This is a beautiful larger vegetable (natural) dyed rug made with hand-spun wool. It was made in Northern Pakistan by Ersari Turkoman refugees from Northern Afghanistan. On the lovely indigo blue field are very skillfully drawn alternating ranks of RPG-7s, rocket propelled grenade launchers, Hip-8 troop carrying helicopters, Markarov officers' side arms, Hind M-24 attack helicopters, and fragmentation hand grenades. On the madder root border are BMD-2 armored personnel carriers that are flying pennants from their communications antennas. The weaver has drawn the helicopters' rotors to give the illusion of rotation. A portfolio of photos of the equipment pictured on this rug will accompany the piece.

Afghan War Rug No. B950, Ersari Turkoman - $225

1'8"x3'2". This is one of the oldest war rugs in our stock. We acquired it in 1988 and it was probably woven several years prior. The Kalashnikov AK-47 is accompanied by four BMD-2 armored personnel carriers and six fragmentation hand grenades. A Russian veteran of the war has told us that standard procedure if one was surrounded was to use hand grenades if you thought the enemy did not know your exact position. If they did you were to use your rifle until your ammunition was exhausted and then use your grenades. "Save a bullet for yourself," he added wryly.

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Arrayed on the red field of this rug are four AK-47 assault rifles Filling in on the field are armored fighting vehicles, BDM-2s, Hip-8 troop carrying helicopters, and fragmentation grenades. Cartridges adorn the border.

Mujihadeen Stinger anti-aircraft team, weapon courtesy of the CIA.

Finely woven, c. 195 knots per square inch. This is an atypical Afghan war rug. Missing is the usual weapon iconography. We have in triplicate a hilltop outpost, either a defensive position or, perhaps, a forward listening post. It could well be a command post indicated by the flag, which displays three vertical bands and could have been the emblem of the Socialist government of Afghanistan, the Soviet puppets, or it could also be a Muhijadeen flag, the three vertical bars of the former royal government, less the royal crest. We don't know. The trees, in reality, are a beautiful green that our photography have turned gray. Refer to the direct scans for best color. A most unusual rug.

The scene here is a cityscape of Herat in western Afghanistan. Mosque minarets rear majestically upward and in the streets below are cars and armored vehicles, most likely BMD-2 armored personnel carriers. Above all fly Soviet multi-engine bombers and ferret-faced HIND M-24 attack helicopter, gun ships. Throughout the Soviet phase of the war there was always heavy air traffic over Herat. To the south was a large Soviet air base at Shindand. The Soviets held a tight grip on Herat and the territory between it and the air base. The flight pattern for the base began over the city and was quite secure all the way back to Shindand.

Follow this link to a close-up of half the rug.

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The machine-gunner, 1988

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E986 Afghan War Rug Hamid Karzai - $775

3'11"x5'9", vegetable dyed, made of hand-carded, hand-spun wool. Pictured on the rug's field is Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's present leader. Karzai is a Pashtun who became a passionate enemy of the Pashtun Taliban. The legend at the bottom of the rug reads, "Long live Hamid Karzai."

Until just a few years ago, Karzai, who speaks six languages - Pushtu, Dari, Urdu, English, French and Hindi - had not seen military action. During the resistance to the Soviet invasion of 1979-89, he served as a mujaheddin adviser and diplomat. In that capacity, Karzai was a frequent visitor of embassies in Islamabad. He also ran a small hotel in Peshawar.

He maintained a relatively low profile following the departure of Soviet forces. Like many Afghans, however, he lamented the inability of the mujaheddin warlords to set aside their differences and rebuild Afghanistan in the early 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet-supported regime of Najibullah.

"Like so many mujaheddin I believed in the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene in 1994 and they promised to end the warlordism, establish law and order and then call a Loya Jirga to decide upon who should rule Afghanistan, " Karzai said in an interview in late September.

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"I gave the Taliban $50,000 US to help run their movement and then handed over to them a large cache of weapons I had hidden away. I met Mullah Omar several times and he offered to appoint me as their envoy to the UN," Karzai said wistfully.

"The tragedy was that very soon the Taliban were taken over by Pakistan's Interservices Intelligence (ISI) and they became a proxy for a foreign power. Then they allowed Arabs and other foreigners to set up terrorist training camps on Afghan soil and I began to organize against them," he said.

"By 1997 it was clear to most Afghans that the Taliban were unacceptable because Osama bin Laden was playing a leadership role in the movement. I warned the Americans many times, but who was listening - nobody," he added.

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From his home in Quetta, Karzai began to organize anti-Taliban opposition in 1998. He found support among some Pashtun tribal chiefs, who were angry with the Taliban for their close ties with Arab radicals. The Taliban reacted to Hamid Karzai's move swiftly. They murdered Karzai's father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, in 1999 - an act that appalled Karzai's Popalzai tribe. The elder Karzai had been chief of the Popalzai tribe, a former government minister and immensely respected for his wisdom amongst the southern Pashtun tribes.

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Hamid Karzai was appointed the new Popalzai chief, even though Hamid has several older brothers living in the United States. The death of his father prompted Karzai to assemble a 300-vehicle convoy of tribal chiefs and mourners. Defying both Pakistan and the Taliban, Karzai took his father's body from Quetta to be buried in his home city of Kandahar. The Taliban did not intervene, fearing that an all-out war would break out amongst the Pashtuns of Kandahar. That single act of defiance helped Karzai shed the image of a lightweight and paved the way for his emergence as the provisional coalition's leader.

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Within days of the September 11 attacks, Karzai began to assemble arms, money and communications gear. His intention was to prepare a tribal 'lashkar,' or militia, to enter Afghanistan and foment an anti-Taliban movement from within Afghanistan. He also approached the US, British and other European embassies for logistical support.

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Karzai travelled back and forth between Pakistan and Afghanistan and on one trip was very nearly killed by an American "friendly fire" air strike. He was selected by the Loya Jirga to head the new Afghan government and has recently narrowly survived at least two assassination attempts.

E988. Afghan War Rug, featuring the Paratroop Version AK-47 Ersari Turkoman - $265

2'10"x3'8". This is a beautiful vegetable (natural) dyed rug made with hand-spun wool. It was made in Northern Pakistan by Ersari Turkoman refugees from Northern Afghanistan. Dominating the beautiful madder red grounded field is a Soviet Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle, in its Paratroop configuration. Members of elite paratroop formations and Spetsnaz troops - SPETSialnoe NAZnachenie - special purpose, analogous to our Special Forces, had the option of carrying the conventional rifle with full wooden stock or the stockless "paratroop" version which had a detachable, folding metal stock. Also pictured is a HIP-8 troop carrying helicopter, and a HIND M-21 gunship helicopter, well as a BMD-2 armored troop carrier. Also appearing are Markorov officer's sidearms and a RPG-7 rocket propelled grenade launcher and an RPG grenade. Filling in on the field as well as on the indigo blue border are fragmentation hand grenades.

The red field is dominated by two Soviet AK-47 assault rifles. They are accompanied by BMD-2 armored fighting vehicles, a HIP-8 troop carrying helicopter, and two Soviet fighter/bomber. Also on the field are two fragmentation grenades. On the border is a cartridge repeat.

2'3"x2'11". The main icon on this rug is a pair of Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles. Other weaponry includes an RPG-7 rocket propelled grenade launcher with a shaped grenade loaded, a Hip-8 troop carrying helicopter, a Markarov officer's sidearm, fragmentation hand grenades, a HIND M-24 attack helicopter, and a BTR-70 amphibious fighting vehicle. The border is of polychromed cartridges. There are a number of weavers' combs displayed on the field of this rug. It is as if the anonymous woman weaver is telling us, "I was here."

Ron O'Callaghan
Asian Trade
Sinclair Hill Rd.
New Hampton, NH 03256
(603) 744-9191
ronocal@lr.net
http://www.rugreview.com