Location of Manufacture: Rugs bearing the general label ‘Afghan’ in fact come from a large area of Afghanistan. They are also of two kinds, the ‘old’, woven by nomadic Turkomans, and the ‘new’, woven in craft centres by Turkomans and Afghans. Some Afghan rugs look similar to Turkoman. Rugs were, and still are, collected together at Herat and Kabul.

General Description: Old Afghans are almost copper in colour, with designs worked in dark blue, which appears almost black. They have a short pile with a fairly high density of knots. More modern examples are easily distinguished by their rich warm dark red, which, when combined with dark blue, brown and black used in the patterns, is quite unmistakable. White and yellow are also occasionally present on some rugs. The principal motif is the large gul, which is arranged in lines, normally two in number, separated by stylised branches. These guls are formed by an octagon, which encloses a central square and which, apart from the square, is divided into four sections each of which encloses the same pattern, alternatively in positive and negative. The wide border is normally formed by a number of narrow geometric borders, which include serrated leaf and hooked Greek key or latch designs. The gul design is similar to Bokhara.

Specification: Sizes - Various. Loom - Vertical. Warp - Wool (occasionally goat’s). Weft - Wool (occasionally goat’s). Pile - good quality wool. Knot - Persian, between 60 and 180 knots per square inch. Motifs- Afghan guls, similar to Bokhara.