Hazara Slave Kilim, 20th c.

Hazara Slave Kilim

I had come to the conclusion that these must be Pashtun but I still had doubt because of some fundamental differences with other Pashtun rugs that I have seen. Then a friend of mine explained to be that his family had Hazara slaves years ago and this was typical of the rugs that he saw them use on the dirt floors of the huts they lived in. This is the only small rug that I have seen. I have a very large one as well but this one was far easier to photograph.

The rug lays flat but was a little wrinkled because I store them rolled up.

Structure: weft faced plain weave with a row of twining near each end.

Yarn: Spin Z. The wool is fine and straight but very strong Hazaragi sheep's wool.

Warp: 2 ply brown wool.

Weft: Wool ground color.

Ends: Warp fringe.

Selvages: 9 warp units in 9 pairs with brown wool singles widely spaced. The decorative reinforcement is widely spaced and contrasts with the ivory ground. See picture below.

Further Notes: Excellent condition but a little dirty and one small slit. The wool is undyed.

The Hazara people are descended from the camp women of Cingis Qan's great camp the "yeke a'uruy". They have lived in the Hazarajat in what is currently called Afghanistan since 1221 AD. The really should have their own country but through Pakistan sponsored aggression called Taliban they have again been enslaved.

The first Mughal Emperor Babur told of fighting and looting the Hazara in the Baburnama and they figured prominently in the accounts of the Afghan/Persian war of 1856 but the Hazara have a particularly clouded history. they fell under the control of their Pashtun neighbors in the 1880s. Ones who would convert to Sunni Islam from Shia were given land in the Qal-i-Nau area. Many who were not converted were enslaved. In Islam it was permissible to enslave unbelievers and some interpreted this to mean that other Moslems who were not of your sect were fair game.

My friend explained to me that long after slavery was declared illegal, slaves were still held in economic and cultural bondage. The way he explained it was that all the better families had Hazara families who served them. The wife cooked and cleaned and the husband attended to the house and yard. My heart goes out to the Hazara who remain in Afghanistan for Taliban is proving to be a harsher master than the Durrani Pashtuns. At least the Monarchy was Islamic.