the Uzbeks? JA: There is nothing Turkoman about this design. You must understand that Sistani culture is basically the same as that of the Turkomans. So why is it unusual to see this design on this very rare, very beautiful, rug?

Had it not had this kilim end, it would have bamboozled me. Its size is typical of weavings from the Nushki area. Their houses are elongated mud dwellings that you have to step down into. HALI: And this one, plate 8 (Aimaq) from the Baluch poll article? JA: The format is pure Salar Khani (27), typical for this group. HALI: What do you think of this prayer rug from an American private collection? JA: Very unusual, must be a Sharakhi from Sistan (17).

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

10. Jehan Begi/Salar Khani khorjin face, Khorasan, second half 19th century. 0.79 x 0.81m (2'7" x 2'8"). Baluch Perspectives, HALI 59, p.115, attributed to the Kizil Bash Turkoman, Mahavalat region, subsequently reassigned to possibly Bayat, Nishapur or Turshiz district. Anne Halley Collection, courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California

HALI: And no.30 (Turkestan, Timuri-Belouch) from Belouch Prayer Rugs? JA: Looks like a Kurd, certainly is not a Taimuri (18). The innermost border is a Sangchuli idea. The camel wool is undyed, but the Sistanis always dye theirs. This rug is made by some copy artist, some Kurdish group. And this one, no.28, is from the Torbat-e-Heydariyeh area, not Turkestan (23). Possibly Jehan Begi, they do use that design. And no.22 appears to be Sangchuli, a very nice example from Zabol (19). HALI: And no.2 in the HALI Baluch poll article? JA: Arab, just like he says, but from Firdows (26). Im sure it is

woven on a cotton foundation. Its more Baluch than most rugs from Firdows. As I said before, they are usually a Persian type of rug. What is this about a woven date here? I really doubt it for a start most Baluch have no concern for dates and when they do, the inscribed dates in what are normally workshop rugs are usually placed in or near a corner, not floating freely in the field. I used to buy fragments of rugs which had woven dates, just to get some idea of how to date rugs in general. I had a whole collection of Turkoman and some Baluch fragmented prayer rugs with dates. But theyre all gone now.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

11. Bahluli (?) burial (?) rug, Sistan, late 19th century. 0.66 x 1.32m (2'2" x 4'4"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool, alternate warps deeply depressed; weft: 2Z, olive green wool, 2 shoots; knot: 2Z, wool, AS open left, 9H x 11V = 99/in2 (1,535/dm2); sides: 2 cords of 2 cables of Z5S goat hair, each pair overwrapped with goat hair in figure-8; ends: bands of plain tapestry; colours: 12. Belouch Prayer Rugs, pl.26, attributed to Farah or Zurabad. Courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

HALI: Can you comment on the omnipresent mina khani design. It occurs in so many different places. Is it a tribal design which moved to the towns or vice versa? JA: Definitely from the tribes to the cities. It pops up in geographically disparate regions because it is basically IndoEuropean, and the weavers of all these rugs are descended from the same original Indo-European tribes. Many people might argue with the theory of diffusion, but with the question of carpets, it is all true. It all fanned out from Balkashia to various locales in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Khorasan, Persia and Anatolia.

HALI: What accounts for Seljuk iconography on so-called Baluch rugs? JA: Are you following what I am saying? They are the same people. Whats the big surprise? It is the dissemination of a single culture, from the Lake Balkashia region, and eventually to Sistan. Why not a continuation of design? In that vein, the Persian word for carpet is ghaleen, derived from the ancient Indo-European word gaalee, which means language! The carpet was an ancient representational form of language, of religious significance, depicting the cosmic symbology.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

8. Village near Zabol, Sistan.

HALI: Why is the wool in Baluch rugs so soft and shiny? JA: They use lambs wool, and the wool from the throat and belly, the best wool on the animal. The animal is unwashed and the wool therefore retains all the lanolin, the wool has so much natural oil. HALI: Did the Baluch weave dowry pieces? JA: Yes, the bride made all these things herself, receiving no help from other women in the household. These dowry rugs consisted of a 4' x 6' rug, a prayer rug, a pair of balisht, khorjin (saddle bags), a salt bag and a shepherds bag (showandan) The dastarkhan or sofreh were woven by married women, as were many other functional pieces. Khorjin (donkey bags) are also made for dowry. Sistani khorjin have a piled shoulder on both sides, while those from Afghanistan are open across the middle, plain flatweave with no piled shoulder connecting the two bags. HALI: What accounts for the dark, sombre tonality of Baluch group rugs?

JA: Maturity. Sistan had a very developed culture. The Turkoman used to be like that, but then they began raiding northern Iran, rampaging, pillaging and looting, showing off. Thus they made these strongly coloured rugs. The redder the better, very immature.The Baluch, who live in the desert, like the darker colours, and of course the dyestuffs available to them yielded those shades. There were exceptions among the groups located further north where Turkoman influence was greater, thus the rugs are sometimes redder, as in the Salar Khani rugs of northern Khorasan. HALI: Some Baluch rugs have very coarse goat hair selvedges, others dont. Why this disparity in rugs that essentially come from the same culture? JA: The goat hair acts as a shield against snakes. They will not cross it as it is like barbed wire on their skin. Therefore rugs used in a nomadic context will always have the coarse goat hair selvedges, while those used in a sedentary environment will usually have wool selvedges.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

16. Anderson the herpetologist demonstrates how a snake will not cross a cord made of goat hair.

HALI: We have heard that during the recent troubles the Baluch peoples in northern Afghanistan were either killed or driven out by the local population, who resented them. Who are they? JA: They are a mixture of Baluch and Arabs, and also Lokharis, who do not weave piled rugs but instead make those dark, dark kilims which often have tufts of wool inserted on the flatweave, and are woven in two pieces and joined in the centre. There are also Brahuis in that area who are called Baluch. There is a book

written by a Russian that tells of the whole distribution of the . Brahuis in Khorasan, Transcaspia, the Bukhara area and the Mazar-i-Sharif area. So many different peoples are called Baluch, or call themselves Baluch. In Farsi, the word means beggar. It also has the sense of nakedness, a person living in a tent and clothed in rags. Now the word -luch means a parasitic type of person. Ba means from or of, so the name Baluch has bad connotations in Farsi

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

13. Bahluli funerary (?) rug, possibly Adraskand Valley, west Afghanistan, second half 19th century. 0.94 x 1.52m (3'1" x 5'0"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool, slightly depressed; weft: olive green and dark brown wool, 2 shoots; knot: 2ZS wool, SY, 9H x 9V = 81/in2 (1,255/dm2); sides: 1 cord over-cast with goat hair; ends: bands of weft-faced plainweave at bottom; colours: 15. Eiland, Oriental Rugs from Pacific Collections, pl.99, attributed as Baluchi type, subsequently reassigned to Aimaq, Ghurian. Anne Halley Collection, Courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

HALI: The names you use for the weavers of Baluch rugs, Salar Khani, Jehan Begi, for instance, where do they come from? JA: The original rug weaving tribes of Sistan are the Dobash twin tribes of the Joteg and Sangchuli, the Khakka religious clan, the Kamali and Jamali (these two weave only kilims), the Mengal Sanjarani Barohis and Sasoli Narohis. (Narohi means people from the plains, Barohi is the opposite, people of the hills.) From these groups came all the splinter groups or sub-

tribes and clans of the Jehan Begi, Jehan Mirzai, Ali Mirzai, Ali Akbar Khani, Khurkheli, Salar Khani, Yaqub Khani, Madat Khani, Rahim Khani, etc. The Sarbandi, Sharakhi and Sarabani Mushwani are later additions to Sistani culture, adherents who weave knotted rugs. But the Karait Nakabundi tribe of TurkoMongol origins (the Karai) do not weave pile rugs at all. They are a proud people and want nothing to do with the other tribes and groups who do weave pile rugs.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

14. Salar Khani (?) rug, Khorasan, late 19th century. 0.89 x 1.52m (2'11" x 5'0"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool, moderately depressed; weft: olive grey wool, natural camel hair, dark brown goat hair, 2 shoots; knot: 2ZS wool, AS open left; sides: 2 cords overcast infigure-8 with goat hair; ends: bands of weft-faced plainweave, weft substitution, double interlocking and slit-tapestry; colours: 8. Eiland, Oriental Rugs from Pacific Collections, pl.96, attributed to Mahvalat or possibly Turshiz, subsequently reassigned to Kizil Bash Turkoman, possibly Bayat, Nishapur. Anne Halley Collection, Courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

15. Miri Arab rug, Sistan, second half 19th century. 0.84 x 1.37m (2'9" x 4'6"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool; weft: 2ZS, 2 shoots; knot: Z3 and Z4 wool, with some magenta silk, AS open right; sides: natural ivory wool cables overcast with goat hair; ends: bands of plain tapestry; colours: 7. Eiland, Oriental Rugs from Pacific Collections, pl.95, attributed to Arab Baluchi, probably from the Qainat, Iran. Anne Halley Collection, Courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

The Bahluli are another relatively large adherent group to Sistani culture. They are very easy-going people very gentle, very liberal in a sense. And certainly not very religious. Ive never seen a Bahluli pray. The Sarbandis and Sharakhis are very arrogant, closed minded people, proud also, but respected. I bought one of the best rugs I ever had from a Sarbandi.

Sistani tribal lifestyle was essentially intact until about 1980, nomads moving around in the same locales as they had for centuries. But then the Sarbandi and many other Sistanis were displaced during the Islamic Revolution. Before 1979, they were not here in Pakistan and these weavings, salt bags, shepherds bags and the like, were just not available.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

17. Shahraki Sarbandi prayer rug, Sistan, late 19th century. 0.74 x 1.07m (2'5" x 3'6"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool; weft: natural brown wool, 2 shoots; knot: 2Z, wool, AS open right, 9H x 8V = 72/in2 (1,116/dm2); sides: not original: ends: weft-float kilim at top, weft-faced plainweave at bottom; colours: 11. Private collection, USA.

The Sarbandi and Sharakhi rarely sold such salt bags and rugs before these were dowry items, not for sale at any price! But when they were forced out of Sistan, they had no choice but to sell, and that is why you find them in the marketplaces Quetta,

Karachi, the markets were flooded with all sorts of weavings from these Sistan groups. They are a very nationalistic people, the Sistanis, and when they left Iran, most of them settled near Nushki.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

18. Kurdish (?) prayer rug, north east Iran, 19th century. 0.67 x 0.99m (2'3" x 3'3"). Warp: Z2S, natural ivory wool, slightly depressed; weft: natural brown wool, 2 shoots, loosely packed; knot: wool, AS open left, 10H x 12V = 120/in2 (1,860/dm2); sides: 2 cords 3Z(Z2S) ivory wool overwrapped in figure-8 with continuous wefts and overcast in wool chequerboard pattern; ends: weft-float and dovetail tapestry at top, similar plus stepped discontinuous weft-float and slit-tapestry at bottom; colours: 8. Belouch Prayer Rugs, pl.30, attributed to Turkestan, Timuri Baluch, subsequently reattributed to Jamshidi, Pende. Private collection USA, courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

19. Sangchuli prayer rug, Zabol area, Sistan, late 19th century. 0.84 x 1.57m (2'9" x 5'2"). Warp: Z2S, natural ivory wool, slightly depressed; weft: natural brown and dark brown wool and camel hair, 2 shoots; knot: wool, AS open right, 10H x 11V = 110/in2 (1,705/dm2); sides: 2 cords 3Z(Z2S) and 4Z(Z2S) ivory wool overcast in alternate lines of natural brown and plum red wool; ends: missing; colours: 7. Belouch Prayer Rugs, pl.22, attributed to Herat, subsequently reattributed to Hazara, Murghab. Courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

The Sasouli and the Sanjaranis are very hospitable people. If you get into their clutches, you cannot continue on your safari. They will keep you. I used to travel throughout these areas by Land Rover in my work as a herpetologist. I would sometimes

stop for water and they would insist on throwing their hospitality upon you. They would lay out all the carpets, give you this and that, and you were stuck! For at least 24 hours! Wonderful people, really.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

20. 'Baluch' carpet, probably Sarbandi tribe. Chakhansur, Minroz area, Afghan Sistan, mid(?) 19th century, 1.57 x 2.64m (5'2" x 8'8"). According to Jerry Anderson, rugs of this type, sometimes attributed to the Taimani in the literature, are the work o fthe Sarbandi tribe of the Sistan region, which straddles teh modern Iranian/Afghan border. Warps: Z2S, ivory wool; Weft:2Z, light brown wool, 2 shoots; Knot:2Z, wool, AS open left, 6H x 7V=42/in2 (650/dm2); Sides: traces of 3-cord ivory wool overcast with light aubergine wool; Ends: plain weft faced flatweave; Colours 9. Private Collection, USA

Original text & photos appeared in HALI 76, 1994 All text edited and prepared by Tom Cole based upon tape recorded conversations w/ Jerry Anderson, 2003 No parts of this text or any photo may be re-produced, transmitted or copied by electronic means or otherwise without permission from the author.

The Story Is Free

By Andrew Hale Original text & photos appeared in HALI 76, 1994

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

Another Westerner with ample experience of recent Baluch weaving is Andy Hale, now a specialist dealer in Central Asian textiles and jewellery. The following comments in response to HALIs interview with Jerry Anderson, are based on his own direct experience in Afghanistan during the 1970s. The Anderson interview brought back many memories of the bazaars and deserts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. When I first went to Afghanistan in 1972 I was already a rug expert. I had read two or three books and been to half a dozen rug shops and auctions. I knew that any rug that wasnt obviously Turkoman was certainly called Baluch and that any Turkoman rug without gls was called a Beshir. From 1973 onwards, I spent increasingly longer periods in Afghanistan between 1975 and 1980 I was there for all but six months. I havent been back to Kabul since 1992, but I still make three trips to Pakistan each year. Over twenty years later it seems like a long slide from the certainty of my youth to the vague ideas I have today on carpet identification. But I have come by my uncertainty with great effort. It didnt take long to figure out that rug books presented a rather simplified version of the complex Central Asian textile world, and that most shopkeepers in Kabul had little interest in the tribal or ethnic origins of what they sold. Some of my best information came from simply standing in front of Noori Shers shop in Kabul and asking villagers about the rugs they had brought to sell. Few people wanted to discuss the meaning of designs, and they seemed most unreliable on the age of their rugs. But I was usually able to get a village or tribal name from them. Noori Shers front stoop was the first place that I heard names like Aimaq, Arab, Lokhari, Taimani, Timuri, Mushwani, and more. But I was not travelling around the desert visiting nomad camps. My informants did not weave the rugs, which came second and third hand to the bazaar. Anyway, I was interested in older pieces, whose weavers were long dead. In the end, I learned as much from reliable shopkeepers who were themselves from outside Kabul and ran specialist shops bringing in material from their home provinces of Herat and Andkhui.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

21. Jehan Begi rug, Khorasan, second half 19th century. 1.12 x 1.88m (3'8" x 6'2"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool with a few strands of camel and brown wool, alternate warps depressed; weft: 2Z, pale olive and natural brown, goat hair, 2 shoots; knot: 3-4Z, wool, AS open left, 8H x 10V = 80/in2 (1,240/dm2); sides: 4 cords overcast with goat hair in figure-8; ends: bands of weft-faced plainweave with some slit-tapestry, interlocking weave and weft substitution; colours: 10. Eiland, Oriental Rugs from Pacific Collections, pl.93, attributed to Torbat-e-Haidari region, possibly Karai. Anne Halley Collection, courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

If only I had done this for a few months and gone home! Then I could have been the kind or person who could speak with certainty. But the longer I stayed, the less consistent the answers became. Yesterdays Aimaq could be todays Taimani. I mention all this as a way of explaining how very difficult it is to get a clear understanding of rug weaving in Afghanistan. There are still plenty of real Turkoman and Baluch to talk to and real work to be done, perhaps by Western women with language skills. Weaving is part of the womens world and men will always be outsiders.

There are a few Westerners with real in-depth knowledge of Baluch rugs. Jerry Anderson appears to be one of them and his experience is much richer than mine. In my experience, however, most so-called Baluch rugs are not Baluch at all. If a Baluch is someone whose mother tongue is Baluchi, then most of these rugs seem to be woven by nonBaluchis Taimani, Aimaq, Arab and probably Mushwani people. Many of the more recent rugs called Baluch are woven by Persian speaking villagers around Herat.

22. Taimuri rug, Khorasan, late 19th century. 0.71 x 1.27m (2'4" x 4'2"). Warp: Z2S, dark ivory wool; weft: natural brown wool, 2 shoots; knot: wool, AS open left, 8H x 10V = 80/in2 (1,240/dm2); sides: 1 cord overcast with goat hair; colours: 7. Eiland, Oriental Rugs from Pacific Collections, pl.98, attributed as Baluchi type, possibly Jamshidi, region of the Harirud where it forms the Irano-Afghan border, subsequently assigned to Jamshidi, Badghiz district. Anne Halley Collection, Courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

Anderson asserts that the Jamshidi, Firozkohi and Hazara all worked as copy artists around Herat. But I remember buying rugs called Jamshidi in Kabul that were fairly loosely woven, not like workshop products at all. Regarding the suggestion that the Jamshidi and Firozkohi were exiles from the Elburz Mountains, I was told a similar story by a Jamshidi Uzbek, who said his people had come from the Takht-eJamshid (Throne of Jamshid), but been forced out of Iran

because of their Sunni faith. This may be another case of one dispersed tribe becoming allied with several different groups. I am surprised that Anderson says the Hazaras were not traditional pile rug weavers. I saw many rugs of the shaggy julkhyr type identified as Hazara while I was in Kabul. Hajji Yusef, a Hazara rug dealer and repairer, showed me some, saying that they were exactly like the Uzbek ones but that the colours and weave of the Hazara type were inferior.

23. Jehan Begi (?) prayer rug, Torbat-e-Heydariyeh area, Khorasan, late 19th century. 0.79 x 1.27m (2'7" x 4'2"). Warp: Z2S, natural ivory wool, depressed; weft: dark brown wool and camel hair, 2 shoots; knot: wool, AS open left, 10H x 14V = 140/in2 (2,170/dm2); sides: 4 cords 3Z(Z2S) ivory wool overwrapped in figure-8 with goat hair; ends: bands of weft-float, stepped discontinuous weft-float, slit-tapestry, sumakh and plain tapestry; colours: 10. Belouch Prayer Rugs, pl.28, attributed to Turkestan, Baluch, subsequently reattributed to Jamshidi, upper Kushk Valley lower Murghab. Private collection USA, courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

Anderson refers to plate 26 in Michael Craycrafts Belouch Prayer Rugs as a funeral rug (11). This is new to me such rugs are very rare, but funerals are very common. Has anyone ever seen one being used on a bier besides Anderson? Was this its only use? Its possible, of course. He didnt comment on Craycrafts reference to the albino camel wool in the field being attributable to the Dasht-e-Margo and Dash-e-Khash desert basins. As for the type which Craycraft calls Kizil Bash Turkoman (10), which Boucher attributes to the Baizidi, and Anderson says was made by a Jehan Begi woman married to a Salar Khani man I have never heard of the Baizidi and if this is any kind of

Turkoman Ill eat an albino camel raw. I would have thought Jehan Begi myself. Andersons idea of the fixed and static nature of design within each of the Baluch subtribes is new to me. That a certain border or field design is unique to one group and may appear only as a result of tribal intermarriage, or as a result of defeat by another tribe, seems extraordinary. It reminds me of Moshkovas living gl, dead gl theory. In north Afghanistan rug weaving is a communal activity: one woman, usually the oldest, oversees the process and all the women and girls do the weaving. Anderson seems to imply that each rug was woven by one woman, or at least that the designs could be relevant to her alone.

Pathans in Quetta, early 20th century

Andersons idea of the fixed and static nature of design within

each of the Baluch subtribes is new to me. That a certain border or field design is unique to one group and may appear only as a result of tribal intermarriage, or as a result of defeat by another tribe, seems extraordinary. It reminds me of Moshkovas living gl, dead gl theory. In north Afghanistan rug weaving is a communal activity: one woman, usually the oldest, oversees the process and all the women and girls do the weaving. Anderson seems to imply that each rug was woven by one woman, or at least that the designs could be relevant to her alone.

I agree that plate 93 in the 1990 ICOC exhibition catalogue is typical Jehan Begi (21). They were all over the bazaar in the 1970s. Ive never heard of Karai rugs, though there is something called a Karai kebab Ive eaten them. Plate 95 in the ICOC catalogue Arab Baluch, I agree (15). There are Arab groups all over Afghanistan allied with other groups. There are Arab Baluch, Arab Uzbek and Ive even heard of Arab Turkoman, although Ive never met one.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

25. Rukshani Baluch carpet, Baddini tribe, Nushki area, Chagai district, Baluchistan, late 18th or 19th century. 1.45 x 4.65m (4'9" x 15'3"). Warp: Z2S, ivory wool; weft: brown, grey brown and apricot wool, 2 shoots; knot: 2ZS, wool, AS open left, 6-7H x 6-9V = 36-63/in2 (558-976/dm2); sides: not original; ends: bands of weft-faced plainweave, with weft substitution decoration at bottom; colours: 20. Eiland, Oriental Rugs from Pacific Collections, pl.97, attributed as Aimaq or Baluchi, mid-18th century, subsequently reassigned to Taimani Aimaq, Khiva, with one flatwoven end done in Baluchistan. Anne Halley Collection, Courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

So far as I know none of them still speak Arabic, but use the language of their allied group. They did a lot of the weaving in Afghanistan and in the Bukhara Emirate, but receive very little credit for it today. Traditionally the men wove as well as the women unique in this part of the world. Arab weavings are diverse in colour and technique, but Ive found that they all seem to favour linear designs arranged in bands, like this rug. What a strange long carpet plate 97 in the ICOC catalogue is (25). The kilim at one end only comes from Pakistani

Baluchistan. Without the kilim it would be impossible to identify. Such kilims were common in the bazaars about ten years ago, but Ive never seen it combined with pile weaving before. Anderson makes a very convincing argument about its origins, but the design is a straight copy of a Beshir rug, with everything but the warm Beshir yellow. I cant agree that Sistani and Turkoman culture are the same. Ive been in both places and I can say that the food, language, clothing and architecture are different. This is a Baluch copy of a Turkoman rug.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

26. Arab Baluch carpet, Firdows area, Khorasan, 19th century. 1.42 x 2.54m (4'8" x 8'4"). Warp: Z3S, white cotton, on one level; weft: mostly white cotton, some grey, 2 shoots, loosely packed; knot: 2-3Z, wool, AS open right, 9H x 10V = 90/in2 (1,395/dm2); sides: 1 cord of 2 3-4Z(Z3S) cotton warps overwrapped and secured to sides with wefts around the outer cord in figure-8, covered with simple overcast of goat hair; ends: top balanced cotton plainweave with 2 shoots of indigo wool flanking remants of weft substitution zig-zag meander. Baluch Perspectives, HALI 59, p.114, attributed to Qain or Torbat-e-Heydariyeh, late 18th century, subsequently reattributed as Arab or possibly Afshar, Birjand district, late 19th century. Anne Halley Collection, courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

I must agree with Michael Craycrafts Aimaq attribution for no.8 in the Baluch Poll (27), though the field design and colours are Taimani. It is very hard to identify rugs from photos, but this looks too dull and unfocused for a Salar Khani weaving. That tan/ yellow is an Aimaq marker for me. I dont know why Craycraft thinks this is from Khiva. I wouldnt call no.2 in the HALI Poll (26) a tribal rug. It was woven by a committee and to me looks like the grandfather of all the commercial village rugs that came out of Adraskand and Shindand. Except for the border it is Persian and nasty. Just my opinion though. Idont know what plate 30 in Belouch Prayer Rugs is, but I wouldnt call it Kurd (18). Prayer rugs and bags with the spadelike figures in the camel field were common in Afghan bazaars in the 1970s and 1980s. The prayer rugs seemed rather small, but they often had a nice thick pile. I dont know of Kurds weaving in
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Anderson also mentions the Baluch, Arabs and Lokharis of northern Afghanistan. Ive met Lokharis in Kabul. They weave those sumakh type flatweaves and donkey bags with the red field and eight-pointed stars. I thought they were Uzbeks from their weaving, but when I met them they denied it. Persian was all they spoke. I even tried bargaining with them in Uzbeki but received only blank stares. He also mentions the dark kilims woven in two pieces and stitched down the centre. These, I agree, are woven by Arabs, probably in central and southern Afghanistan, as they were marketed out of Herat and Kandahar, not Mazar-i-Sharif. He doesnt mention pile carpets woven in two pieces and sewn together. They are very common in Afghanistan though they are not popular in the West. Most of them seem to be either Aimaq or Mushwani. I was never able to find out why they were woven that way, though I heard people say that the weavers were nomads and couldnt carry wide looms.

From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

Afghanistan and I doubt these were imported from Iran. With its crisp drawing, bright brick red and bright white wool, plate 28 in Belouch Prayer Rugs is, I agree, probably Jehan Begi (23).

27. Salar Khani rug, Khorasan, 19th century. 1.22 x 1.50m (4'0" x 4'11"). Warp: Z2S, mostly natural ivory wool, with small sections of grey-brown and mixed yarns, depressed; weft: mostly natural camel hair, with small sections of dark brown wool, 2 shoots; knot: 23Z, wool (a few knots in white cotton), SY, 9H x 9V = 81/in2 (1,255/dm2); sides: missing; ends: top missing, bottom remnants of weft-faced plainweave in red wool; colours: 11. Baluch Perspectives, HALI 59, p.117, attributed as Aimaq, Khiva region (?), subsequently assigned to Aimaq, north Amu Darya, Syr Darya or south Aral region, early 19th century. Anne Halley Collection, courtesy Adraskand Inc., San Anselmo, California.

I wasnt too satisfied with this. I was in a Kabul rug shop once where the shopkeeper was trying to sell some of these two-piece rugs to some tourists. When they asked why the rugs were sewn down the middle he gave a very interesting explanation, saying that one side was woven by the grooms family and the other by the brides. On the marriage night the pieces were joined. After the tourists left I asked where he had heard this story; he told me he had made it up. He seemed

to be quite proud and why not? It was a great story. His customers enjoyed it. Was he a liar? No, just a guy trying to entertain his guests and sell a few rugs. I think that lot of common misinformation comes out of situations like this. Shopkeepers feel that they should say something interesting to the Western buyers who seem to expect a story with their rug. Those of us who lived in Afghanistan are familiar with the expression, "Kasesh muft ast "(The story is free).

Original text & photos appeared in HALI 76, 1994 All text by Andrew Hale 2004 No parts of this text or any photo may be re-produced, transmitted or copied by electronic means or otherwise without permission from the author. I would like to thank the publishers of HALI for granting permission to reproduce these two articles for this site.

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From The Horses Mouth-Thomas Cole

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