Afghan Rugs — Ziegler, Chobi, Kazak & Kelim from Afghanistan

Afghan rugs — Ziegler, Chobi, Kazak, Baluch and kilims

Afghanistan is where a great deal of the world’s hand-knotted wool is woven today, in and around Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Andkhoy and Aqcha. The weavers are Turkmen, Uzbek, Hazara and Baluch communities, many of them descended from families who have woven for generations, and the wool is highland wool spun by hand. It is also, for most buyers, the best value in genuinely hand-knotted rugs — which is worth saying plainly. The Jozan Carpet Encyclopedia covers the individual provenances.

The families you will meet

Ziegler

Named after Ziegler & Co., a Swiss firm based in Manchester that from 1883 commissioned carpets in Sultanabad in Persia, adapting traditional patterns to European taste. The style was revived in northern Afghanistan in the late twentieth century. Ziegler rugs use open allover Farahan and Mahal drawing in a deliberately soft palette — ivory, faded rust, sage, muted gold — which is why they suit rooms that would find a classical Persian carpet too emphatic.

Chobi

Chob is Persian for wood, and the name refers to the plant dyes: walnut shell, pomegranate skin, indigo, madder. Chobi rugs are woven in the same open designs as Ziegler and washed to give a softened, aged surface with visible abrash.

Afghan Kazak

Bold geometric medallions and stars taken from antique Caucasian Kazak weaving, in strong madder red and indigo. These are focal-point rugs rather than quiet ones.

Baluch

Small tribal pieces from the Baluch of western Afghanistan and eastern Iran, in dark aubergine, oxblood, camel and walnut, often with prayer-niche or repeating-medallion fields. Densely woven and, size for size, among the most characterful rugs made anywhere.

Turkmen and kilim

Repeating gül fields in the Ersari, Tekke and Yomud traditions, and flatwoven kilims in bold geometry — thin, light, and easy to lay in a hallway or over a larger plain rug.

Living with an Afghan rug — an honest note

Ziegler and Chobi rugs get their antique look from washing. That is standard practice for the type and part of what you are buying — but it means the surface you see has been treated to soften and mellow it, not aged by a century of use. A genuinely antique carpet looks different, wears differently and costs several times as much. Where a piece here is new production with an aged finish, that is what it is.

Hand-spun wool and plant dyes also mean colour movement. Bands of lighter and darker tone run across most of these rugs where a new batch of wool or dye began. On a large Ziegler this is often the nicest thing about it; if you want a flat, uniform colour, a hand-knotted plant-dyed rug is not the product to buy.

Dimensions are approximate. A rug woven on a village loom is rarely exactly rectangular — a difference of two or three centimetres between the two ends is normal, and the stated size is the measured one, not a nominal one. Worth knowing if you are fitting a piece into a tight alcove.

At a glance

• Origin: northern and western Afghanistan
• Pile: hand-spun highland wool with its natural lanolin
• Foundation: cotton warp and weft in most production; wool in tribal Baluch pieces
• Knot density: roughly 90,000 to 250,000 knots per m², with fine Ziegler workshop weaving up to about 400,000
• Knot: varies by group — asymmetric in Turkmen and Baluch weaving, symmetric in most Kazak-style pieces
• Dyes: plant and mineral dyes in Chobi and Ziegler quality
• Sizes: small formats through to palatial carpets above 500 × 400 cm
• Underfloor heating: suitable
• Label STEP Fair Trade: fair wages, no child labour, monitored working conditions
• Documentation: written assessment of origin, material and knot count with every rug

Care

Vacuum in the direction of the pile with the rotating brush bar kept off the fringes. Turn the rug end for end once a year — plant dyes are gentler than synthetic ones but they do lighten in strong sun, and an even exposure is what you want. Blot spills rather than rubbing. Washing, repair and restoration we do ourselves. Customers in Germany can use our rug washing, repair and restoration workshop in Würzburg, including collection and return in the region; elsewhere we are glad to help you find a specialist nearby.

Related collections

Ersari rugs · Kilims and flatweaves · Vintage rugs · Large room-size rugs · Runners