9'9" x 13'9" Super Kazak Afghan Rug | Geometric Octagon Medallion | Super Fine Ghazni Wool | Brand New

This is a brand new Super Kazak, hand-knotted in Afghanistan in super fine Ghazni wool, and it is the kind of large geometric Oriental rug that anchors a whole room rather than decorating a corner of it. At 9'9" x 13'9" it sits squarely in the 10x14 area rug range, big enough to carry a full seating group with all four legs on the pile. The wool has the dense, slightly waxy handle that Ghazni fleece is known for, the pile is thick and even, and the rug has never been used or walked on. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it is genuine hand-knotted work.

Design and Motifs

The field is built around a single large octagon medallion with an ivory outline, a navy and light blue center holding a small cross, and 8 arms radiating outward like a stylized star, each one tipped with a hooked leaf form. Around it the weaver has spread 6 latch hook diamonds, 4 flat topped octagons in the corners of the field, and a pair of long bone shaped panels above and below the medallion, all drawn in the straight line, no curves vocabulary that defines the best geometric rugs. Between the larger forms the ground is filled with small 4 petal quatrefoils, 8 point stars, rosettes, tulip sprays and little hooked vine ends that keep the open red field alive without crowding it. The wide ivory main border carries alternating palmette rosettes and standing floral candelabra motifs, framed on both sides by navy guard stripes of running flowers and reciprocal sawtooth lines.

A Deep Velvet Red Field Framed in Ivory

The field color is a deep velvetish red, slightly softened toward wine and terracotta, and it moves gently across the width the way naturally dyed handspun wool always does. Against it the ivory reads warm and creamy rather than white, both in the main border and in the outlines that draw each diamond and octagon. The blues do most of the drawing work: a dark navy fills the medallion cores and the guard stripes, while a lighter sky blue handles the hooked leaves, rosettes and sawtooth edging, and the contrast between the two gives the geometry its depth. Small notes of apricot and salmon sit inside the diamond centers, and quiet olive and teal greens appear in a handful of the quatrefoils and leaf tips. The silky Ghazni wool takes light unusually well, so the red deepens or lifts depending on where you stand.

Woven in Afghanistan in Super Fine Ghazni Wool

Super Kazak is a modern Afghan weaving tradition that takes its drawing from the old Caucasian village rugs and executes it at a much higher standard of wool and finish. The fleece comes from Ghazni province in central Afghanistan, prized because the sheep graze at altitude and grow a long, lustrous, high lanolin fiber that spins into a strong yarn and holds dye beautifully. The back of this piece, shown folded in the photographs, is tight and regular, with clean knot rows and crisp motif edges, and the selvedges and ends are finished by hand. That combination of a heavy, honest village weave and a silky wool is why these rugs wear so well in busy rooms and why the pile keeps its sheen for decades rather than years. This one is new, unused and in perfect condition.