Baghlani

An Afghan Baghlani rug hand-knotted with hand-spun Ghazni wool.

Baghlan had developed by the mid-twentieth century as an important market center in northern Afghanistan, but the Soviet invasion of 1979 and the conflicts that followed displaced millions and disrupted traditional weaving communities. Through periods of war and relative stability, carpet production and trade re-formed in new ways, bringing displaced weavers, regional traditions and changing markets into closer contact. Baghlan emerged as one of the rug-producing areas shaped by this exchange, where older traditions combined in new ways and helped form a distinct new chapter in modern Afghan carpet weaving. This rug represents that moment of cultural transformation, when upheaval, continuity and artistic exchange give rise to new weaving traditions.