Tree Kazak

An Afghan Tree Kazak rug, knotted by hand with hand-spun, vegetable-dyed wool, woven by master weavers in northern Afghanistan.

Rooted in the garden and shrub carpets of Safavid Persia, the design evolved through eighteenth-century northwest Persian tree carpets into the bold, geometric Tree Kazaks woven in the Caucasus by the early nineteenth century. The stylized trees evoke the ancient Tree of Life, a widespread symbol of growth, renewal, and continuity, while the surrounding geometric forms, including ram’s horns, crescent shapes, animals, and protective symbols, belong to the rich symbolic vocabulary of Caucasian village weaving.