Afghan War Rugs: Baghlan Afghan War Rug Kilim

Large Baghlan War Rug

A number of years ago I wrote an article for Oriental Rug Review called Afghan War Rugs: If it Walks Like a Duck.... In it I broke a lot of new ground trying to attribute the various types of war rugs to where they were made. One very rare type I discussed was the rugs from Baghlan. In all the years I have been looking I only spotted 2 Baghlan war rugs and they were both runners.

Excellent Wool, Good Weave, Well Made!

How We Select Our Rugs

Structure: Asymmetrical knot open to the left. 10 knots per horizontal inch and 10 knots per vertical inch. 100 per square inch (1550 per square decimeter)

Yarn Spin: Z.

Warp: White cotton.

Weft: Black Cotton, 2 shots.

Pile: 2 Wool singles.

Ends: 1/2 inch plain weave.

Selvages: two 2 part cord wrapped in medium blue.

Further Notes: Excellent condition, in "As New Condition".

The weaponry is typical of the other rugs I have seen from Baghlan. But iconography is only a small part of an attribution. In this case we have a number of factors which when viewed as a whole make Baghlan rather obvious. The mid blue cotton two cord selvage is a major attribution point and it is supported by the cotton skirts and cotton warps. Normally you would not see the mid-Blue selvages unless the wefts were the same color but here as is typical for Baghlan the wefts are dark. I suppose I should mention that I am using Baghlan rugs with no war imagery to broaden the test group.

This is the Baghlani rug from my collection that I wrote about in Afghan War Rugs: If it Walks Like a Duck...